NCTE Leadership Award for People with Disabilities

Diversity Awards

NCTE Leadership Award for People with Disabilities

2023 Recipient: Jo Hsu

The University of Texas at Austin

Jo Hsu (They/Them) is an assistant professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin. They study storytelling as political strategy, and their work examines how shared narratives about race, gender, and disability affect the lives of marginalized people. They are the author of Constellating Home: Trans and Queer Asian American Rhetorics, and they have written for many major disciplinary journals and news outlets, including Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Women’s Studies in Communication, College Composition and Communication, the Huffington Post, The Hill, and the Boston Globe. They are the managing editor of TransGriot, an online publication that builds on the legacy of trans activist and community leader Monica Roberts. They are also an active member of patient-led advocacy and research collectives, including #MEAction and the Patient Led Research Collaborative. Find more about them and their work at www.vjohsu.com.

“So many of us grow up with what Viet Thanh Nguyen calls ‘narrative scarcity’—with few to no representations of what full, fulfilling lives could be for people like us. A robust and diverse literacy education offers possibilities. It provides the language to imagine and pursue more compassionate and inclusive worlds—and it equips us to share our stories, our survival strategies, and our dreams with the next generation.”

Award Details

Overview:
This award demonstrates NCTE’s vision to strengthen an increasingly inclusive organization that provides more access to diverse voices. This award also helps promote cross-community connections and values and supports the agency of diverse leaders in the field.

Purpose:

To recognize a person with a disability who has made a significant contribution to NCTE and to the development of our professional community.

Frequency and Number of Awards:

This award will be bestowed only when the Award Selection Committee decides a nomination warrants presentation of the award. This award may not be given each year. This award may be given posthumously. Only one recipient will be selected each year.

Eligibility:

Any person with a disability can nominate themselves or be nominated for this award. NCTE recognizes that “disability” can have complex and sometimes competing meanings. It encompasses mental, physical, sensory, and other disabilities. Nominations will be sent to the Award Selection Committee, with the selected candidate forwarded to the Executive Committee. (Given the problematic history of required verification of disability, NCTE wishes to clarify that specific diagnoses are not required for this award.) The Executive Committee will approve the committee’s selection. All applicants, submitters, and nominees must be NCTE members at the time of submission. We remind nominators, nominees, and selection committee members that members of NCTE Conferences—CCCC, CEL, ELATE, LLA, and TYCA—are members, by definition, of NCTE.

Current NCTE Executive Committee members are not eligible for this award. Recipients of this award are not eligible to receive any other Executive Committee approved awards in the same year, nor in the following year.

Nomination Requirements:

Required materials for submission are a cover letter or letter of nomination and a resume/CV.

Award Criteria:

The bold statements are the award criteria. The remaining statements are intended to describe some of the possibilities suggested in the criteria and are not intended to be rated individually. Please remember that individuals have different levels of access to various opportunities (for example, rural vs. urban instructors). In other words, what is the level of the nominee’s contribution based on the level of opportunity, resources, and support?

Significant contribution to NCTE

Service to NCTE (national, regional, local, and campus levels as well as conferences, affiliates, assemblies, caucuses, etc.)
- Committees
- Elected roles
- Service “work” (serve at registration table, read proposals, etc.)
Writing for/presenting at NCTE-affiliated conferences/publication venues
- Publish
- Present
- Edit or review

Development of our professional community

Professional communities focused on literacy learning can be varied (e.g., global, national, regional, and local/campus).

Teaching
- Innovate classroom curriculum
- Develop district/state/national curriculum
Scholarship
- Attend conferences
- Produce and share research or other scholarly activities
Service
- Participate in and/or lead scholarly organizations
- Participate in and/or lead social justice–oriented organizations, especially those oriented around disability-related communities
Professional development
- Design and/or deliver professional learning engagements for community members

Advancing people with disabilities

Activities/work/processes that promote and support the advancement of people with disabilities in the profession, in literacy-related activities, and in public engagement
Creating a culture of change in their school, community, and/or professional organization

Strong candidates tend to show strength in all three areas.

Selection Committee:
The NCTE President appoints one Executive Committee member to serve as chair and four NCTE members-at-large from relevant NCTE groups.

Nature of the Award:

A plaque is given to the recipient during the NCTE Awards Session.
The recipient will also receive:
- A complimentary NCTE Annual Convention registration
- Domestic round-trip coach airfare to the NCTE Annual Convention
- One night lodging (Friday) with meals

Application Deadline: May 1

Please contact NCTEAwards@ncte.org with any questions.