Dr. Bessie P. Dernikos is Associate Professor of Literacies at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) on the Boca Raton campus. Dr. Dernikos received her doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching with a specialization in Literacy Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College (TC). She also holds a master’s degree in Reading Specialist from TC and an integrative bachelor’s and master’s degree in English from Brown University.

Dr. Dernikos teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses on curriculum and instruction, assessment and intervention, supervised literacy practicum, children’s literature, and critical literacies. Her research interests include examining the material, discursive, and affective forces that impact literacy learning for young children. She is Editor of the prestigious Journal of Literacy Research (JLR) , a leading journal in the literacy field and a Literacy Research Association (LRA) publication.

Selected Publications

Dernikos, B. P. (2018). ‘It’s like you don’t want to read it again’: Exploring affects, trauma, and ‘willful’ literacies. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 1-32.

Dernikos, B. P. (2019). A gender gap in literacy? Exploring the affective im/materiality and “magic” of allure with/in a first grade classroom. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 10(2-3), 330-355.

Dernikos, B. P. (2020). Tuning into ‘fleshy’ frequencies: A posthuman mapping of affect, sound, and de/colonized literacies with/in a primary classroom. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 134-157.

Dernikos, B. P. (2020). Tuning into rebellious matter: Affective literacies as more-than-human sonic bodies. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 19(4), 417-432.

Dernikos, B. P., Ferguson, D., & Siegel, M. (2020). The possibilities for “humanizing” posthumanist inquiries: An intra-active conversation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 20(5), 434–447.

Dernikos, B. P., Lesko, N., McCall, S., & Niccolini, A. (2020). Mapping the affective turn in education: Theory, research, and pedagogies. Routledge.

Thiel, J. J., & Dernikos, B. P.* (2020). Refusals, re-turns, and retheorizations of affective literacies: A thrice-told data tale. Journal of Literacy Research, 52(4), 482-506. *denotes co-first authorship

Dernikos, B. P. (2022). ‘I want my [un]happy ending!’ Queering happily ever after with/in a primary classroom. Sex Education, 1-10.