My article, “Obamafiction for Children: Imagining the Forty-Fourth U.S. President,” is now available on-line in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly‘s current issue (35.4, Winter 2010). Â To give you a sense of its thesis, here’s a brief excerpt from early in the piece: To examine how these Obama biographies attempt to fit him into dominant national
Not That Kind of Doctor‘s delightful post on “The Five Stages of Grading” prompts me to share my own grading method: Procrastigrading. Â While the word is a portmanteau of “procrastinating” and “grading,” I do not mean “put off grading indefinitely.” Â Instead, give yourself a one-week deadline for each assignment (quizzes, exams, papers, anything), and begin
Lissa Paul talks about our new book, Keywords for Children’s Literature, forthcoming from NYU Press in the Spring of 2011. Â I say “our” new book, but we are merely the editors. Â We did each contribute an essay of our own (Lissa wrote on “Literacy,” I wrote on “Postmodernism”), but other experts wrote the other 47
Inspired by a tweet and then a blog post from Natalia Cecire, this mix is intended for those of you on the academic job-market — but I hope it provides some encouragement for anyone out there looking for work. 1)Â Respect ARETHA FRANKLIN (1967) If this isn’t the greatest cover song of all time, I don’t
Sometimes, a new course draws on my expertise. Other times, a new course is a chance for me to develop that expertise. This class — “Censoring Children’s Literature” — is definitely the latter. I have an interest in the subject, and I’ve tried to structure the syllabus around major issues concerning the regulation of what
With the fall term imminent (starts Monday), I’m posting a link to the latest iteration of my English 545: Literature for Adolescents. My goal is always “diversity” in many senses of that word.  We read books by writers of different backgrounds (African-American, Iranian, Chinese-American, Latino, Caucasian), genders, sexualities, classes — which are probably the categories most
Graduate schools don’t teach you how to get your book published. This blog post does.
Would you like to stop abusing PowerPoint? Good. This blog post can help.
Different kinds of scholars, different kinds of scholarship. But many paths to success in academia.
How a failed book proposal launched a career. Mine. Viva failure!
