The Outsider Within Team

Producer & Moderator      

Judith Dunkerly Boulanger, Ph.D., (she/her/hers) is an award-winning Associate Professor of Literacy,  Language and Culture and Co-Director of the Literacy Research and Development Center in the  Department of Teaching and Learning, Darden College of Education and Professional Studies at  Old Dominion University. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Judith was an elementary teacher  and literacy specialist in Las Vegas, Nevada. Judith’s research utilizes critical theories to explore  the intersection of critical literacy, social justice, and human rights to examine systemic injustice  and oppression. Recently she has worked with pre-service elementary teachers to increase their  advocacy and allyship for LGBTQIA+ children and families.

Producer & Moderator      

Melva R. Grant (she/hers/ella), an ODU Professor of Mathematics Education, Graduate Program Director for the Mathematics Specialist Program focused on developing inclusive teacher leaders who value socially justice. Her overarching research is about broadening participation in STEM for underrepresented people. She engages in self-study research (SSR) to improve her teaching practice, evidences her teaching excellence, and bolsters her resilience in the academy (e.g., Grant, 2019; Grant & Butler, 2018). Her SSR began by focusing on customizing simulation technology to develop mathematics teacher efficacy for using discussion after problem solving for mathematical sense-making for effective equitable mathematics teaching (Grant & Ferguson, 2021). Her research expanded to include examining critical friendship development, its characteristics (Kastberg & Grant, 2020), and qualitative trustworthiness (Grant & Lincoln, 2022) and methodology.  

Associate Producer & Moderator  

Jasmyn Jones earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Old Dominion University in 2023. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Literacy at the University of Memphis. Dr. Jones is a language and literacy scholar centering Blackness in literacy learning and urban teacher education. She is particularly interested in how language and literacy (teacher) education can work to dismantle anti-Blackness, how language and literacy research work in tandem with instructional practices towards racial and linguistic justice, and what racial and linguistic justice look like in practice in K-12 literacy learning environments. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, Jasmyn was a 4th grade English Language Arts teacher in Durham, NC.