SLAT is proud to announce that Dr. Kathy Short, Professor in the Department of TLS and in the SLAT Program, has been named as one of the newest University of Arizona Regents Professors. The Arizona Board of Regents confirmed the appointment of Dr. Short, along with 4 other UArizona professors, in mid-April 2023. The highest faculty rank of Regents Professor is reserved for full professors whose exceptional achievements merit national and international distinction. Regents Professor appointments are limited to no more than 3% of the total number of the university's tenured and tenure-track faculty members.
Dr. Short's research centers on how literature shapes the way children and young people understand and interact with the world. She is the founding director of the College of Education's Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures, which includes a collection of 40,000 children's and adolescent books.
Short created "critical content analysis," a research methodology that analyzes text and images found in children's literature to measure how literature shapes children's views of the world. Short has written, co-written or co-edited numerous books that have become among the most cited in the field and have served as resources for educators around the world. She established Worlds of Words in 2007 to serve as an outreach space for faculty, students and the public; the center has more than 50,000 visitors each year.
Short has received grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Marshall Foundation. She received the "Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts" award in 2011 from the National Council of Teachers of English. Her colleagues in 2019 elected her to the Reading Hall of Fame, a national organization dedicated to improving reading instruction that recognizes literacy educators whose reputation is "widely known and respected by people in the profession."
A well-deserved congratulations to Dr. Short!