Skip to content
Apply
Stories

Word power

A photo of Ellen Cushman

Ellen Cushman, the inaugural director of Civic Sus­tain­ability, Diver­sity, and Inclu­sion Ini­tia­tives in the college, studies literacy in tribal and urban communities. She joins the English department and Dean's Office this fall from Michigan State University.

Ellen Cushman is the per­fect scholar to hold the pres­ti­gious title—a public intel­lec­tual incom­pa­rably suited to be the inau­gural director of Civic Sus­tain­ability, Diver­sity, and Inclu­sion Ini­tia­tives in the Col­lege of Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties.

Over the past two decades,” Cushman says, “I’ve been thinking, writing, and teaching about the strengths of diverse learners in class­rooms and com­mu­ni­ties as well as the prob­lems they face.”

Her research cen­ters on lit­eracy in tribal and urban com­mu­ni­ties, with a par­tic­ular focus on exploring language’s role in the everyday struggle for dig­nity, respect, and change.

As a Cherokee Nation cit­izen, her work is informed by the tribe’s ethic of reci­procity. “We have a social respon­si­bility to each other,” she says, “an oblig­a­tion to the people with whom we make knowledge.”

Cushman comes to North­eastern from Michigan State Uni­ver­sity, where she served as the director of the Center for Applied Inclu­sive Teaching and Learning in the Arts and Humanities.

North­eastern stu­dents are incred­ibly self-​​directed learners. They are keen to develop projects based on their edu­ca­tion and expe­ri­ences, which aligns with the college’s effort to expand its focus on the expe­ri­en­tial lib­eral arts.”
— Ellen Cushman

She is the author of The Cherokee Syl­labary: Writing the People’s Per­se­ver­ance, an award-​​winning book exploring the evo­lu­tion of the Cherokee writing system, and the co-​​editor of Research in the Teaching of Eng­lish, an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary journal focused on the study of lit­eracy in the edu­ca­tion setting.

The quar­terly pub­li­ca­tion is now housed in the Col­lege of Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties, where Cushman holds appoint­ments as a pro­fessor of Eng­lish and the Dean’s Pro­fessor of Civic Sustainability.

In the coming months, she will work closely with the North­eastern com­mu­nity, reaching out to stu­dents and fac­ulty alike to develop robust teaching and learning partnerships.

Northeastern’s long his­tory of schol­ar­ship dove­tails with my ethics as a scholar,” says Cushman, who will teach a course in writing and com­mu­nity engage­ment this spring. “The uni­ver­sity has a his­tory of civic engage­ment and for­ward thinking.”

-By Jason Kornwitz

More Stories

Photo of the Capitol Building at night

High stakes for politics, SCOTUS in 2018

01.04.2018
Photo of the crashed truck that was used in the October 31st attack in Manhattan.

Weaponizing Language: How the meaning of “allahu akbar” has been distorted

11.08.2017
Northeastern logo

Why I love studying Spanish

05.29.20
Uncategorized