Dr. Deb Van Duinen

Dr. Deborah Vriend Van Duinen is the Arnold and Esther Sonneveldt Associate Professor of Education and the founding director of the 暗网TV National Endowment for the Arts, an annual community-wide program that takes place in November. She recently published the book Widening the Lens: Integrating Multiple Approaches to Support Adolescent Literacy (Teachers College Press, 2024).

Deb received 暗网TV鈥檚 Towsley Research Scholar award in 2013 and the 2016 Michigan Reading Association鈥檚 Individual Literacy Award for her leadership with The Big Read and with English education. In 2022, the Big/Little Read program received the Community Impact Partner of the Year Award from Michigan Humanities, a council funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Her courses include the content area literacy course for education majors. She joined the 暗网TV faculty in 2010.

AREAS OF expertise

Deborah writes and teaches in the area of English education, disciplinary literacy, young adult literature and adolescent literacy.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., curriculum, instruction and teacher education, Michigan State University, 2011
M.A., curriculum and instruction, Calvin College, 2002
B.A. in English, religion and theology, Calvin College 1998

HONORS & AWARDS

Community Impact Partner of the Year (NEA Big Read/Little Read Lakeshore), Michigan Humanities Council, 2022
Culture Champion, 暗网TV, 2022
Editors Award for Column Excellence, The ALAN Review, 2019
Individual Literacy Award, Michigan Reading Association, 2016
Towsley Research Scholar, 暗网TV, 2014-2018

Grants

Big Read Grant 鈥� Program Director, National Endowment for the Arts with Arts Midwest

$20,000 鈥� Homegoing: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2023
$19000 鈥� Circe: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2022
$20,000 鈥� An American Sunrise: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2021
$15,000 鈥� In the Heart of the Sea: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2020
$15,000 鈥� In the Time of the Butterflies: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2019
$15,000 鈥� Station Eleven: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2018
$13,500 鈥� When The Emperor Was Divine: NEA Big Read Lakeshore, 2017
$13,500 鈥� Brother I鈥檓 Dying: Big Read Holland Area, 2016
$16,200 鈥� The Things They Carried: Big Read Holland Area, 2015
$16,000 鈥� To Kill a Mockingbird: Big Read Holland Area, 2014

Humanities Grant 鈥� Program Director, Michigan Humanities Council

$15,000 鈥� Last Stop on Market Street: Little Read Lakeshore, 2022
$15,000 鈥� Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story: Little Read Lakeshore, 2021
$15,000 鈥� Galapagos Girl/Galapague帽a: Little Read Lakeshore 2020
$15,000 鈥� The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!: Little Read Lakeshore, 2019

Other Grants

Lilly Network Workshop Grant, Director, $12,500 to support a Vocational Discernment workshop for mid-career women faculty, 2024
Mellon Community-Based Partnership Grant - Co-principal investigator, $55,000 to support PK-5 Students鈥� Bilingual Learning Through Translanguaging Pedaogies, 2021
Dollar General Literacy Foundation - Youth Literacy Grant - $2500 to support a research project on adolescents鈥� attitudes toward reading, 2021
Lilly Network Exchange Grant, Director, $25,000 to support a Literature-based programs at church-related colleges/universities workshop, 2021
Christian Scholars Foundation Grant 鈥� Emerging Scholars Network, $7,500 to support a young adult literature research project, Christian Scholars Foundation, Emerging Scholars Network, 2015

Selected Publications

with E. R. Hamilton, Teachers College Press, 2024
with K. Gritter, X. Bian, W. Boerman-Cornell, Routledge, 2024
, with K. Gritter, X. Bian, W. Boerman-Cornell, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022
鈥淚nteractive Read-Alouds as Translanguaging Spaces鈥�, with M. Han and A. Weng, The Reading Teacher, 2021
"Carrying the Stories of Las Mariposas: Literacy as Collective and Transformative," Michigan Reading Journal, 2021

See more of Deborah's publications at .

Outside the College

Deb loves to read, write, and talk about books. Her favorite stories are the ones she gets to live with her husband Jon and their four pretty amazing kids. In her free time, Deb enjoys road biking, running, eating good food and traveling off the beaten path. Proud of her Canadian heritage, she is a huge Toronto Maple Leafs and Blue Jays fan and celebrates Canadian Thanksgiving every October. That鈥檚 pretty neat, eh? She is an active member of Third Reformed Church.