Mary McVee

Mary McVee, PhD, is a Professor of Literacy Education and Director of the Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction (CLaRI) at the Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her scholarly interests include positioning theory, digital literacies and multimodality, narratives of literacy, language, and culture, and disciplinary literacies in engineering education. Her current funded research uses positioning and multimodality to explore how elementary school teachers can use literacy and the engineering design process to support multilingual learners. She is currently piloting work related to integration of conversational artificial intelligence in elementary engineering design units.

Her publications have appeared in Review of Educational Research, Teaching and Teacher Education, Visual Communication, Pedagogies, and other journals. In 2014 Professor McVee received the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division K Mid-Career Award and was recognized her for scholarly work in literacy education, a commitment to equity, and mentoring of graduate students. In 2025 she was awarded the AERA Division G (Social Contexts of Education) Mentoring Award in recognition of her mentoring of students and peers.Dr. McVee served as chair of the AERA SIG Social Semiotics and Multimodality in Education (2019-2023). She is a past member of the board of directors of the Literacy Research Association and currently serves as the Chair of the Literacy Research Association’s Ethnicity, Race, and Multilingualism Committee.

Some of her books include: Sociocultural positioning in literacy: Exploring culture, discourse, narrative, and power in diverse educational contexts (McVee, Brock, & Glazier, Eds., 2011); Multimodal Composing: Learning and Teaching for the Digital World (Miller & McVee, Eds., 2012); Exploring diversity through multimodality, narrative, and dialogue: A framework for teacher reflection (McVee & Boyd, 2016); Video pedagogy in action: Critical reflective inquiry using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (McVee, Shanahan, Hayden, Boyd, & Pearson). Her most recent published book is as lead editor for the Routledge International Handbook of Positioning Theory (McVee, Van Langenhove, Brock, & Christensen, 2025).

• PhD, Michigan State University (1999)
• MA, Michigan State University (1994)
• BA, University of Montana, Missoula (1988)

• Mentoring Award; American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division G; 2025-04-26;
• 2022-2023 UB Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award; University at Buffalo, SUNY; 2023-02-09;
• GSE STAR Award for Advising; Graduate School of Education; 2021-05-07;
• Invited Member of National Technology Leadership Summit, Washington DC (2016, 2017, 2018).; National Technology Leadership Summit; 2016-09-28;
• Mid-Career Award; AERA Division K: Teaching & Teacher Education; 2007-04-10;

• McVee, M. B., Van Langenhove, L., Brock, C. H., & Christensen, B. A. (Eds.). (2025). The Routledge International Handbook of Positioning Theory. Routledge.

• McVee, M. B., Schucker, K. A., Cun, A. (2023). Posthumanism and Positioning Theory: Explorations of embodiment and affect from a critical perspective. International Encyclopedia of Education 4th ed.

• *Silvestri, K. N., & McVee, M. B. (2025). Toward integrative methodological frameworks of Positioning Theory, social semiotics, and multimodality. In M. B. McVee, L. Van Langenhove, C. H. Brock, & B. A. Christensen (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of Positioning Theory (pp. 240-264). Routledge.
• McVee, M. B., *Douglas, K., & *Liu, Z. (2025). Positioning Theory, narrative, and narrative analysis. In M. B. McVee, L. Van Langenhove, C. H. Brock, & B. A. Christensen (Eds.). The Routledge international handbook of Positioning Theory (pp. 183-202). Routledge.
• Cun, A. & McVee, M. B. (2022). Listening to the stories of refugee children from Burma: A positioning and multimodal study. In S. Brown & L. Hao (Eds.), Multimodal literacies in young emergent bilinguals: Speaking back to print-centric practices. Multilingual Matters Publishing.

• McVee, M B. (May 24, 2026). Positioning and positioning theory past, present, and future: Thoughts on affordances and challenges for research and analysis. A plenary talk for the 2026 Positioning Theory Conference, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.;
• McVee, M. B. (December 3, 2022). Racial Positioning and Emotion in Stories of Literacy Educators: Transgressing Boundaries and Borders. Mary McVee, University at Buffalo, SUNY. Integrated Research Review Panelist Plenary Session of the 2022 Literacy Research Association Conference;
• McVee, M. B. (July, 2022). Using Positioning Theory and Critical Narrative Analysis in Exploration of Racial Positions. A Keynote talk for the 2022 Positioning Theory Conference. University at Buffalo, SUNY. Buffalo, NY.;
• McVee, M. B. (September 15, 2021). Positioning Theory, Multimodality, and Embodiment. A talk for the 2021-2022 Positioning Theory Virtual Talk Series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N--C0ma998;
• McVee, M. B. (July 20, 2020). Beyond the sign post: Using positioning theory as a foundational framework in research studies. 2020 Positioning Theory One-Day Virtual Symposium. Hosted by University of Buffalo, SUNY and Center for Literacy & Reading Instruction.;

• Elementary Teacher Professional Learning in Equitable Engineering Pedagogies for Multilingual Students; Federal Government; NSF; Awarded; (07/01/2023-06/30/2026)

• Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Literacy Research
  May 2021-May 2022
• Guest Editor Themed Issue: Disciplinary Literacies and Engineering and Equity. M. B. McVee, L. E. Shanahan, & K. English (Eds.)
  May 2018-May 2018

• AERA Chair, Semiotics in Education SIG
  Apr 2020-Mar 2022
• 2022 Positioning Theory Conference Chair
  Sep 2019-May 2022
• Advisory Board Literacy Research Center and Clinic, University of Wyoming
  May 2018-May 2018