UNCP alumna and REACH fellow, Ashley Benoit, and her faculty mentor, Dr. Joseph Sweet, presented their research at the National Council for Teachers of English Annual Convention 2022 in Anaheim, CA. Their presentation, entitled “A Critical Analysis of Whiteness in To Kill A Mockingbird: Exploring Rural-Serving In-Service ELA Teachers’ Engagement with Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy,” considered how canonical texts could be taught through a more culturally sustaining lens. In this presentation, Ms. Benoit and Dr. Sweet discussed research they conducted with current high school teachers regarding how the teachers could bring critical, anti-racist, and abolitionist perspectives when teaching canonical texts.