Kahdeidra Monét Martin, Assistant Professor of Education, was selected by the Literacy Research Association as a 2024–2025 STAR (Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions) Fellow. Kahdeidra’s research, which explores strategies for culturally sustaining literacy instruction, uses qualitative and community-participatory methods to examine raciolinguistics and the co-naturalization of language, race, and spirituality in the lives of African descendant people globally.

The STAR program, a “selective mentoring program for scholars of color who are beginning their careers as literacy researchers,” brings eight scholars of color together in a cohort model and matches them with senior scholars of color in the literacy field. Across two years, STAR facilitates mentoring and research sessions at two annual conferences, where Fellows present at a showcase, as well as a writing retreat.

Kahdeidra uses her lived experience, narrative inquiry, interviews, focus groups, and participatory community-based methods to examine linguistic variation, discourses of deviance, and the intersectional experiences of underrepresented groups in education research—namely Black youth in elite, independent schools and Black youth who are members of Africana religious systems. Her research explores strategies for culturally sustaining literacy instruction and interrogates notions of belonging and ethnicity within diasporic Black communities.

The STAR program is a selective mentoring program for early career literacy researchers, with overall goals to:

• Help instill a strong professional stance of research and service as newly minted scholars of color.
• Increase the STAR recipient's knowledge of LRA's organizational rich history and traditions.
• Inspire STAR scholars to continue the legacy of scholarship, leadership, and service.
• Increase the pool of viable scholars of color in the field of literacy who have been mentored by our organization.