Rossina Zamora Liu

Research Interests

Dr. Rossina Zamora Liu's scholarship focuses on antiracist, racial and social justice education; the onto-epistemologies of White supremacy and anti-Blackness in literacy and teacher inquiry; counterstorytelling and counternarratives in pedagogical and research methods; and cross-racial coalition and solidarity among BIPOC communities.

Bio

Rossina Zamora Liu is an assistant clinical professor in the Minority and Urban Education Specialization in the Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership Department. She has two terminal degrees from the University of Iowa: an MFA from the re-known Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and a PhD from the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program. As a Critical Race and literacy educator, ethnographic researcher, writing teacher, and writer, she has worked with local artists on independent projects, first-generation college student athletes in yearlong preparatory seminars, high school and middle school students in urban and rural communities, and community college students with diverse lived experiences. She has facilitated art-based writing workshops at homeless shelters, the Veterans Affairs, and various public literacy spaces. She received the J. Michael Parker Award from the Literacy Research Association for her essay on humanizing the practice of witnessing trauma narratives. Currently she is co-authoring a book on the psychology of White supremacy, White privilege, and Power for Oxford University Press.

Honors & Awards

Distinguished Educator Award, The University of Iowa, Center for Diversity & Enrichment, 2017
J. Michael Parker Award for Adult Literacy Research, Literacy Research Association, Dec 2016
Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Year Fellowship, The University of Iowa, 2014-2015

Publications

Book

Liu, W.M. & Liu, R.Z. (Under contract). The Psychology of White Supremacy and White Privilege. Oxford University Press.

Refereed Journals

Liu, R.Z. (2019). Humanizing the practice of witnessing trauma narratives. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 63(3), 347-350.

Liu, W.M., Liu, R.Z., et al. (2019). Racist trauma, microaggressions, and becoming racially innocuous: Acculturative distress and White supremacist ideology. American Psychologist.

Liu, R.Z., & Sunstein, B.S. (2016). Writing as alchemy: Turning objects into stories, stories into objects. Journal of Folklore and Education. New York, NY: Local Learning, the National Network for Folk Arts in Education.

Liu, R.Z. (2013). “The Things They Carried”: Unpacking trauma scripts inside a community writing workshop. Counseling Psychology Quarterly special issue: “Through a Glass Darkly: Meaning-Making, Spiritual Transformation, and Posttraumatic Growth after Trauma.” 26:1

Sunstein, B.S., Liu, R.Z., Hunsicker, A, & Baker, D. (2012). Math in the margins: Writing across curriculum into community heritage. English Journal. 102:2. (November).

Sunstein, B.S., Liu, R.Z., Baker, D., & Hunsicker, A. (2012). “I Eat What You Grow”: High school partners write about geometry across a big backyard. International Journal of the Humanities. 9:9. 233-250.

Book Chapters

Hines, D., Young, J.L., Liu, R.Z., & Wandix-White, D. (2020). “Can We Talk?:

Promoting Anti-Oppressive Futures for Girls of Color through a Social Justice Enrichment Program.” In J. Dyches, B.L. Sams, A. Boyd (eds.) Subversive teaching: Education as an act of resistance in the ELA classrooms. Gorham, MN: Myers Education Press.

Liu, W.M. & Liu, R.Z. (2020). Asian Americans in Higher Education. Sage.

Liu, R.Z. (2014). The Sorceress of Westminster: The nonfiction writer and ethnographic researcher positioning. In J.H.X. Lee (ed.) Southeast Asian Diaspora in the United States: Memories and Visions – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Liu, R.Z. (2014). Of flying brooms and sorcerers: Spell-castings, love potions, and supernatural plants. In J.H.X. Lee and K. Nadeau (eds.) Asian American Identities and Practices: Folkloric Expressions in Everyday Life. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield.

Liu, R.Z. (2010). In J.H.X. Lee, & K. Nadeau (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Asian Pacific American Folklore. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press. Eleven essays on Vietnamese American cultural practices: Vietnamese American proverbs and maxims; Vietnamese American narrative folktale; Vietnamese American art and crafts; Vietnamese American social etiquette and customs; Vietnamese American festivals and holidays; Vietnamese American rites of passage; Vietnamese American Lunar New Year: Tet; Vietnamese American superstitions and taboos; Vietnamese American clothing and jewelry; Vietnamese American dying and death rituals; Vietnamese American home decorations.

Creative Essays and Edited Chapbooks

Liu, R.Z. (in progress). Gardenias. Glimmer Train.

Liu, R.Z. (in progress. Watching. Creative Nonfiction.

Liu, R.Z. (2014). The woman and Buddha and Jesus. Wag’s Revue (Issue 17) Online Literary Journal. http://www.wagsrevue.com

Liu, R.Z. (2004). Shrunken twisters (Radio Essay). Iowa Public Radio/NPR

Liu, R.Z. (Ed). (Spring, 2013) Of the Folk: Ordinary Lines, Extraordinary Portraits. Times Club

Editions at Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA. (independent press).

Liu, R.Z. (Ed). (Spring, 2012) Of the Folk: Reflections. Times Club Editions at Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA. (independent press).

Scholarly Works in Progress

Liu, R.Z., Liu, W.M., Jones, S.P., Young, J.L., Shockley, E.T., & D’Cruz, G. (in progress for spring 2021). The onto-epistemologies of white supremacy and anti-Blackness in teacher inquiry: Lost in translation between theory and practice. Special issue in English Teaching: Practice and Critique.

Liu, R.Z., Rushek, K., Garrison, Y.L., & Ali, S. (in progress for spring 2021). “I wrote this blurred American flag”: The racial and socio-political realities in rural Latinx youth’s counter-self-portraits. Special issue in Qualitative Studies in Education.

Jones, S.P. & Liu, R.Z. (forthcoming). Guest co-editors special issue: Anti-Blackness in English Curriculum, Practice, and Culture. English Teaching: Practice and Critique.

Turner, J.D., Liu, R.Z., & Griffin, A.A. (forthcoming). Guest co-editors special issue: Race(ing) towards Futurity: Black and Latinx Youths’ Multimodal Compositions of Future Selves and Literacies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Grants & Projects

Mentor Teacher Academy: Professional Development, College of Education, University of Maryland (current-summer 2020)
American Folklore Society and National Endowment for the Humanities Working Group (current-summer 2020)

Courses

Dr. Rossina Zamora Liu teaches the following courses in the College of Education: Critical Race Theory; Race, Whiteness, and Identities; Critical Perspectives in Ethnographic Research Methods, Critical Foundations of Schooling and Education in the U.S., Embracing Diversity in Classroom Communities, Conducting Research on Teaching. She also created and teaches the undergraduate iSeries course, Critical Race Counterstorytelling.