Professor Jennifer Rowsell

BA (Hons), TEFL, MA, PhD

School of Education

Professor of Digital Literacy

Director of Research and Innovation

Photograph of Professor Jennifer Rowsell
Profile picture of Photograph of Professor Jennifer Rowsell
J.Rowsell@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Professor Jennifer Rowsell
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

I am an interdisciplinary researcher who started out my scholarly career studying literacy from an ethnographic-multimodal lens that continues today. Having conducted many research studies for over 20 years with a range in ages from young children and their parents all the way to older adults, I investigate the ways that people engage in literacy practices across all aspects of their lives. I have had the privilege of researching in many primary and secondary schools in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom and across a range of informal and formal contexts such as art galleries, addiction outreach centres, malls and shopping centres, churches, and pop-up makerspaces. For over a decade, I have focused more on digital literacy and, most recently on the notion of the post-digitalAt the heart of my work is an enduring curiosity and passion for people’s stories about their lived literacy practices. 

I had the honour of being a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair at Brock University which set me on a course of research to expand notions of literacy and learning beyond narrow definitions and tighter framings. I have written and co-written books, journal articles, chapters, and co-edited special issues on this line of inquiry. 

Research interests

Post-digital spaces and practices;  Affect and sensory approaches to research;  Disruptive and craftivist pedagogies; Multimodality; Digital literacy;  Digital pedagogies education; Algorithmic Reading Practices; Data literacies; Multimodal composition; Arts-based approaches to literacy research; Posthumanism and Sociomaterial theorising of literacy and learning.

Publications

Books

Edited books

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • (2022) Unsettling Literacies RIS download Bibtex download
  • Keune A, Ruiz-Cabello P, Peppler K, Chappell K & Rowsell J (2022) Mapping Posthuman Methodological Innovation in the Study of Learning. Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS, Vol. 2022-June (pp 113-116) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Peppler K, Keune A, Wohlwend K, Rowsell J & Goldstone R (2019) Posthumanist perspectives on learning. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, CSCL, Vol. 2 (pp 1039) RIS download Bibtex download

Other

Teaching interests

Digital pedagogies; post-qualitative research methods; Participatory learning; Digital literacies; The arts and literacy theory; Qualitative research methods; Digital cultures and education; Language, literacies, and identities; and, Socio-digital futures.

Professional activities and memberships

I am Co-Convenor of the UKLA Everyday Literacies SIG with Clare Dowdall;  I am Lead Editor of Reading Research Quarterly with Cheryl McLean, Christian Ehret, and Natalia Kucirkova with Editorial Assistant Bev Enion; and, I am Co-Series Editor of the Routledge Expanding Literacies in Education Series with Carmen Medina.