Presidential Fellow Maryanne Wolf Visits Attallah Students, Faculty, and Researchers

Dr. Maryanne Wolf visit with Attallah College teacher education class

Chapman Presidential Fellow in Education Maryanne Wolf, Ph.D., returned to the Chapman campus this spring semester to share her expertise in the in areas of reading, dyslexia, and digital texts with Attallah College students, faculty, and researchers.

Dr. Wolf is a cognitive neuroscientist whose work includes brain research in reading and dyslexia as well as, most recently, on understanding how the change from print-based reading to digital reading is changing how and what individuals read. Her research has implications for journalists, writers, authors, and educators.

Currently, she is a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she directs the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice. She is also affiliated with the Dyslexia Center in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical School and with Curious Learning: A Global Literacy Initiative, which she cofounded. The latter initiative aims to help nonliterate children in remote regions of Africa, India, and Australia learn to read on tablets.

During several special guest lectures and classroom presentations, Dr. Wolf discussed ideas from her most recent book, Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. In this book, Wolf writes, “Deep reading is always about connection; connecting what we know to what we read, what we read to what we feel, what we feel to what we think, and how we think to how we live out our lives in a connected world.”

Dr. Wolf’s visits were facilitated by Margie Curwen, Ph.D., Attallah College associate professor, who has research interests in literacy and individuals’ literacy engagement.