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Alecia Magnifico

Associate Professor
Phone: (603) 862-5274
Office: Hamilton Smith Hall, Room 323, Durham, NH 03824
Websites:
Curriculum Vitae
Alecia Marie Magnifico is a learning scientist whose research focuses on writing, digital literacies, and learning in formal and informal environments. Currently, she is an assistant professor of English teaching at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches courses on English teaching, digital literacies, and research methods. Previously, she has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (with the Scholar online collaborative writing project), as a lecturer and graduate research assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with the Games, Learning, and Society team and the Department of Educational Psychology), and as a middle and high school classroom teacher. Magnifico's research interests focus on understanding how to support and encourage adolescents' writing for different audiences. While most schoolwork is turned in to teachers and receives little feedback, writing for active, communicative audiences can help young writers to reflect on their own ideas, to present those ideas effectively, and to revise and refine their work. Much of Magnifico's writing in this area describes and theorizes adolescents' literacies in different contexts (e.g. school, extracurricular, and online settings), although she also works with teachers to design curricula and assessments that engage multiple literacy skills including reading, writing, multimedia, and critique. She also enjoys the challenge of developing research methods to represent what happens in these complex, social learning spaces. Magnifico's recent work can be found in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, E-Learning and Digital Media, and the International Journal of Educational Psychology.

Courses Taught

  • ENGL 620: English Major Internship
  • ENGL 725: Teaching Writing
  • ENGL 725/810: Seminar in English Teaching
  • ENGL 725L: Sem in English Teaching: Lab
  • ENGL 726/892: Teaching Lit and Literacy
  • ENGL 726L: Sem in English Teaching: Lab
  • ENGL 789/889: Special Topic/English Teaching
  • ENGL 810: Teaching Writing
  • ENGL 918: Research Method in Composition

Education

  • Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • M.S., University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • B.A., Economics, Swarthmore College
  • B.A., Education, Swarthmore College

Research Interests

  • Audiences
  • Communicative writing
  • Digital literacies
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Writing and reading instruction

Selected Publications

  • Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., Kennedy, F., & Silva, B. (2025). Redesigning Author Study: Fanfiction and Early Elementary Literacy. The Reading Teacher, 78(6), 361-365. doi:10.1002/trtr.2374

  • Silva, B., Raymond, A., Brikiatis, M., & Magnifico, A. (2023). Enacting anti‐racist writing workshop pedagogies in an online, drop‐in writing club for youth. Literacy, 57(3), 221-233. doi:10.1111/lit.12344

  • Lammers, J. C., Magnifico, A. M., & Wang, A. (2022). Playful Multiliteracies: Fan-Based Literacies' Role in English Language Arts Pedagogy. JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT & ADULT LITERACY, 66(2), 80-90. doi:10.1002/jaal.1253

  • Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., & Fields, D. A. (2018). Affinity spaces, literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities. LITERACY, 52(3), 145-152. doi:10.1111/lit.12133

  • Lammers, J., Magnifico, A. M., & Scott Curwood, J. (2017). Literate identities in fan-based online affinity spaces. In K. Mills, A. Stornaiuolo, A. Smith, & J. Pandya (Eds.), Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures (pp. 173-184). New York, NY: Routledge.

  • Olmanson, J., Kennett, K., Magnifico, A., McCarthey, S., Searsmith, D., Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2016). Visualizing Revision: Leveraging Student-Generated Between-Draft Diagramming Data in Support of Academic Writing Development. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 21(1), 99-123. doi:10.1007/s10758-015-9265-5

  • Magnifico, A. M., Curwood, J. S., & Lammers, J. C. (2015). Words on the screen: broadening analyses of interactions among fanfiction writers and reviewers. LITERACY, 49(3), 158-166. doi:10.1111/lit.12061

  • Curwood, J. S., Magnifico, A. M., & Lammers, J. C. (2013). Writing in the Wild WRITERS' MOT I VAT ION IN FAN-BASED AFFINITY SPACES. JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT & ADULT LITERACY, 56(8), 677-685. doi:10.1002/JAAL.192

  • Lammers, J. C., Curwood, J. S., & Magnifico, A. M. (2012). Toward an affinity space methodology: Considerations for literacy research. ENGLISH TEACHING-PRACTICE AND CRITIQUE, 11(2), 44-58. Retrieved from https://www.webofscience.com/

  • Magnifico, A. M. (2010). Writing for Whom? Cognition, Motivation, and a Writer's Audience. EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, 45(3), 167-184. doi:10.1080/00461520.2010.493470

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  • Most Cited Publications