DeeDee Abbott

Deedee holds a Ph.D. in literary studies from Georgia State University, where she also earned her master of arts in teaching. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Tennessee. Her doctoral research explored the entwined dominations of nature, women, and marginalized communities under patriarchal systems—scholarship that deepened her commitment to helping young people locate their voice, agency, and place in the world. She is also becoming certified in Orton-Gillingham to better support students who benefit from structured, multisensory literacy instruction.

Deedee’s career has been shaped by her ability to design creative, inclusive courses that bring the world into the classroom. While teaching in Atlanta Public Schools, she created Passport, a humanities curriculum in which students “traveled” the United States and abroad through fiction and nonfiction texts. Many of her students had never left the southeastern United States and did not yet see themselves as readers; through shared and independent reading, read-alouds, and small-group work, they began to experience literature as a doorway into identity, justice, history, and belonging. Watching her students discover themselves in the stories of others ultimately became the most meaningful part of her work.

Beyond her school roles, Deedee has continued to extend her teaching life into the community. She volunteers with Stand Up for Kids, supporting housing-insecure high school students, and serves as a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Atlanta. Most recently, she has joined Global Village Project—the nation’s only middle school for refugee girls—as a classroom volunteer in social studies, music, and reading. Her practice is enriched by her involvement in the Appalachian Studies community, where she embraces the field’s blend of activism, scholarship, and care for place.

When she is not teaching or volunteering, Deedee can be found reading, writing, practicing watercolor, spending time with her family, or cheering—somewhat self-effacingly—through another optimistic game of pickleball. Despite decades in Atlanta, she remains unmistakably East Tennessean at heart.