Sophie R. Bell

Sophie Bell is a Professor at St. John’s University’s Institute for Core Studies. She studies rhetoric and composition, culturally sustaining pedagogies, literacy and education, American literatures, and race, ethnicity, and culture. Her first-year-writing classes focus on writing’s potential to build connections across social differences. Her 2021 book, Mapping Racial Literacies: College Students Write about Race and Segregation, explores how her students’ writing contributes to and reshapes contemporary understandings of how US and global citizens are thinking about race. She has published articles in Composition Forum, Journal of College Literacy and Learning, Studies in American Fiction, and Radical Teacher. She is active in faculty collaborations for equity-focused professional development. Finally, she is on the faculty advisory board for the new St. John’s online journal, Intersections: A Journal of First Year Writing.