Elizabeth B. Moje, associate dean for research and community engagement, has been appointed interim dean of the University of Michigan School of Education.
Her appointment, approved Thursday by the Board of Regents, is effective July 1, and runs until a permanent dean is selected. Dean Deborah Loewenberg Ball is stepping down June 30 after a decade of service.
Moje also is an Arthur F. Thurnau professor and professor of education in SOE.
“Professor Moje has been deeply engaged in the school’s progress as a faculty member and associate dean,” said Provost and Executive Vice President Martha E. Pollack.
“She has contributed to nationally recognized work on the role of multiple literacies in student success and to important innovations in teacher training. I have great confidence that, with her leadership, the school will continue on its current trajectory.”
Moje joined U-M in 1997 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and to professor in 2009. In 2010, she was appointed to a three-year term as the associate dean for research in SOE.
In 2013, she served as the acting dean and then became the associate dean for research and community engagement later that year. As associate dean, Moje is responsible for developing the research infrastructure at SOE, including providing support for grant writing, developing mechanisms for sharing costs of common resources and facilitating coordination across research functions and activities.
“I am privileged to step into this position after years of Deborah’s stellar leadership,” says Moje. “I look forward to working with my School of Education colleagues to continue the school’s international leadership in conducting robust research on education practice and policy and offering rigorous learning opportunities for education professionals.”
Moje teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in secondary and adolescent literacy, literacy and cultural theory, and qualitative and mixed research methods.
Her research focuses on youth and their teachers in communities and schools in Detroit. In that work, she studies the intersection between the disciplinary literacies of school and the literacy practices of youth outside of school. She also leads literacy professional development with teachers in Detroit and around the country.
In particular, she studies how youth make culture and enact identities from their homes and community literacies, and from ethnic cultures, popular cultures and school cultures. She also focuses on the development of teaching interns at U-M.
She currently is serving as the chair of the National Academy of Education’s Professional Development Committee and of the William T. Grant Foundation’s Scholar Selection Committee. She also serves as the vice president representing a division of the American Education Research Association.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia College, her Master of Arts degree from Eastern Michigan University and her doctoral degree from Purdue University.
