Virginia J. Flood (she/her)

My research in the learning sciences uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to investigate the role of the body in teaching and learning mathematics, computer science, and science. I am especially interested in (1) embodied communication (in particular, gesture) in STEM education and (2) ways STEM educational environments can intentionally incorporate the body into teaching and learning.

• PhD, University of California, Berkeley (2020)
• MST, University of Maine (2012)
• BS, University of Southern Maine (2007)

• STAR Faculty Research Award (22'-23'); Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo; 2023-05-12;
• International Conference of the Learning Sciences Best Paper Award; International Society of the Learning Sciences; 2022-06-10;

• Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B. W. (2023) Kinetically-held questions: Representational gesture post-stroke holds in whole-class interactions in STEM. Linguistics and Education.
• Flood, V. J., Harrer, B. W. (2022) Teachers’ responsiveness to students’ gestured candidate responses in STEM whole-class interactions. Classroom Discourse.

• Flood, V. J. (2024). Embodiment in Education. In L. Shapiro & S. Spaulding, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition. Routledge.

• Booth, E. T., Flood, V. J., Harrer, B. W., (2024). “The enactment of an instant: A study of gesture in introductory physics." In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences 2024. Buffalo, NY: International Society of the Learning Sciences.
• Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B. W. (2023). How kinetically-held gestures support collaborative problem solving in physics. In Blikstein, P., Van Aalst, J., Kizito, R., & Brennan, K. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2023 (pp. 1522-1525). International Society of the Learning Sciences.

• DiGEST-PHYSICS: Dialogic gesture in collaborative sense-making in physics; Federal Government; NSF (ECR Core); Awarded; (07/01/2022-06/30/2025)