Laura A. Snyder has been promoted to senior lecturer at Brown University in the Department of Education, effective July 1, 2023. Laura came to Brown from the University of California, Berkeley where she is completing doctoral work and where she worked in a multicultural urban teacher education program. She brings a wealth of both K-12 teaching and administrative experience, along with research interests that range from issues around project-based learning to the use of drama in teaching literacy to preservice teacher performance assessment.

Laura has supervised the English student cohort of Brown's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program since 2006. She teaches the methods sequence for English MAT students as well as Instructional Design for all MAT students. She is also the faculty director of Brown Summer High School, a summer enrichment program that serves 150-200 Providence-area youth and that is an integral part of the MAT student's residency component.

Laura's undergraduate courses focus on adolescent literature, curriculum theory, and arts literacy. She recently participated in the Sheridan Center's Seminar for Transformation Around Anti-Racist Teaching (START) to help build equitable, anti-racist teaching and learning spaces in her practice-based courses, EDUC 520: Adolescent Literature and EDUC 1665: Reimagining Humanities Education. Drawing from her work with MAT students and in collaboration with undergraduate researchers, a project titled, "Reimagining Humanities Education" involves building a curated curriculum that centers student identity, asks questions about power and justice, and provides avenues to study or imagine resistance, agency, and critical hope.

"Professor Snyder is a master teacher and a valued member of the department and university communities," says Professor Tracy Steffes, chair of the Education Department. "She designs learning opportunities for students that center inquiry, student voice, and equity and inclusion. She has been instrumental in the redesign of our MAT program and the success of our teacher education graduates and made valuable contributions to undergraduate education."

Laura has a Master of Arts from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Amherst College. Before attending graduate school, she was a middle and high school English teacher with a focus on project-based learning, drama pedagogy, and experiential learning.