Stephanie Toliver
Dr. Stephanie Toliver is known for her work in Black storytelling and children’s literature, particularly science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres by Black authors. Informed by her love of science fiction and fantasy texts as well as her experience as a 9th and 10th grade English teacher, Toliver’s scholarship centers the freedom dreams of Black youth and honors the historical legacy that Black imaginations have had and will have on activism and social change. Specifically, she focuses on representations of and responses to Black youth in speculative fiction texts to discuss the implications of erasing Black children from futuristic and imaginative contexts and to assist teachers in imagining how classrooms can use speculative fiction as a means to center Black joy and Black dreams. She is the author of Recovering Black Storytelling in Qualitative Research: Endarkened Storywork, and her academic work has been published in several journals, including Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Journal of Literacy Research, Research in the Teaching of English, Journal of Language and Literacy Education, and Children’s Literature in Education. Her public scholarship has been featured on LitHub, Huffpost, and the Horn Book. Toliver earned her PhD in Language and Literacy Education from the University of Georgia and was a 2019 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellow. Her dissertation won the Outstanding Dissertation Award for the Arts-Based Educational Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. Stephanie’s work has also been recognized with the Promising Researcher Award from the National Council for Teachers of English and through funding from an American Library Association Diversity Research Grant. Dr. Toliver is an assistant professor of Literacy and Secondary Humanities at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is also the curator of the website, www.ReadingBlackFutures.com, where you can read more about Dr. Toliver’s work and connect with her.
Find her on Twitter @SR_Toliver
To cite this episode: Persohn, L. (Host). (2022, Apr 12). A conversation with Stephanie Toliver. (Season 2, No. 24) [Audio podcast episode]. In Classroom Caffeine Podcast series. https://www.classroomcaffeine.com/guests. DOI: 10.5240/6098-3F6A-F391-8767-1E8B-B