Faculty Biographical Sketches
Jane M. Gangi, Ph.D Department of Education and Educational Leadership
Jane M. Gangi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Educational Leadership in the Ed.D. Program in Instructional Leadership. Her research interests include multicultural literature and arts-based literacy, and representations of genocide in children’s and young adult books. Current projects include ethnographic studies of fifth graders’ response in book clubs and throughperformance to fiction and nonfiction that address social justice issues, often on an international level.
She has published two books: Encountering Children’s Literature: An Arts Approach (Allyn & Bacon, 2004), and with Mary Ann Reilly and Rob Cohen, Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms (Information Age Publishing, 2010); one chapter includes how middle school English Language Learners moved from a historically zero passing rate on the state test to a fifty percent passing rate in less than a year, another chapter includes seventy multicultural books that teach aspects of writer’s craft, and an extensive bibliography that recommends award-winning multicultural books in the study of history and current events.
Recent article publications include: “Listening to Children's Voices: Literature and the Arts as a Means of Responding to the Effects of War, Terrorism, and Disaster” with Ellis Barowsky (2009) in Childhood Education; “Annotated Bibliography of Children’s Literature on War, Terror, and Disaster since 1945” also in Childhood Education in 2009; and, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Literacy: Realizing the Implications of the Proficient Reader Research” in MultiCultural Review in 2008.
Her recent presentations include Representation of Children and Young Adults in Literature of the Rwandan Genocide with Isabelle Umugwaneza at the International Network of Genocide Scholars’ conference at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England; and, Poking Light in Dark Places: Deborah Ellis, Author of the Breadwinner Trilogy at the annual conference of the Children’s Literature Association, an organization where she also serves on the International Committee. She works closely with the Connecticut Storytelling Center on projects in the schools, has taught in elementary and middle schools, as well as in higher education, where she has received teaching and scholarship awards. She received her B.A. from Colorado College, her M.A. from Northwestern, and her Ph.D. from New York University.
Bibliographies
100 (or So) Books for Early Literacy: An Annotated Bibliography
African American Literature: Books to Stoke Dreams
Annotated Bibliography of Children's Literature on War, Terrorism, and Disaster
first published in Childhood Education
Comprehensive Children's Literature Bibliography,
which accompanied Encountering Children's Literature: An Arts Approach (Allyn & Bacon, 2004)
Immigrant and Refugee Literature: Annotated
Jane Gangi's Collection of Children's Literature
Latino, Latina Authors, Illustrators, Books, and Websites
Multicultural Books for Early Childhood Educators
first published in Montessori Life
National and International Multicultural Awards
Recent Multicultural Children's Literature Bibliography, 2008-2010 (please contact me if you want an earlier version: gangij@wcsu.edu)
Resources for Children's Literature
Sample from Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 by Mary Ann Reilly, Jane Gangi, and Rob Cohen: Central Asia: Afghanistan and Pakistan
In Deepening Literacy Learning: Art and Literature Engagements in K-8 Classrooms, there is a 125-page Resource, which integrates genres (biography, fiction, informational text, poetry, and so on) and recommends books from prehistoric times to current events for K-8 students. This resource was developed with over 30 mostly multicultural awards
