Upcoming Events

June 13-15, 2013

Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference. Biloxi, MS

“Manifesto for a Comics-Children’s Literature Alliance” (as part of a panel titled “Taking a Risk: Manifestos for Children’s Literature,” which also features manifestos from Robin Bernstein, Marah Gubar, and Karin Westman).

June 24-26, 2013

Picture Books Symposium. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

“Perry and the Purple Crayon: A Nodelmanian Reading of Crockett Johnson’s Classic” (invited).

August 10-14, 2013

Biennial Conference of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature. Maastricht, Netherlands

“Whiteness, Nostalgia, and Fantastic Flying Books: The Disappearance of Race in William Joyce” (paper).

“Keywords for Children’s Literature: A Roundtable Discussion”: panel session co-chaired with Lissa Paul, and featuring Nina Alonso, Nina Christensen, Francesca Orestano, Emer O’Sullivan.

November 21-24, 2013

American Studies Association Annual Meeting. Washington, DC

“Laughing from the Left: Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby, and the Limits of Satire as a Means of Dissent” (paper).

PAST EVENTS

March 22, 2013

Washington University, St. Louis, MO

“Was the Cat in the Hat Black? Seuss and Race in the 1950s.”

March 18, 2013

College of Charleston, Charleston, SC

“Was the Cat in the Hat Black? Seuss and Race in the 1950s.”

November 16, 2012

American Studies Association Annual Meeting.  San Juan, Puerto Rico

“Getting a Race-Lift: Whitewashing, Marketing, and Resistance in Children’s Literature” (as part of a panel session titled “Black, White, or Other?: Reading Race, Constructing Childhood in American Popular Culture”).  10:00 am, Puerto Rico Convention Center, 101A.

October 27, 2012

Children’s Literary Salon, New York Public Library, New York, NY

“Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature.”  2 p.m., Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, South Court Auditorium.

September 29, 2012

Children’s Literature and the European Avant-Garde, Linköpings University, Norrköping, Sweden

“Surrealism for Children: Paradoxes and Possibilities” (invited talk).  2 pm.

September 15, 2012

Small Press Expo, Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, Bethesda, MD

“Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby and the American Clear Line School” (panelist), with Daniel Clowes, Mark Newgarden, and Chris Ware.  12 pm, White Flint Auditorium.

“Comics as Children’s Literature” (moderator). Panel features Renée French, Françoise Mouly, Mark Newgarden, and Brian Ralph.  5 pm, White Flint Auditorium.

August 24, 2012

Nordic Children’s Literature – A New Research Question?  Oslo, Norway

“Keywords for Children’s Literature: Mapping the Critical Moment” (keynote), with Lissa Paul.

June 14, 2012

Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference.  Boston, MA

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Color: Whitewashing, Race, and Resistance” (as part of a panel session, “Slipstreams of Race: Whiteness and Children’s Literature”).

March 26, 2012

Illinois State University, Normal, IL

“Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature.”  Lois Lenski Lecture.  7 p.m., 138 Schroeder Hall.  Free and open to the public.

March 23, 2012

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

“Harry Potter: A Cultural Biography.” 1:30 pm, 501 Cathedral of Learning.

January 7, 2012

Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA

“Not Genres, but Modes of Graphic Narrative: Comics and Picture Books” (as part of a panel session on “Why Comics Are and Are Not Picture Books”). 5:15 p.m., 303 Washington State Convention Center.

January 5, 2012

Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA

“Filling the Gaps: The Future of Keywords for Children’s Literature”: panel session co-chaired with Lissa Paul, and featuring Jack Zipes (on “Fairy Tale”), Karin Westman (on “Genre”), and Kelly Hager and Talia C. Schaffer (on “Family”).  1:45 p.m., 205 Washington State Convention Center.

November 11, 2011

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

“Accidental Experts: Strategy, Serendipity, and the Places You’ll Go,” with Karin Westman.  2:10-3:45 p.m. Buttrick Hall 309.

October 26, 2011

Cambridge Festival of Ideas, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

“Keywords for Children’s Literature,” with Lissa Paul.  (Lissa will be there, physically; I’ll be participating via Skype.)  5:00-7:30 pm GMT.  East Road, Lord Ashcroft Building, LAB 107.

October 23, 2011

American Studies Association, Baltimore, MD

“Re-Imagining America: Jeff Smith, Herman Melville, and American Dreamscapes,” co-presented with Jennifer A. Hughes (as part of a panel session on “Transforming Melville”), 8 a.m., Hilton Baltimore: Douglass.

July 5, 2011

International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

“Erasing Race to Keep Kids Safe?: The Ideological Effects of Bowdlerizing Children’s Literature” (second paper on panel session), 5 p.m., room Z306.

June 25, 2011

Children’s Literature Association Conference, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA

“Radical Children’s Literature Now!” (keynote), co-presented with Julia Mickenberg.  10 a.m., Babcock Auditorium, Dana.

November 20, 2010

American Studies Association, San Antonio, TX

“The Hope in the Joke: The Politics of Laughter in Dr. Seuss” (as part of a panel on “Laughing at Power: Subversive Humor in American Visual Culture”), 12:00 p.m., Grand Hyatt: Presidio C.

October 19, 2010

Young Harris College, Young Harris, GA

“Q&A,” 3:30 p.m., Wilson Lecture Hall.

“Harry Potter: A Cultural Biography,” 7 p.m., Wilson Lecture Hall.

October 11, 2010

Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI

“Dr. Seuss, American Icon: The Legacy of Theodor Seuss Geisel,” 7 p.m., Park Library Auditorium.

Older Invited Talks and Conference Papers are listed on my CV.