Athens, Ga. – Peter Smagorinsky, a professor of language and literacy education in the University of Georgia College of Education, has been awarded the 2009 Edward Fry Book Award from the National Reading Conference. Two other recipients also shared the award.
Smagorinsky won the award for The Handbook of Adolescent Literacy Research. It is the first comprehensive research book in its field, providing innovative approaches to understanding adolescent literacy learning in a variety of settings, while examining how well adolescents are served by current instructional practices. The book also presents ways to translate these research findings more effectively into sound teaching and policymaking. The book was selected from among 16 nominated from the award.
Smagorinsky, who co-edited the book with Leila Christenbury and Randy Bomer, has been recognized numerous times for his research in a career that has spanned nearly 20 years in higher education. He received the Distinguished Research Award from the Association of Teacher Educators in 2008, the Janet Emig Award (2003) and the Edward M. Hopkins Award (2000) from the National Council of Teachers of English’s Conference on English Education. He also has received the Raymond B. Catell Early Career Award for Programmatic Research (1999) and the Steve Cahir Award (1991) for Research in Writing from the American Educational Research Association. He received the UGA College of Education’s Russell B. Yeany Research Award in 2009.
He has authored or co-authored nine books, edited or co-edited six more and written dozens of articles in refereed journals. He currently chairs the Research Forum for the National Council of Teachers of English and serves on the editorial board of the American Educational Research Journal.
Smagorinsky taught English in several Illinois high schools for 14 years before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He joined the UGA faculty in 1998 after eight years as a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma.
Christenbury is a professor of English education at Virginia Commonwealth University.The author or coauthor of 10 books, she is a frequent speaker on issues of English teaching and learning and has been cited extensively in the national media.
Bomer teaches in the Language and Literacy Studies Program in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also directs the Heart of Texas Writing Project. Formerly a middle and high school teacher, he has consulted with urban school districts across the United States.
The three co-editors received the award in Albuquerque on Dec. 4 at the annual meeting of the NRC.