Erin Miller

Biography

Erin T. Miller (she/her) is a Professor in the Reading and Elementary Education Department in the Cato College of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She serves as the co-coordinator of the Critical and Sociocultural Literacies Concentration for the Curriculum & Instruction Ph.D. Program and is the Director and co-developer of the Self, Systems, and Social Transformation Graduate Certificate Program (formerly the Antiracism Graduate Certificate Program).

A former Bank of America Teaching for Excellence Award finalist, Miller teaches and develops graduate courses centered on critical literacy, equity, and racial identity, including Human Identity Development (formerly Racial Identity Development), Social Action and Advocacy (formerly Anti-Racist Activism), and Critical Ethnographic Methodologies. She also serves as co-editor of the international research journal Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy.

Miller’s research focuses on anti-racist pedagogies, critical whiteness studies, critical race theory in education, culturally sustaining literacy practices, and critical ethnographic methodologies in K-12 and teacher education settings.

Major Accomplishments & Awards

Winner, David E. Fry Book Award (2024): Awarded by the Literacy Research Association (LRA) for Storytelling and Improvisation as Anti-Racist Pedagogies: Challenging White Supremacy in Elementary Education (Routledge).

Recipient, Spencer Foundation Small Research Grant (2018–2022): Principal Investigator for a study examining anti-racist improvisational pedagogy in elementary school settings

Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program Nominee (2025): Campus nominee for UNC Charlotte

Gabriele Stauf Award Recipient (2021): Awarded by the Lillian E. Smith Center

Distinguished Publication Awards: Recipient of the Taylor & Francis Distinguished Article of the Year Award and the AERA Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award .

Recent Publications

• Tanner, S. & Miller, E. (In press). Vital Transformations: A guide to teaching, learning, and change. Myers Education Press.
• Neal, E. & Miller, E. (2026). “We still have power in shaping what and how students learn”: Activist teachers respond to book bans. Journal of Research in Educational Policy and Management.
• Miller, E. & Tanner, S. (2026). Complexifying White Racial Identity: Placing Veronica Watson and The Reverend Thandeka in Dialogue with Janet Helms. The New Educator.
• Tanner, S. & Miller, E. (2025). Towards Transformative Critical Whiteness Pedagogies. Whiteness and Education.
• Willis, E. & Miller, E. (2025). Broken Windows Schooling: A Case Study of the Disciplinary Experiences of Black Males in a Predominately White Christian School. Texas Education Review.
• Tanner, S. & Miller, E. (2024). Storytelling and Improvisation as Anti-Racist Pedagogies: Challenging White Supremacy in Elementary Education. Routledge (Winner of the 2024 LRA David Fry Book Award)
• Miller, E. & Walker, A. (2023). Antiracist pedagogy in action: Curriculum development from the field. Rowman & Littlefield.

National Leadership & Service

Elementary Section Steering Committee: Elected Member, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (2018–2022)
Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA): Former Chair (2015–2017) and Affirmative Action Chair (2010–2013), NCTE

Journal Leadership: Co-Editor, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (2019–Present)

Education

Ph.D. in Language and Literacy | University of South Carolina (2012)

M.A.T. in Early Childhood Education | University of South Carolina (1999)

B.A. in Educational Studies | Emory University (1998)