Fenice B. Boyd (she/her/hers)
Senior Associate Dean, Equity, Diversity, Justice and Inclusion
Professor
LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION
Specialty/Research Focus
Culturally Sustaining STEM (CS-STEM) and Literacy Education; Adolescent Literacy learning; Disciplinary Literacy; Under Served and Under Represented students; Multimodality; Teachers Professional Learning; Teaching and Learning in Informal Contexts
Professional Summary:
Fenice B. Boyd, PhD is the Senior Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, Justice and Inclusion (UDO) and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. Her research agenda centers on literacy practices of adolescents from under-served and marginalized communities. In 2020, she along with her colleagues were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to investigate culturally sustaining STEM (CS-STEM) pedagogy and practices. Embedded within a Community-Based Participatory Research model (CBPR) their feasibility study provides opportunities for people from Gullah Geechee communities to expand and build networks to sustain and promote human and natural resources, empower teachers to design and implement culturally sustaining STEM curriculum, and invites dialogue that challenges and critiques narratives and perceptions about who participates in STEM scholarship, careers and practices.
Dr. Boyd is currently Co-PI on a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) grant titled The Role of a Visual Arts Creative Writing Summer Program in Developing the Social and Emotional Characters of Urban Youth. This mixed methods pilot study is conducted in SC, where she lived and worked before returning to the University at Buffalo.
Dr. Boyd was an Invited Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern Queensland (virtual), 2025; Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, 2018 and 2025; University of South Australia, 2015. She has presented her research at the Australian Association of Teacher Education/Australian Literacy Educators Association (AATE/ALEA). Her work is published in the Journal of Literacy Research, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Reading Teacher, Language Arts, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, English Education, and Multicultural Learning and Teaching.
She is the co-author of Disciplinary and Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents: Honoring Diversity and Building Competence (7th edition) to be released in 2027.
Dr. Boyd is the Immediate Past-President of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) 2025 - 2026, and she delivered her Presidential Address at the 75th Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association on December 3, 2025, Las Vegas, Nevada. The title of her talk is: The Power to Read and Write/Right to Resist: Literacy Politics from Septima Poinsette Clark. Dr. Boyd's Presidential Address will be published in Literacy Research: Theory, Method and Practice (LR:TMP) in 2026.
Education and Training:
- Ph.D., Michigan State University
- M.S., North Carolina A&T State University
- B.S., North Carolina A&T State University
Recent Publications:
Books:
- Brozo, W. G., Boyd, F. B., & Ikpeze, C. H. (2027). Disciplinary and Content Literacy for Today's Adolescents: Honoring Diversity and Building Competence (7th edition). New York: The Guilford Press.
Journal Articles:
- Boyd, F. B. (2026). The power to read and write/right to resist: Literacy politics from Septima Poinsette Clark. [Presidential Address]. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, Practice, 75(1).
- Compton-Lilly, C., *Emodi, B., *Wigfall, S., & Boyd, F. B. (2026). Exploring community cultural wealth in two schools and its contribution to literacy instruction. Language Arts, 103(5), 317–329.
- Morrison, J. D., Harbour, K. E., Olin, K., & Boyd, F. B. (2025). Examining the effectiveness of an M.Ed. program on mathematics educators’ content and pedagogical knowledge. School-University Partnerships, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/SUP-03-2025-0015.
Recent Presentations:
Invited Lectures:
- Boyd, F. B. (2025, July 11). Truth narratives about Gullah Geechee contributions in literacy and STEM practices [Research roundtable]. Griff LinC Literacy in Context, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.;
- Boyd, F. B., & Ciphrah, R. (2025, October 13). Lessons and opportunities of culturally sustaining (CS-STEM) in practice [Virtual keynote address]. School of Education Research Cluster—Pedagogy Innovation and Excellence, University of Southern Queensland, Queensland, Australia.;
Conferences:
- Boyd, F. B. (2025, December 3). The power to read and write/right to resist: Literacy politics from Septima Poinsette Clark [Presidential address]. 75th Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.;
Recent Grants:
Sponsored Research:
- Kwon, H. (PI), Boyd, F. B. (Co-PI), & Kloss, B. (Co-PI). (2025–2026). The role of a visual arts and creative writing summer program in developing the social and emotional characters of urban youth: A mixed methods research study [Funded grant]. National Endowment for the Arts, $80,000.; Federal Government; National Endowment for the Arts; Awarded; (08/18/2025-06/30/2026)
- Enacting and Researching Culturally Sustaining STEM Pedagogies Across Informal Settings in Gullah/Geechee Communities in the Southeastern United States. National Science Foundation, 2020-2022.; Federal Government; National Science Foundation (NSF); Awarded; (06/01/2020-06/30/2022)
Recent Activities:
Professional Service:
- Immediate Past-President Literacy Research Association (LRA)
Dec 2025-present - President Literacy Research Association (LRA)
Dec 2024-Dec 2025 - President Elect Conference Chair 2024 Literacy Research Association (LRA)
Dec 2023-Dec 2024 - Vice President Nominations Committee Chair 2023
Dec 2022-Dec 2023