Dr. Travis L. Seay

Biography

Dr. Travis L. Seay, Assistant Professor of Social Studies and History Education, teaches in the Bachelor of Science (BSED) and Master of Science (MSED) programs. He works with historians and other scholars, education administrators, and area schools to help prepare the next generation of social studies educators.

As a student and teacher of history, Seay’s interests focus on social movements, including the history of youth activism in the United States during the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is especially interested in ideological/cultural processes of political expression and social contestation during this period. These interests inform his research in the field of social studies education, especially history education. In particular, Seay (pronounced as "see") uses the research literature to conceptualize dynamics of historical narration and counter narration through raced and gendered lenses and interrogates these aspects of sociopolitical knowledge in light of data on student/teacher interactions, teacher and student interviews, curriculum content, and historical context.

As a teacher educator, Dr. Seay works with student teachers and in-service teachers to address key elements of critical pedagogy, historical thinking, and curricular decision making. These elements include classroom management, developing dialogue on enduring social issues, grappling with race and other hard topics in history, and laboring to develop broad social perspectives with students across diverse schools.

An alumnus of Missouri State University (MA, History, ’06), Seay previously taught high school and middle school social studies in rural Florida and urban New York. His teaching career began in 1998, shortly after graduation from Florida State University. He received his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Florida in 2019.

Details

Education

• PhD, University of Florida
• MA, Missouri State University
• BS, Florida State University

Professional experience

Selected publications

• Seay, T. L. & Washington E. Y. (forthcoming). Toward a Pedagogy of Dialogue for Teaching About Social Issues Online. In R. Evans (Ed.), Handbook on teaching social issues.
• Seay, T. L. (2020). What Does Whiteness Have to do with Teaching History? Toward Racial Historical Consciousness in History Teacher Education. In A. Hawkman & S. Shear (Eds.), Marking the invisible: Articulating whiteness in social studies education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• Seay, T.L. (2019). Review of the book Resegregation as curriculum: The meaning of the new racial segregation in U.S. public schools, by Jerry Rosiek and Kathy Kinslow. Journal of Social Studies Research.

Additional resources

• Curriculum Vitae