The Department of English is proud to announce that Dr. Beverly Moss, associate professor of English, has been awarded the 2021 Coalition for Community Writing’s Distinguished Engaged Scholar in Community Writing Award. 

According to the Coalition for Community Writing website, “The Distinguished Engaged Scholar in Community Writing Award is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to community writing, which includes scholarship areas such as service-learning, community-based research, community literacy, ethnography, community publishing, advocacy and activist writing.” 

The nomination letter for this award mentions that Moss mobilizes “community engagement and advocacy as values essential to the study and teaching of writing.” Her ongoing work is evident not only in her written scholarship, including her book, A Community Text Arises: A Literate Text and a Literate Tradition in African-American Churches, and her two edited collections, but also in her continuing development of community relationships and partnerships. 

To quote the nomination letter, “Through her many academic contributions, Professor Moss has fostered cultural awareness of the stories, experiences and insights of the people who live and work outside the university. She is a fantastic representative of the Ohio State English department and a scholar worthy of The Distinguished Engaged Scholar in Community Writing Award.” 

Moss specializes in composition and literacy studies, and her scholarly interests include, but are not limited to, examining literacy in African American community spaces, composition theory and pedagogy, and writing center theory and practice.  

Along with this most recent award, Moss also received the 2021 Conference on College, Composition, and Communication Exemplar Award, and she will be the Thomas R. Watson Visiting Professor at the University of Louisville next semester. Congratulations to Dr. Moss on these exciting achievements!