Biography
Dr. Boni Fernandes Wozolek currently serves as the Director of Inclusive Excellence and as an Associate Professor of Education at Penn State University, Abington College. Her work considers questions qualitative research methods and teaching practices that focus on access, justice, and care for schools and student communities. Dr. Wozolek’s recent publications include two monographs, Assemblages of Violence in Education: Everyday Trajectories of Oppression (Routledge, 2021) and Educational Necropolitics: A Sonic Ethnography of Everyday Racisms in US Schools (Routledge, 2023), and three edited volumes: Letters to the Field: Curriculum Studies in Our Own Words (co-edited, Dr. Walter S. Gershon and Dr. Roland Mitchell, Myers Press), Black Lives Matter in US Schools: Race, Education, and Resistance (SUNY, 2022), and Queer Battle Fatigue: Education, Exhaustion, and Everyday Oppressions (co-edited, David Lee Carlson, Routledge, 2023). Additionally, she has two forthcoming edited volumes, Love and Power: A Curriculum of Black Joy (co-edited, Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry, SUNY Press) and The Infinite Circle (co-edited with Srijoni Mitra and Michael Bernstein). Dr. Wozolek has received multiple awards for her scholarship, including two book awards, an article of the year award, and an early career award.
Publications
Selected Publications
Books:
Wozolek, B., Gershon, W.S., & Mitchell, R. (Eds.). (2025). Letters to the field: Curriculum studies in our own words. Myers Press.
Wozolek,B. & Carlson, D.L. (2023). Queer battle fatigue: Education, exhaustion, and everyday oppressions. Routledge.
Wozolek, B. (2023). Educational necropolitics: A sonic ethnography of everyday racism in U.S. schools. Routledge.
Awarded: Outstanding Book Recognition, American Educational Research Association, Division B (Curriculum Studies)
Wozolek, B. (Ed.). (2022). Black lives matter: Race, education, and resistance in US schools. SUNY Press.
Awarded: Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association, Division B (Curriculum Studies)
Wozolek, B. (2021). Assemblages of violence in education: Everyday trajectories of oppression. Routledge.
- Awarded: Critic’s Choice Book Award (2021), American Educational Studies Association
Nominated: Outstanding Book Award (2021), American Educational Research Association, Division B (Curriculum Studies)
Nominated: Gloria E Anzaldua Book Award (2021), National Women’s Studies Association
Journal Articles:
Wozolek, B. (in press). Critical consent curriculum: Towards ethical self-empowerment in schools, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing.
Gershon, W.S. & Wozolek, B. (2024). Sound traumas: Curricular attunements for care and educational understandings, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 39(1a), 1-10. https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/1175
Wozolek, B. (2024). Mai: Remembering, forgetting, and the art of writing qualitatively, International Review of Qualitative Research, 17(3), 378-396. DOI:10.1177/19408447241245114.
Wozolek, B. (2024). Counting publications: The curricula of data and tenure, American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies. 16(1), 74-90. DOI: 10.14288/jaaacs.v16i1.198593.
Rosemary, C.R., Billman, M., Francesco, A., Mullin, R., Tassi, C., Wozolek, B., Heppard, B., Essayli, J., Stuckey-Peyrot, H. (2023). Treatment goals for gender dysphoria, Pediatrics. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2023-062202.
Wozolek, B. (2023). “What does learning sound like?”: Reverberations, curriculum studies, and teacher preparation, Northwest Journal of Teacher Preparation, 17(3), 27.
Wozolek, B. & Atif, A. (2022). A nice white lady: Critical whiteness studies, teacher education, and city schools, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 35(7), 755-763. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2022.2061627
- Paper co-authored with a Penn State Abington undergraduate student.
Wozolek, B. & Carlson, D.L. (2022). Mapping the contours of queer battle fatigue in educational contexts: An introduction. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 35(9), 905-910. DOI:10.1080/09518398.2022.2035461
Wozolek, B. & Antell, S. (2022). Curricula of oppressions: Queering elementary school norms and values, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2022.2035460.
- Paper co-authored with a Penn State Abington undergraduate student.
Wozolek, B. (2021). “Is your dad a towelhead?”: Capitals of shame and necropolitics in post-9/11 America, Canadian Social Studies, 52(2), 10-21 https://doi.org/10.29173/css27.
Wozolek, B. (2021). Curriculum of reflexivity: (Re)imagining education through action research and Saudi Vision 2030. Taboo, 20(2), 218-223.
Wozolek, B. (2021). Race, gender, and sexual orientations in curriculum studies. In M. Fang He & B. Shubert (Eds.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1445
Wozolek, B. (2021). Critical gender geographies. In C. Mayo (Ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1353
Wozolek, B. (2021). “It’s not fiction, it’s my life”: LGBTQ+ youth of color and kinships in an urban middle school, Theory into Practice, 60(1), 94-102. DOI:10.1080/00405841.2020.1829383
Wozolek, B. (2020). Hidden curriculum of violence: Affect, power, and policing the body. Educational Studies, 56(3), 269-285. DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2020.1745808
- Paper received the journal’s “2020 Paper of the Year” Award.
Wozolek, B., Bettez, S., Sintos Coloma, R., & Kelly, H. (2020). The queer love project: AESA, fatigue, and building the body of an organization. GLQ: The Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 26(2), 223-226. DOI: 10.1215/10642684-8141704.
Wozolek, B. (2019). Implications of queer theory for qualitative research., In. G. Noblit (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 1-18). Oxford University Press. DOI: 0.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.735.
Wozolek, B. (2019). M/othering redux: A reading of curriculum theory to get through sleepless nights. The Journal of Gender Studies, 28(8), 873-882. DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2018.1564649.
Wozolek, B. (2018). Gaslighting queerness: GSAs, schooling, and teachers’ education. Journal of LGBT Youth, 15(4), 319-338. DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2018.1484839.
Wozolek, B. (2018). In 8100 again: The sounds of students breaking. Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 54(4), 367-381. DOI: 10.1080/00131946.2018.1473869.
Wozolek, B. & Mitchell, R. P. (2018). Plastic or phalloplasty: Negotiating masculinity and (cis)gender norms in schools and the academy. The Journal of Curriculum & Pedagogy, 15(3), 318-322. DOI: 10.1080.15505170.2018.1525451.
Wozolek, B. (2018). The mothership connection: Utopian funk from Bethune and beyond. The Urban Review, 50(5), 836-856. DOI: 10.1007/s11256-018-0476-7.
Wozolek, B., Wootton, L., & Demlow, A. (2017). The school-to-coffin pipeline: Queer youth, suicide and resilience of spirit. Cultural Studies <> Critical Methodologies, 17(5), 392-398. DOI: 10.1177/1532708616673659
- Paper co-authored with high school students.
Special Issues:
Wozolek, B. & Gershon, W.S. (Eds.). (2024). Sound traumas: Curricular attunements for care and curricular understandings, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 39(1b). (Contributors: Allyson Compton, Hannah Edber, Leah Panther, Maureen Flint, Albert Stabler, Peter Woods)
- Part 2 of a double issue.
Wozolek, B. & Gershon, W.S. (Eds.). (2024). Sound traumas: Curricular attunements for careand curricular understandings, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 39(1a). https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/issue/view/117. (Contributors: Peter Appelbaum, Bessie Dernikos, Sarah Gerth van den Berg, Reagan P. Mitchell).
- Part 1 of a double issue.
Wozolek, B. & Carlson, D.L. (Eds.). (2022). From verbal aggression to physical violence: LGBTQ+ experiences, everyday oppression, and education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. (Contributors: Sean Robinson, Karen Morris, Adam J. Gretemen, Nic M. Weststrate, Reagan P. Mitchell, Mario I Suárez, Andrea M. Hawkman, Colby Tofel-Grehl, Beth L. MacDonald, Kristin Searle, David F. Feldon, Taryn Sommers, Michael Hernandez, Boni Wozolek, Samantha Antell, Darla Linville, Kate E. Kedley)
Wozolek, B. (Ed.). (2020). Forum: Queer battle fatigue in classrooms and communities. GLQ: The Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 26(2), 215-242. DOI: 10.1215/10642684-8141704. (Contributors: Cris Mayo, Erica Meiners, Lauria Fuller, Silvia Bettez, Roland Sintos Coloma, Hilton Kelly, Kaila Story, Melssa M. González, sj Miller, Mario Suarez, Walter Gershon)
Book Chapters:
Wozolek, B. & Gershon, W.S. (in press). Listening methodologies. In M. Boucher (Ed.), Disruptive Methodologies.
Wozolek, B. (in press). Dead air, dead classrooms: Sonic necropolitical entanglements in schools. In B. Varga (Ed.), Hauntological Social Studies: More-than-human deviances, implications, and proliferations. Teachers College Press.
Wozolek, B. (in press). “Everyone seems so happy…and queer!”: Sex education and queer(ed) curricula of consent. In D. Friedrich and J. Corson (Eds), T.V. as Curriculum Studies: Putting Curriculum Theory to Work. Myers Education Press.
Wozolek, B. (in press). Pipelines Paved by Bullies: Black Queer Youth and Zero-ish Tolerance Policies. In E. Payne & M. Smith (Eds.), Queer kids, school violence, and the limits of bullying.
Wozolek, B. (2023). Echo chambers of oppression: Sounded understandings and deep listening through sonic ethnography. In B. Baker, A. Saari, and L. Wang (Eds.), Flashpoint epistemology: Education in the age of interconnection and complexity. (pp. 62-83).Routledge.
Wozolek, B. & Carlson, D.L. (2023). Anti-queerness as educational norms: Tracing the contours of queer battle fatigue, in B. Wozolek & D.L. Carlson, Queer battle fatigue: Education, exhaustion, and everyday oppressions (pp. 1-6). Routledge.
Wozolek, B. (2023). Forward: Becoming posthuman social studies. In B. A. Varga, T. Monreal, & R.C. Christ (Eds.), Toward a stranger and more posthuman social studies. Teachers College Press.
Wozolek, B. (2023). Queer theory and qualitative research. In R.J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erican (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Education. Elsevier. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.11008-5.
Wozolek, B. & Irizarry, J. (2022). Intersectional cartographies: Tracing the contours of the margins. In C.D. Gist & T.J. Bristol (Eds.), The Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color. Routledge.
Wozolek, B. (2022). Marginalized by intersectionality: Teachers and scholars of color participating in assemblages of violence. In C.D. Gist & T.J. Bristol (Eds.), The Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color (pp. 617-625). American Educational Research Association.
Wozolek, B. & Huddelston, G. (2022). A curriculum of conflation: Using space and place to tell
“Big Little Lies”. Friedrich, D., Corson, J. & Hollman, D. (Eds.) Pop Culture and Curriculum, Assemble! Exploring the limits of curricular humanism through pop culture. (pp. 191-214). Dio Press.
Wozolek, B. (2020). Intellectual gatekeepers: Reclaiming Black queer youth as the public. In T.C. Wells, D.L Carlson, and M. Koro (Eds.), Intra-Public intellectualism: Critical Qualitative Inquiry in the Academy (pp. 118-133). Myers Educational Press.
Wozolek, B. (2020). In 8100 again: The sounds of students breaking. In W.S. Gershon & P.M Appelbaum (Eds.), Sonic studies in educational foundations: Echoes, reverberations, silences, noise (pp. 13-30). Routledge.
- This a slightly updated version of an article in the special issue Educational Studies,54(4), optioned by Routledge.
Wozolek, B., & Gershon, W. (2019). Ethnography and middle education. In D. Virtue (Ed.), The International Handbook of Middle Level Education Theory, Research, and Policy (pp. 293-302). Routledge.
Wozolek, B. (2019). War of the half-breeds: Communities of color, resistance, and racist education in a high school in the Midwest. In W.S. Gershon (Ed.), Sensuous Curriculum: The Politics of the Senses in Education (pp. 67-84). Information Age Press.
Editorially Reviewed Articles:
Hartlep, N.D., Brewer, J., & Wozolek, B. (2022). Introduction, The Journal of Educational Foundations, 35(1), 3-5.
Gist, C., Bristol, T.J., Wozolek, B., Irizarry, J., & Brockenbrough, E. (2021). The power of intersectional interventions for Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers, Phi Delta Kappan, 44-47.
Wozolek, B. & Shafer, A. (2021). Time to shift away from standardized testing? Educational Leadership, 79(1), online exclusive: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/time-to-shift-away-from-standardized-testing.
McQuiggan, S. & Wozolek, B. (2020). The world language crisis: Problems and solutions: Diminishing language programs in US schools. The Pennsylvania Language Forum, 90(1), 22-26.
- Paper co-authored with a Penn State Abington undergraduate student.
Wozolek, B. (2019). Amnesiac bodies of curricula: Dialogues on indigeneity, refusal, and being. Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, 13(2), 1-6. DOI: doi.org/10.14288/jaaacs.v13i2.
Wozolek, B., Varndell, R., & Speer, T. (2015). Are we not fatigued?: Queer battle fatigue at the intersection of heteronormative culture. International Journal of Curriculum and Social Justice, 1(1), 186-214.
- Paper co-authored with high school students.
Wozolek, B. (2015). Schooling racialized bodies: Curriculum at the intersection of visibility and absence. International Journal of Curriculum and Social Justice, 1(1), 7-17.