JT Torres directs the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington & Lee University. He earned a PhD in Educational Psychology from Washington State University and researches the relationship between literacy, identity, and learning. His co-authored book, How to Use Writing for Teaching and Learning, is informed by his research into the ways students write themselves into a disciplinary identity. Torres approaches literacy as an inclusive process, relying on culturally sustaining practices that frame reading and writing as acts of agency and social engagement, a point frequently made in his co-edited book, How to Incorporate Equity and Justice in Your Teaching. He also explored, in Situated Narratives and Sacred Dance, the ways oral literacy practices sustained the social memory of Arará communities in Cuba. He has two forthcoming books: one focused on assessment, Nonviolent Response: Strategies for Responding to Writing, and the other focused on interdependent instruction, Teaching, Learning, and Caring in Higher Education: How to Cultivate an Interdependent Classrooms.