Dr. Joanne E. Marciano is Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Her research examines possibilities for centering youths’ evolving and dynamic literacy practices as strengths in literacy curriculum, teaching, and teacher education to contribute to more equitable schooling opportunities for students.
In 2019, she collaborated with community partners to start The Youth Voices Project, an on-going community-based Youth Participatory Action Research initiative that seeks to disrupt educational inequities while acknowledging and extending youth participants’ literacy practices as strengths across varied contexts.
She is currently PI of the $2.8 million National Science Foundation-funded project Community-Situated Data Practices in Multiethnic, Youth-Led Research Partnerships.
Dr. Marciano’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Literacy Research, Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, Journal of Teacher Education, and Urban Education.
She is co-author with Dr. Michelle Knight-Manuel of the books Classroom cultures: Equitable schooling for racially diverse youth and College ready: Preparing Black and Latina/o youth for higher education – a culturally relevant approach, both published by Teachers College Press.
She is the recipient of the 2025 Michigan State University Distinguished Partnership Award for Community Engaged Teaching, and was awarded the 2019-2021 Reading Hall of Fame Emerging Scholars Fellowship. Dr. Marciano previously spent 13 years as a New York City public high school English Teacher. She received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.