Reading in the Gutter

Reading in the Gutter (www.readinginthegutter.com) is a podcast that attempts to bridge the space between comics and education. We aim to have thoughtful discussion with students, teachers, parents, administrators, librarians, and researchers about comics and roles they can place in classrooms and other learning contexts. We seek to share research, resources, pedagogy, and curriculum focused on comics with interested stakeholders that is theoretically sound and empirically vetted.

Cover art by Dani Kachorsky

Contributors

Host

Dani Kachorsky

Dani accidentally discovered comics in the local library when she found the Elf-Quest series. Unfortunately, comics were not considered "real reading" by her teachers, so when Dani became a high school English teacher, she did her best to value comics and other types of media in her classroom. This led her to pursue a doctorate at Arizona State University specializing in visual and multimodal literacy. She spent four years as an Assistant Professor and literacy researcher at TAMUCC before returning to Arizona for family reasons. Currently, she teaches Sophomore English, AP Research, and Comics & Sequential Art at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona.

You can follow her research and teaching by visiting her website

www.readeverythingtwice.com. She casually posts on Instagram about all things literacy related as @readeverythingtwice and about what she is currently reading as @danisinferno.

Art by Jason LaBret

Co-host

Ashley K. Dallacqua

Ashley was first introduced to comics by her husband, who hooked her on Jeff Smith’s Bone series. This is a series she shared with her fifth graders as a teacher in Ohio. Before earning her doctorate at The Ohio State University, she taught fifth grade for seven magical years. Ashley is currently an Assistant Professor in the land of enchantment at University of New Mexico. She works closely with teachers and young adults, supporting the integration of new texts (especially comics!) and literacy practices into school spaces.

Co-host

Laura M. Jimenez

Laura is the Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She teaches children’s literature courses that focus on both the reader and the text by using an explicit intersectional lens. She encourages teachers to read critically and widely.

Her work spans both literature and literacy, with a special interest in graphic novel reading comprehension and issues of representation in young adult literature. Her scholarship appears in The Reading Teacher, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Teaching and Teacher Education, and the Journal of Literacy Research.

Her graphic novel reviews, and calls for social justice in children’s literature can be found on her blog, https://booktoss.blog/ and on her frequent Tweets @booktoss.

Art by Thien Pham

https://booktoss.blog/