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Kremen School of Education and Human Development

David E. Low

Associate Professor

Literacy, Early, Bilingual and Special Education | 559.278.0208 | Office: ED 269

dlow@csufresno.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
  • M.A., New York University
  • B.A., University of Arizona

Courses Taught

  • LEE 109S: Literacy Engagement in the Community through Collaborative Inquiry (Liberal Studies cohort & Service-Learning)
  • LEE 156: Content Area Language and Literacy Instruction (Single Subject Credential)
  • LEE 214: Literature for Children and Adolescents (online Masters in Literacy cohort)
  • LEE 230: Supervised Teaching in Reading/Language Arts (online Masters in Literacy cohort)
  • LEE 234: Clinical Experiences in Reading Assessment and Instruction (online Masters in Literacy cohort)
  • CI 161: Methods and Materials in English in Secondary Classrooms
  • EDL 580T: Dissertation Writing Seminar (Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership)
  • ART 423T: Comics and Graphic Storytelling (CSU Summer Arts)

David E. Low (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literacy, Early, Bilingual, and Special Education at California State University, Fresno. A former high school English teacher and cartoonist in Tucson, AZ, Dr. Low trained as a researcher of language, literacy, and culture at NYU and Penn GSE. His work examines the critical multimodal literacy practices of children and youth in diverse learning spaces. His recent book (Routledge, 2024) was an exploration of transgressive humor as a form of social critique in secondary ELA classrooms.

Dr. Low was the 2023 recipient of the Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy, conferred by the Literacy Research Association, and the 2023 Divergent Publication Award, given by the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age Research. In 2025, he was a keynote speaker at NCTEAR. Dr. Low has published extensively, in journals including Journal of Literacy Research, Research in the Teaching of English, Language Arts, Written Communication, English Journal, English Education, Gender & Education, Pedagogies, and numerous other venues. Dr. Low sits on the Editorial Review Boards of Research in the Teaching of English and English Journal. He served as Section Editor for the journal Language Arts (vols. 97 and 98, 2019-21), and co-edited a special issue of English Teaching: Practice and Critique. Dr. Low serves on the Executive Committee of ELATE (2023-27), is past chair and program chair of the AERA Literature SIG (2015-19) and is a past member of NCTE’s Standing Committee on Research (2018-21).

At Fresno State, Dr. Low is chair of the University Personnel Committee (2020-), the Senate's deliberative body on personnel-related policies and procedures. He previously served as the School of Education's Faculty Assembly President (2017-18), co-chaired the Research Committee (2016-19) and Dandoy Committee (2017-23), convened the César Chávez Education Conference (2017), and contributes to dozens of additional committees and initiatives. Dr. Low also oversees the College's ongoing partnership with the Fresno American Indian Health Project (2015-). 

As a teacher educator, Dr. Low’s work focuses on mentoring pre- and in-service teachers to develop frameworks that honor the cultural and intellectual legacies of their students and the larger community. In particular, Dr. Low is dedicated to educating current and future teachers and school leaders to situate educational disparities within political, social, and historical contexts, to surface possibilities for social change through collaborative critical inquiry, and to view all learners, including themselves, as artists and intellectuals, full of creativity and promise. At its heart, Dr. Low’s teaching is rooted in critical praxis and committed to dismantling status quos that harm learners.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. Love is love. No person is illegal. Settler colonialism is a structure, not an event. Science is real, but scientism and dataism cause real harm. No child is a test score.
  • Dr. Low’s research examines intersections among multiliteracies, multimodality, racial and cultural identity, antideficit and antiracist pedagogies, popular culture/media, and critical multicultural education.

    Research Areas:
    Literacy, Teacher Preparation, Secondary English Language Arts, Practitioner Research, Community-based Research, Critical Literacy, Multimodality, Visual Literacy, Children's and YA Literature, Comics and Graphica in Education, Humor Studies, Alternative Approaches to Assessment

    P.S. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar citations

     Research Monograph:

Low, D. E. (2024). Transgressive humor in classrooms: Punching up, punching down, and critical literacy practices. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003335498 

     Scholarly Articles and Chapters:

Low, D. E., Jiménez, L. M., & Dando, M. B. (accepted). Comics. In A. Cortez & J. R. Lizárraga (Eds.), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education (Volume 6: Language, Literacy, Youth & Culture). Bloomsbury.

Low, D. E., Rodríguez-Astacio, R. M., & Sárraga-López, Y. (2024). Miles to go: Tracing Spider-Man’s Puerto Rican identity down many divergent roads. In J. D. DeHart (Ed.), Transmedia Applications in Literacy Fields (pp. 28-64). IGI Global. http://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-3302-0.ch002

Rodríguez-Astacio, R. M., & Low, D. E. (2023). Using superhero graphic novels to foreground transitions in our teaching with upper elementary and middle grades readers. The Reading Teacher, 76(5), 640-645. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2189

Low, D. E., & Pandya, J. Z. (2022). Centering children’s voices and purposes in multimodality research. Journal of Literacy Research, 54(3), 322-345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X221116862

  • Winner of the 2023 Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy

Low, D. E., & Torres, F. L. (2022). Comics as literary compasses and kaleidoscopes: A pedagogical essay in fragments. Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, 4(2), 138-174. https://journals.shareok.org/studyandscrutiny/article/view/1127

Fellus, O. O., Low, D. E., Guzmán, L. D., Kasman, A., & Mason, R. T. (2022). Hidden figures, hidden messages: The construction of mathematical identities with children’s picturebooks. For the Learning of Mathematics, 42(2), 2-8.

Low, D. E., Lyngfelt, A., Thomas, A. A., & Vasquez, V. M. (2022). Critical literacy and contemporary literatures. In J. Z. Pandya, R. A. Mora, J. Alford, N. A. Golden, & R. S. de Roock (Eds.), The critical literacies handbook (pp. 308-316). Routledge. 
http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003023425-36

Low, D. E., Pandya, J. Z., & Kervin, L. K. (2021). Guest editorial: Theorising multimodality through children and youths’ perceptions and experiences. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 20(2), 125-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-06-2021-192

Low, D. E., & Rapp. S. M. (2021). Youth identities and affinities on the move: Using a transliteracies framework to critique digital dichotomies. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 16(2), 109-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2021.1914053

  • Winner of the 2023 Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research

Dallacqua, A. K., & Low, D. E. (2021). Cupcakes and beefcakes: Students’ readings of gender in superhero texts. Gender and Education, 33(1), 68-85.    https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2019.1633460

Low, D. E., Monea, B., Stornaiuolo, A., Thomas, E. E., & Campano, G. (2020). Drawing out the A in English Language Arts. Research in the Teaching of English, 55(2), 105-108. https://doi.org/10.58680/rte202031019

Beucher, B., Low, D. E., & Smith, A. (2020). Memes and social messages: Teaching a critical literacies curriculum on the Dakota Access Pipeline. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 22(3), 24-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v22i3.2235

Pandya, J. Z., & Low, D. E. (2020). Theorizing the addressive audience in children's digital video production. Written Communication, 37(1), 41-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319880509

Low, D. E., & Pandya, J. Z. (2019). Issues of validity, subjectivity, and reflexivity in multimodal literacy research and analysis. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 15(1), 1-22. http://jolle.coe.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/LowPandya_JoLLE2019.pdf 

Dallacqua, A. K., & Low, D. E. (2019). “I never think of the girls”: Critical gender inquiry with superheroes. English Journal, 108(5), 76-84. https://doi.org/10.58680/ej201930128

Low, D. E., & Jacobs, K. B. (2018). Literature circle roles for discussing graphica in language arts classrooms. Language Arts, 95(5), 322-331. https://doi.org/10.58680/la201829587

Low, D. E. (2017, Fall/Winter). Not to be “destoried”: How an academically marginalized student employs comics and multimodal authorship to claim a counter-identity. Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, 4(2), 6-56. http://ed-ubiquity.gsu.edu/wordpress/low-4-2/ 

Low, D. E. (2017). Students contesting “colormuteness” through critical inquiries into comics. English Journal, 106(4), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.58680/ej201729013 

Jacobs, K. B., & Low, D. E. (2017). Critical questioning in and beyond the margins: Teacher preparation students’ multimodal inquiries into literacy assessment. English Education, 49(3), 226-264. https://doi.org/10.58680/ee201729042

Low, D. E. (2017). Waiting for Spider-Man: Representations of urban school “reform” in Marvel Comics’ Miles Morales series. In G. A. Tarbox & M. A. Abate (Eds.), Graphic novels for children and young adults: A collection of critical essays (pp. 278-297). University Press of Mississippi.

Botzakis, S., Savitz, R., & Low, D. E. (2017). Adolescents reading graphic novels and comics: What we know from research. In K. A. Hinchman & D. A. Appleman (Eds.), Adolescent literacies: A handbook of practice-based research (pp. 310-322). The Guilford Press.

Low, D. E., & Campano, G. (2016). Multiliteracies, the arts, and postcolonial agency. In G. Campano, M. P. Ghiso, & B. J. Welch (Eds.), Partnering with immigrant communities: Action through literacy (pp. 92-102). Teachers College Press.

Campano, G., Ngo, L., Low, D. E., & Jacobs, K. B. (2016). Young children demystifying and remaking the university through critical play. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 16(2), 199-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798415577875

Low, D. E., & Campano, G. (2013). The image becomes the weapon: New literacies and canonical legacies. Voices from the Middle, 21(1), 26-31. https://doi.org/10.58680/vm201324176

Ghiso, M. P., & Low, D. E. (2013). Students using multimodal literacies to surface micronarratives of United States immigration. Literacy, 47(1), 26-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4369.2012.00678.x

Low, D. E. (2012). “Spaces invested with content”: Crossing the ‘gaps’ in comics with readers in schools. Children’s Literature in Education, 43(4), 368-385. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-012-9172-5

Campano, G., & Low, D. (2011). Multimodality and immigrant children: A response to Marni Binder. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(4), 381-384. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2011.12.4.381