Dominique Skye McDaniel

Dr. Dominique Skye McDaniel is an Assistant Professor of English Education in the Department of English at Kennesaw State University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She teaches and researches at the intersection of literacy, digital media, and social justice, centering the voices of Black and Brown adolescents in online spaces.

Education

• Ph.D. in Educational Studies (Teacher Education concentration, Literacy & English Education cognates), University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2022
• North Carolina teaching licensure: Elementary Education, Middle Grades Language Arts, High School English, Reading

Research Interests

Dr. McDaniel’s scholarship interrogates how adolescents leverage social media for civic engagement and activism. She develops Culturally Digitized Pedagogy, a framework that marries culturally sustaining teaching with critical digital literacies. Her work explores how justice-oriented teacher education can amplify youth voice, particularly for Black and Brown teens whose digital practices resist systemic inequities.

Her recent publications trace patterns across case studies of teen activists, demonstrating how multimodal composition on platforms such as TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram becomes a conduit for civic participation. Collectively, her articles argue that educators must reimagine curricula to honor students’ out-of-school literacies and position youth as co-researchers in the struggle for educational justice.

Awards & Honors

• 2023 James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award, NCTE-CCC
• 2024 Richard A. Meade Award for Research in English Education, ELATE/NCTE

Grants & Funding

• #OnlineLiteraciesMatter: Take Two – KSU Radow College Seed Grant, $7,500 (PI, 2024)
• Project CULTURE Phase II – KSU Radow College Project Development Grant, $2,300 (PI, 2023)
• Project CULTURE Phase I – KSU Radow College Extramural Funding Seed Grant, $7,500 (PI, 2022)
• Mentoring Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Preservice English Teachers – KSU Division of Organizational Effectiveness & Inclusive Excellence Grant, $8,000 (PI, 2023)

Labs & Collaborations

Dr. McDaniel directs Project CULTURE, a multi-phase professional learning community that mentors BIPOC preservice English teachers. She currently co-leads the #BlackBookTok study with Dr. Sarah Jerasa (Clemson University), examining how Black youth curate literary cultures on TikTok to resist dominant narratives. These collaborative projects position her at the forefront of justice-oriented English teacher preparation in the digital age.