The Martha L. King Center for Language and Literacies
Dialogue. Research. Community.
Director notes
Welcome to the new webpage for the Martha L. King Center for Language and Literacies. The need for scholarship, new inquiry and multiple perspectives has never been more urgent in the field of language and literacies studies. As we envision current and future opportunities to experience and study stories, nuanced and rich language legacies and interactive meaning-making in classrooms and communities, we invite your voices in our MKCLL space. Join us in meeting this moment of possibility for research, dialogue and renewed literacy and language education.
Pat Enciso, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Teaching and Learning
About
An Academic Research Center of Excellence in the Study of Language and Literacies
The Martha L. King Center Language and Literacies provides a forum for dialogue across diverse communities about the study of language and literacies. We are particularly committed to disrupting simplistic understandings of literacies. We accept the notion that being literate means one reads and writes both the word and the world. Join us for conversation on literacies at work across the life cycle and in various contexts.
Our Mission
Martha L. King Center Language and Literacies provides a forum for dialogue across diverse communities about the study of language and literacies. We are particularly committed to disrupting simplistic understandings of literacies. We accept the notion that being literate means one reads and writes both the word and the world. Join us for conversation on literacies at work across the life cycle and in various contexts.
Upcoming Events
Summer 2026 Literacy and Language Graduate Courses
EDUTL 7420 – Teaching Literature for Engagement and Equity (3 credits)
June 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19 from 9-3 p.m.
Dr. Patricia Enciso
K-12 educators and graduate students - Learn active engagement practices while reading and deepening our understanding of diverse literature.
TLECTE 7429 Reading Complex Texts (3 credits)
June 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 from 9-3 p.m.
Dr. Brian Edmiston
K-12 educators and graduate students – analyze complex texts through interactive and critical practices to support students’ expanded and embodied comprehension.
What We Do
Affiliate Faculty Updates
Affiliate faculty conduct nationally and internationally recognized research that challenges narrow definitions of literacy and expands understanding of how language and literacies shape identity, learning, and participation across contexts.
Graduate Research Talks
Graduate students share works in progress, dissertation research, and emerging scholarship in a collaborative intellectual community.
Scholarship
The Martha L. King Center Endowed Fund, is provided by a gift from Martha L. King (Ph.D., 1957) in recognition of her long and distinguished career as a professor in the College of Education, to support the activities of the Martha L. King Center in the College of Education.
Affiliate Faculty
Our History
The Martha L. King Center for Language and Literacies began in the late 1960s as an innovative space for rethinking how language, reading, and literature are taught and studied. Faculty leaders, including Martha L. King and Charlotte Huck, secured federal support for research and teacher education initiatives that emphasized language development and children’s literature.
A Reading Center was established in Ramseyer Hall, creating a gathering space for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars. These early initiatives shaped a nationally recognized graduate program in reading and language arts.
Named in honor of Martha L. King’s influential scholarship and leadership, the Center continues its legacy of interdisciplinary dialogue, research excellence, and engagement with schools and communities.
Martha L. King Bio
Dr. King's career in education began in 1938 as an elementary classroom teacher in Athens and Perry County Public Schools (Ohio). She earned her Ph.D. and B.S. from the Ohio State University, and her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. She also did post doctorate work at the University of California at Berkeley. When she joined the Elementary Education faculty at Ohio State in 1959, she already had over 20 years experience as a teacher and supervisor in the public schools. In her stellar career, Dr. King provided leadership at the university level, was a supervisor and curriculum consultant for Franklin County (Ohio) Schools, and was a supervising-critic teacher at Ohio University.
Dr. King is well known for her many scholarly publications. Informal education, those classrooms with their thoughtful weave of theory visible to the trained eye, held the interest of both the researcher and the teacher in King. It can be argued that some of her most compelling pieces of writing were her descriptions of informal classrooms.
She was recognized as a recipient of the highest award of the National Council for Research in the Teaching of English and was honored in 1992 as a recipient of the Hall of Fame award from the International Reading Association. The Martha L. King Center for Language and Literacies was so named upon Dr. King's retirement from the University.
Dr. Martha L. King, received the College's most prestigious award during a ceremony in Columbus on November 6th, 1992. Dr. King was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame, which is the highest award that the College can bestow. Award winners, alumni or faculty of the college, must have made significant contribution to education as "models" for all others in the field. Dr. King's induction recognized her influence on the entire field of language and literacies education.
In the 1970s, Dr. King and Dr. Charlotte Huck were responsible for initiation of an innovative teacher education program (Educational Programs in Informal Classrooms - EPIC), which was recognized as a model for excellence in teacher education and is still being used.
Dr. King died on Friday, March 26, 2007, on her 89th birthday. Her inspiration continues through the work of the Martha King Center and her students.