ELATE Cultural Diversity Grant

ELATE Awards

ELATE Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant

 2025 Award Recipient

Anyeliz Pagán Muñoz is an Assistant Professor of English at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón. She has an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Puerto Rico and has eight years of experience in ESL and ELA. Her research focuses on bilingualism, multimodality, and popular linguistics. As a certified Spanish<>English translator, she has translated over a dozen books, including picture books.

Award Details

Application Deadline: May 20, 2026

Purpose:
To increase participation in ELATE on the part of teachers and teacher educators (including graduate students and student teachers) from historically underrepresented groups whose presence and whose contributions are central to the full realization of our professional goals.

Eligibility:
This grant offers up to two $500 awards for first-time ��㴫ýConvention presenters who are members of groups historically underrepresented in ��㴫ýand ELATE. Any teacher, teacher educator, or prospective teacher (graduate students and student teachers) in the English language arts, who is an ��㴫ýmember and represents an historically underrepresented ethnic group in ��㴫ý(African American, Asian American, Mexican American, Native Hawaiian, Puerto Rican and other Latina/Latino American, and American Indian) and who has not previously appeared as a presenter at an ��㴫ýAnnual Convention is eligible to apply.

Award Criteria:
Grants will be given to the applicant or applicants whose Program Proposal and past accomplishments indicate the greatest potential for contributing to the mission of ELATE.

Award Specifics:
A grant of $500 per proposal to support travel costs, registration fees, and other expenses associated with participation at the ��㴫ýAnnual Convention. To apply:

1. Grant applicants must submit an ��㴫ýAnnual Convention Program Proposal to ��㴫ýand receive an acceptance to present at the November convention. The proposal may be submitted for an individual or panel presentation.
2. If your proposal is accepted, then by May 20, 2026, please submit the following to elate@ncte.org as a SINGLE PDF document:
  - A brief letter of application explaining how you anticipate your presentation (include your accepted proposal title) benefiting your colleagues.
  - A brief letter (no more than one page) describing your professional or pre-professional background.
  - A brief letter of support from a senior colleague or mentor commenting on your accomplishments or promise as a teacher or teacher educator.

ELATE Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant Recipients

2025

Anyeliz Pagán Muñoz, “Building Community and Bridging English Proficiency Level Gaps Among ESL Speakers in a College Public Speaking Course: Experiences from Puerto Rico”

2024

Vincent Price, “Sticking Out by Design: A Black Male English Teacher’s Story of Identity, Presence, and Power”

2023

Amanda Manning, “This Session is Banned: Taking on Book Challenges in the High School Classroom” and “‘I’m playing the game, ballin’, whathaveyou’: Considering Literary Merit with AP ELA Students”

2022

Huan Gao, “Information Literacy and Transnational Mobility: Chinese International Students Making Sense of Online Information-seeking Experience in the United States”

2021

Alisha Nguyen, “Young Children’s Intersectional Struggles in Early Childhood Classrooms”

Jackelyn Rivera-Orellana, “Developing Our Student’s Sociopolitical Consciousness in the Classroom”

2020

Raquel Armas, “Critical Assessment Conversations and Design in English Education Programs” and “Future is Now Conference: Discourse around the Gender Queer Lens”
Jacqui Witherspoon, “We’re in This Together: Teachers Co-Constructing Critical Spaces with Elementary Students”

2019

Sandra Saco, “Student Inquiry: Answering the Call for Cultural Sustainability in the ELA Classroom”
Francisco L. Torres, “Why Can’t We Dream in Color?: Racism in Speculative Fiction”

2018

Nathaly Batista-Morales, “Their Words, Their Worlds: Amplifying Bilingual Learners Voices through Advocacy”

2017

Anthony Celaya, “From Fact to Fiction to Action: Using YA Literature for Participatory Action Research”

Nicholas Rink, “Re-positioning ‘At-risk’ Students’ Experiences with the Trauma of Normative Schooling Practices”

2016
Cecelia Joyce Price, “Secondary Teachers’ Experiences with Multimodal Literacy Design”

Tran Nguyen Templeton, “‘GG Stands for Good Guys’: Making Sense of Children’s Multimodal Practices”

2015
Robyn West, “Teaching Citizenship: Encouraging Students to Take Responsibility for Themselves & Their World”

Ting Yuan, “I know nothing!”: A Chinese-American Boy’s Contesting Identities and Multimodal Literacy Creations
2014
Steven Alvarez, “Trans-languaging Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Brokering Homework Literacies”

Sana Ansari, “What Does College Prep Mean for Black Students?; Examining Ideologies and Academic Socialization”
2013
Susana Priscila C. Alvarado, “Embracing Discomfort: Using Race, Culture & Ethnicity to Become Better Teachers”

Andrew Barrocas, “Rhetorical Situations” Christina Ivanova, “Layers of New Learning: Using Digital Medias to Learn About and Maneuver within Social Justice: A Case Study”

Jorge Lopez, “Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools”

Natasha Perez, “Exploring Literacies in Translation”
2012
Zaira R. Arvelo-Alicea, “Enhancing ELLs’ Reading Skills through Music, Storytelling, and Digital Media and “Latino/a Families – English Educators’ Literacy Partnerships”

Ileana Cortes Santiago, “Enhancing ELLs’ Reading Skills through Music, Storytelling, and Digital Media and “Latino/a Families – English Educators’ Literacy Partnerships”
2011
Delicia Greene, “Concrete Roses: A Case Study Exploring the Reading Engagements of Black Adolescent Girls in an Urban Fiction Book Club”

Elaine Wang, “Teacher Understanding and Facilitation of High-Level Thinking as Components of Instructional Quality: Reaching for High-Level Cognitive Demands in Text Discussions”
2010
Summer McLin, “Adjusting the Color Lens: Changing Attitudes Toward African American Vernacular English”

Bilal Polson, “Primary Classroom Teachers’ Awareness of Students’ ‘Literacy Lives”
2009
Erika Martinez, “Creating a Literate Culture through Place Based Writing in the Dominican Republic”

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, “Reading, Writing and Racism: First-Year Composition as a Space for Critical Discourse”
2008
Amira Akl, “Understanding Arab And Arab American Students’ Experiences in Writing with Technology”

Myrrh Domingo, “Digital Technology: Strengthening the Literacy Practices of Diverse Learners,” A New English Education Responding to Postmodern Shifts in English Curriculum and Instruction
2007
Haniene Abubakr, “Literacy, Language and Islam: Meeting the Needs of Our Muslim Students”

Ashaki Coleman, “Conceiving, Believing, Achieving: A Process for Literacy Education Reform in the 21st Century”
2006
Sherelle Jones, Westside Middle School, Winder, GA, “Tracing Relationships between Art and Literacy: Three Views Toward a Compleat English Curriculum”

Carmen Kynard, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, “‘The Skin I’m In’: Using Voice Scholarship and Young Adult Literature about Youth of Color to Transform Urban Teacher Education Curriculum”
2005
Sonia Francis, Henry Highland Garnet School for Success, New York, NY, “Creating Common Ground in the In Between: Home School Partnerships for Literacy”

David Stewart, University School, Hunting Valley, OH, “Teaching ‘Bartleby’/Bartleby: Traditional Practice and Technological Innovation”
2004
Pamela Ellis, Stanford University, CA, “Teachers Seeing Themselves Through Multiple Lenses: A Writing Intensive Pre-Service Training Course Designed to Prepare Teachers for Diversity”

Veronica Valdez, University of Texas at Austin, “Exploring the Interactions of a U.S. Born Latina Mother Within Parent Involvement as a Factor in Spanish Language Maintenance”
2003
Ronald Lathrop, Smithville High School, Missouri, “Hate is Not a Value: Combating Images Students Gain Outside the Classroom to Create a Partnership with Society”

Kevin Kumashiro (Center for Anti-Oppressive Education), Cynthia Cruz (UCLA), Bic Ngo (University of Wisconsin—Madison), “When Sexuality Matters in Multicultural Urban Classrooms”
2002
Maria Colleen Cruz, PS 321, Brooklyn, NY, “Reading Genre Studies: How to Create and Teach Them”
2001
Sharon A. Lewis, Montclair State University, Teaneck, NJ, “Color-Blindness in the Classroom: Can Black and White students talk meaningfully across the barrier of race?”

Theresa Harris-Tigg, University of Buffalo, NY, “Teaching Literature/Orature (Not the test): Excellence through an Afrocentric Pedagogy in English”
2000
Regina Bensch-Coe, Bay Path College, Longmeadow, MA, “Mining the Soul: Seven Stages to Original Work”

Janice Harper, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York, NY, “African American’s Children’s Literature Is An Effective Strategy for Helping To Empower African American Children In Literacy Development”
1999
Cherlyn A. Johnson, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, “Academic Literacy: Students Perceptions of Their Learning Experience at a Private Northeastern University”

Khafilah Malik, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, “Facing the Present through the Past: Historical African American Literature”
1998
Rachel T. Davis, University of Maryland, “Young Sisters Having Their Say: Documenting the Experiences of African-American Girls in One Language Arts Middle School Class”

Jennifer Ochoa, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, “Sharing Our Stories and Teaching Lives at the Summer Institute”
1997
Antonio Tendero, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, “From Writers Notebooks to Video Publication: Writing For Your Life in the Bronx”

Rosa M. Sailes, Carver Area High School, Chicago, IL, “African-American Students and the Internet”
1996
LaVerne Weldon, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, “Making Connections: Using African American Literature to Teach Writing”

Elaine Richardson, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, “African American Vernacular English Discourse in Writing: Is It Really Worth Knowing?”