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Toby Emert

Gordon (Toby) Emert Jr.

Annie Louise Harrison Waterman Professor of Theatre and co-chair, Department of Creative Arts

Phone: 404.471.6897
Email: temert@c178.net
Office Location: Dana 114

Academic Degrees

  • BA, Longwood College
  • MEd, The College of William and Mary
  • MA, University of Tennessee
  • PhD, University of Virginia

Teaching and Scholarly Interests

Dr. Emert's interests include applied theatre, theatre for youth, digital narrative/storytelling, children's and young adult literature, and LGBTQ+ issues.

Professional Activities

  • Co-editor, English Journal, flagship journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)  (2018-2023)

Recent Grant-funded Projects:

  •  National Endowment for the Arts Research in the Arts Grant, "Using Theatre to Teach Young Learners about Economics and Finances" (2023)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, "Shakespeare and Digital Storytelling Summer Institute for High School English Teachers" (2021 and 2022)

Recent Scholarship:

Journal Articles:
  • Emert, Toby. "Exploring Heterosexism through Participatory Theater: An Experiment." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 66 (5) (2023): 290-300.
  • Emert, Toby, and Young, Craig. "Pushing the LGBTQ+ Conversation Forward: An Interview with Roxanne Henkin." English Journal 110 (1) (2020): 87-91.
  • Emert, Toby. “’Refugee Youth, Digital Storytelling, and Academic Confidence." European Journal of Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language 8 (1) (2019): 61-81.
Book Chapters:
  • Emert, Toby. “The Transpoemation Project: Poetry, Heterosexism, and Digital-age Storytelling.”  In Arts Integration and Young Adult Literature: Strategies to Enhance Academic Skills and Student Voice.. Ed. Rebecca Maldonado. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
  • Emert, Toby. “Visualizing Hope: Digital Storytelling with Refugee-background Children.” In Humanizing Grief in Higher Education: Narratives of Allyship and Hope. Eds. Stephanie Anne Shelton and Nicole Sieben. Routledge, 2021.
  • Emert, Toby. “Dadaism, Found Poetry, and Close Reading in the ELA Classroom.” In A Symphony of Possibilities: A Handbook for Arts Integration in Secondary English Language Arts. Eds. Kathie Macro and Michelle Zoss. National Council of Teachers of English, 2019: 51-64.
  • Emert, Toby. “Puncturing the Silence: Teaching The Laramie Project in the Secondary English Classroom.” In Teaching, Affirming, and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework. Ed. sj Miller. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016: 249-261. (Book won the 2017 American Educational Research Association Division K Exemplary Research Award and Michigan Council of Teachers of English 2018 Outstanding Book Award)

Web Links

Toby Emert's personal website

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