Introductions to 2018-2019 Academic Year

Greetings to all readers and interested folks!

Thank you for waiting patiently, but it is time for the new NCSCL academic year to kick off! Already this year, we have had a lecture from our very own Joseph T. Thomas Jr. entitled “A Long Talk on Shel Silverstein’s Short Plays.” If you were unable to make it to this event, or if you would like to see it again, we have uploaded a recording onto YouTube. Simply click here.

This academic year brings lots of potential, therefore our goal is to discuss news and upcoming materials that might be of interest to those of us in the fields of children’s and young adult literature. We also hope to give you a glimpse into the endeavors and projects taking place at SDSU. To receive regular updates, be sure to follow all our social media platforms! Please like a post, leave us a comment, or ask us questions about anything. We would love to hear from everyone!

Twitter: NCSChildLit
Instagram: ncschildlit
Facebook: @NCSCL (National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, at SDSU)
YouTube: National Center for the Study of ChLit

We are so excited for what this academic year will bring, and we hope you are ready to join us on this year’s journey. Be on the lookout for more blogs and posts on all our platforms for what is to come!

-A. Elliott

Welcoming the New Graduate Assistants

Alexander Elliott

Hi everyone!! My name is Alexander and I am currently in my second year of my MA degree in English and Comparative Literature at SDSU. Although I am technically specializing in American Literature, I have been able to really focus on my preferred area of literature: young adult literature. I am mostly interested in young adult literature that discusses various identities and provides a diverse, intersectional discussion of adolescence—while complicating the genre itself. The areas of interest that have come up for me are LGBTQ+ narratives, queer studies (time/space, geographies, and ecology), and cultural/ethnic representations of Latinx individuals in YA literature.

I read many books as a young child, but my interest in the field stems from having picked up a book in the first grade that dealt with loss, grief, and relationships. It is no surprise that I continued on the reading trajectory that I did. Thankfully, SDSU has provided me with the guidance to incorporate this personal interest into my academic studies. My current research has been focused on adolescent cultures of various kinds. I will be presenting at the Literature/Film Association Conference later this year in New Orleans on Were the World Mine, then at the International Girl Studies Association Conference next year on Anna Marie-McLemore’s When the Moon Was Ours. These two opportunities are perfect examples of my interest in film/media and literature that deals with intersectional topics.

I am so thankful to join the team here at the NCSCL! I hope to learn more about YA literature, but finally delve into children’s literature more closely; so, if there are any recommendations as to where I should start, please let me know!

Kiedra Taylor

Greetings fellow humanists! My name is Kiedra Taylor, and I’m a second-year English graduate student specializing in Children’s Literature. While I’m interested in the critical histories and conditions of young adolescent (YA) and children’s literature, I’m also interested in the possibilities of the genres. YA and Children’s literature have the potential to assist its readers with identity formation; it also has the potential to foster empathy and compassion for others through story lines that encourage critical thinking and self-reflection. So far, my focus is discovering how the genres offer readers the opportunity to practice independent critical thinking.

I recall reading Toni Morrison’s coming-of-age novel, The Bluest Eye, at a young age and feeling confused afterwards. Even as an adult, I don’t fully understand the nature of the impact that the novel had on me, but I do recall times in my life where I recollected a particular character or moment in the novel and those thoughts somehow informed how I felt about whatever was happening at the time. I wish my younger self had thought to ask someone for more novels like this one, novels where I had a choice which of characters whom I could identify with, novels where someone whom I could identify with was not in the margins. Now that I’m a mother of four children and grandmother of one, I’m particularly interested in how YA and children’s texts can help readers, especially children to make sense of this complicated world of ours.

I hope that my graduate research and internship with the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature will allow me to enter into and contribute to a fairly new yet learned conversation about young adolescent and children’s literature. I am humbled by the fact that I am brand new to this field of study, so I have every intention of listening to and considering the suggestions, guidance, and expertise of all of you in the field.  In that same vein, I hope to be heard since I have years of experiences and observations that will allow me develop a voice of my own.