Amanda Yoshiko Shimizu, Ph.D.

I am an assistant professor of literacy education and a community-engaged researcher. My work examines how digital technologies shape the ways children read, write, and make meaning. I study children’s collaborative writing and digital reading, as well as the stories and instructional features they encounter in media such as YouTube read-alouds. Using multimodal methods, I attend to the different ways children participate, communicate, and develop ideas. I work with teachers, students, and families to ask questions grounded in their experiences and to make the findings useful in classrooms and homes.

Before pursuing my Ph.D., I spent nearly a decade teaching in the United States and internationally. I began with the Peace Corps in Moldova, then worked as a first-grade teacher and reading specialist at a U.S. military school in South Korea and as a founding elementary teacher in Rhode Island. I now teach future and practicing educators, mentor graduate students, and collaborate with teachers on literacy research and professional development. These experiences shape both my research questions and my commitment to teaching that builds on children’s strengths and relationships.