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RESEARCH OVERVIEW

 

In my research, I use my training as a scholar of literature in two ways: one is that I use my training in literary analysis to guide my teaching and research into STEM education by exploring how fiction can be used for specific purposes, such as establishing principles of narrative for game designers or engendering ethical reflection for AI developers. Additionally, I research and write about children's and young adult literature. My work there focuses on issues of gender and issues of technology, as well as combinations of these two areas. 

 

My work below is therefore represented in two sections, one for pedagogy and one for literary analysis. For more information, refer to my full curriculum vitae.

LITERARY ANALYSIS

 

My literary focus is children's and young adult fiction, with particular emphasis on how issues of gender impact upon and resonate within fiction. My articles and chapters below indicate this interest, and a manuscript project that is in its early stages engages with ideas about gender, fairy tale tropes, and the complicated relationship between magic and technology.

 

SELECTED RECENT ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS

  • “The Fairy Race: Artemis Fowl and Hierarchies of Race and Gender.” Race in YA Dystopian and Speculative Fiction. Eds. Meghan Gilbert-Hickey and Miranda Green-Barteet. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, in press.

  • “Stunted Growth: Dwarfs and the Rejection of Sexuality in the Artemis Fowl Series.” Tracing the Footsteps of Dwarfs: Images, Concepts, and Representations in Popular Culture. Eds. Feryal Cubukcu and Sabine Planka. Würzburg, Germany: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. 107-120.

  • “The Metamorphosis of Katniss Everdeen: The Hunger Games, Myth, and Femininity.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 2 (Summer 2015): pp. 161-178. DOI: 10.1353/chq.2015.0020

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RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • “Dress as Fairy Gold: The Danger of Fairy Tale Tropes in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.” Young Adult Studies Association first biennial conference. Online. 2020.

  • Roundtable participant, “Fashion, Femininity, and Fairy Tales.” Young Adult Studies Association first biennial conference. Online. 2020.

PEDAGOGICAL WORK

 

Using a combination of the subfield of the Medical Humanities and the Language for Specific Purposes approach as inspiration and models, I develop strategies for teaching STEM concerns using fiction as a means for addressing specific purposes. My articles below offer some theoretical justification for this approach as well as some specific activities or approaches to enhance university education. My most recent conference participation shows additional current research along these lines.

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SELECTED RECENT ARTICLES

  • “Literature for Specific Purposes: A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology.” Configurations, 26 (Summer 2018): pp. 337-343. DOI: 10.1353/con.2018.0030​

  • “Inviting Twenty-First-Century Students to the Eighteenth-Century Party.” Aphra Behn Online: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830, vol. 3, no. 1 (April 2013).

  • “In Defense of Graphic Novels.” English Journal, vol. 102, no. 2 (November 2012): pp. 57-63. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23365398

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RECENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Co-presented with Emma Frisk. "One Book, One Chalmers: Extending Classroom Conversations." Chalmers KUL (konferens om undervisning och lärande / Conference on Teaching and Learning) Göteborg, Sweden. 2020.

  • ”Literature-Generated Empathy to Teach 'Green' Engineering Ethics.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark. 2018.

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