Education

Ph.D. in English Studies, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, August, 2004. Emphasis in Children's Literature. Doctoral Dissertation: “Genre, Culture, and Children's Fiction,” directed by Dr. Roberta Trites, Professor of English

M.A. in English, Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State University), Springfield, Missouri, August 2000. Emphases in Children's Literature and Composition Studies. Master's Thesis: “Cornucopia: Food as Signifier in Literature for the Young,” directed by Dr. Linda Benson

B.A. in English, Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State University), Springfield, Missouri, December, 1997. Springfield, MO. Magna Cum Laude

Academic Experience

Associate Professor (2010-present); Assistant Professor, (2004-2010), Texas A&M-Commerce, Commerce, Texas

Graduate Courses

English 504: Picture Books, Graphic Narratives, and the Art of Illustration
English 506: Problems in Adolescent Literature
English 507: Oral Tradition and Modern Children’s Fantasy
English 508: Historical and Realistic Fiction for Children
English 525: Contemporary Literature (Law and (Dis)Order)
English 595: Research Lit/Techniques
- English 599: Bibliography and Methods of Research
- English 697: Millennial Convergences: The Business of Litblogging (special topics)
- English 697: Constructing the Cowboy in Culture, Literature, and the Classroom

Undergraduate Courses

English 102: Written Argument and Research
English 201: Introduction to Literature
English 202: Multi-Ethnic American Literature
English 300: Reading, Analyzing, and Teaching Literature
English 305: Children’s Literature (on-campus and on-line)
English 403: Discipline of English (on-line)
English 406: Adolescent Literature
English 486: The Hero in Ancient and Modern English Society (an interdisciplinary capstone course)
English 497:Transformations: From Children's Literature to Film (special topics)
CAS 310: Methods of Discovery

Teaching Assistant, Illinois State University, Department of English - 2000-2004

Teaching Assistant, Southwest Missouri, State University, Department of English, 1998-2000

Publications

Published:

Stewart, Susan Louise. “‘Be Afraid or Fried’: Cults and Young Adult Apocalyptic Narratives.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 36.3 (Fall 2011): 318-335.
—. “Shifting Worlds: Constructing the Subject, Narrative, and History in Historical Time Shifts.” Telling Children’s Stories: Narrative Theory and Children’s Literature. Ed. Mike Cadden. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2010. 231-250.
—. “David Almond’s Skellig: ‘A New Vista of Contemplation?’” Children’s Literature in Education 40 (2009): 306-319.
—. “In the Ellison Tradition: In/Visible Bodies in Adolescent and YA Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education 40 (2009): 180-196.
—. “Essential Conversations: Ideology, Irony, and The Giver.” English in Texas 39 (Spring/Summer 2009): 23-28.
—. “Beyond Borders: Reading ‘Other’ Places in Children’s Literature. Children’s Literature in Education (2008): 95-105.
—. “A Return to Normal: Lois Lowry's The Giver.” Lion and the Unicorn 31 (2007): 21-35.
Doyle, Chris and Susan Louise Stewart. “Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow: Orson Scott Card’s Postmodern School Stories.” Lion and the Unicorn 28 (2004): 186-202.

Forthcoming:

Stewart, Susan Louise. “1983: Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother.” Critical Insights: Dystopia. Ed. M. Keith Booker. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press (EBSCO), Sept. 2012.
—. “Dystopian Sacrifice, Scapegoats, and Neal Shusterman’s Unwind.” Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers. Ed. Balaka Basu, Katherine R. Broad, and Carrie Hintz. New York: Routledge, 2012-2013.

Reviews:

Stewart, Susan Louise. “Talking Animals in British Children's Fiction, 1786-1914.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 34 (2009): 79-82.
—. “The Outside Child, In and Out of the Book.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33 (2008): 325-326.
—. Carl Banks and the Disney Comic Book: Unmasking the Myth of Modernity, by Thomas Andrae. MELUS 32 (Fall 2007): 310-12.
—. “Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 31 (2006). 307-09.

Selected International and National Conferences:

“The Hardy Boys and the Case of the Criminal Cults. Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Boston, MA, June 2012.
“Preaching to the Choir: Political and Religious Divides in YA Literature.” Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Hollins/Roanoke, VA 2011
“Steampunk Pedagogy: Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.” Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor, MI, 2010
“The Religious Left? Revising Christian Traditions in Adolescent Literature.” Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Charlotte, NC, 2009
“Saved By Its Exceptional Men” and Women: Dwayne McDuffie’s Icon. Paper presented at the Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature, Nashville, April, 2009
“The Splitting Image: Images of Race in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese.” Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Normal, IL, June, 2008
“Splitting and Doubling: Images and Words in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” Paper presented at Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS) Conference. Columbus, Ohio. March, 2008
“Abjection and Invisibility in Robert Cormier's Fade.” Paper presented at the International Children's Literature Association Conference, Newport News, VA, June, 2007
“‘I Watch Myself Disappear in their Eyes’: Theorizing the Invisible Adolescent.” Paper presented at the Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature, Nashville, April, 2007
“Transforming the World: Social Realism and Virginia Hamilton’s The Planet of Junior Brown.” Paper presented at the International Children’s Literature Association Conference, Manhattan Beach, CA, June, 2006.
“‘Elsewhere’ is Here and Now: The Ideological Impetus in Lois Lowry's The Giver (A Return to Normal).” Paper presented at the Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Nashville, April, 2005.
“‘Seeing’ the World: Visual Challenges in Adolescent Fiction.” Paper presented at the Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Nashville, April, 2003.
“Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow: Orson Scott Card’s Post-Modern School Stories.” Co-presented with Christine Doyle. International Children's Literature Association Conference, Wilkes-Barre, PA. June, 2002.
“When Angels Drink Beer: Bridging Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism in David Almond's Skellig.” Paper presented at International Children's Literature Association Conference, Buffalo, NY. June 2001.
“Tea Parties, March Hares, Archaeology, Madness and Civilization: A Foucauldian Approach to Lewis Carroll’s Alice Books.” Paper presented at the Modern Critical Approaches to Children's Literature Conference, Nashville. April 2001.
“'Curiouser and curiouser!': The Significance of Food in Children's Literature.” Paper presented at International Children’s Literature Association Conference, Roanoke, VA, June 24, 2000.

Selected Regional Local Presentations

“Frolicking in Forgetfulness.” Paper presented at Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers, San Angelo, TX, Sept. 25-27, 2008.
"Blurred Borders: The Graphic Novel and Adolescent Literature." Paper Presented at Southwest/Texas Pop Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February, 2007.
“Layers of Silence and Religious Discourse: Donna Jo Napoli’s Song of the Magdalene.” Paper Presented at South Central MLA, Dallas, TX, October, 2006.
“Re-Presenting Mary and Rewriting History in Donna Jo Napoli’s Song of the Magdalene.” Paper Presented at the Federation Rhetoric Symposium, Denton, TX, Feb., 2006.
“Shifting Spaces in Historical Fiction: Performing Ideology and the Subject in Time Shifts.” South Central MLA 62^nd Annual Meeting, Houston, TX., Oct., 2005.

Graduate Student Advising

Dissertation Director for:

Akens, Jonne. Mastering the Signifier: Whiteness Recast in Young Adult Literature. Spring, 2011.
Ferrier-Watson, Sean. Beginning dissertation process.

M.A. Director for:

Phifer, Anne. In Process, proposal stage.
Sutherland, Stephanie. “Child’s Play: Blood-Stained Stories in Children’s Literature.” Summer, 2011.
Preston, Mark. “Propaganda (And So Can You)” Spring, 2011.
Yeager, Kimberly. “Dauntless DG and Astonishing Alice: A Feminist and Evolutionist Glance at SyFy’s Tin Man, 2007 and Alice, 2009.” Spring, 2010.
Presley, Robin. “Real Time Fairy Tales: Assembling Subjectivity.” Spring, 2010.
Elliott, Kelly. “Fleeting Beauty is Painful: Film Representations of ‘Snow White’ and Dorothy of Oz.” Spring 2010.
Jones, Debbie. “Abandonment: Until Death Do Us Part.” Summer, 2010.
Croft, Mary K. “Morgan Llywelyn’s Irish Heroes and Heroines; Children’s Historical Fiction as a Postcolonial Revision of Ireland.” Spring, 2010.
Kennedy, Angela. Transmedia Narratives: Decoding the Delineation in Adolescent Literature, Summer, 2010.
Millar, Pamela. “Entering Dreamland: Traversing the Liminal Spaces in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Neverwhere.” Spring, 2010.
Jordana Hall, “Deconstructing Harry: Sighting and Subverting the White Wizard in Harry Potter." Graduated Spring, 2009.
Pirkle, Michelle. “No Place Like Home? Image and Power in and out of Coraline’s Liminal World. Fall, 2009.
Barbara McGill, “Different, Just Like Everybody Else: The Myth of the Individual in Literature for Young Readers. ” Spring, 2008).
Mizell, Beth. “A Green Movement: Shifting Ideology in the Adaptation of Curious George.” Summer, 2008.
Andrea Nicole Miller, “More than ‘Interesting Dead Things’: The Reanimation of the Oral Tradition through Narrative Subversion and Visual Narrative Performance (Graduated Summer, 2007).

Ph.D. Committee Member for:

Reed, Lisa. “Childhood Memoir’s Coming of Age.” Spring, 2011.
Shires, Wilma. Narrative Constructions of Fleur Pillager: Borderlands Feminism in Louise Erdrich’s Novels. Spring, 2010
Moore, Bridget. The Black Man’s Search for Acceptance in America as Dramatized in No Place to Be Somebody, A Soldier’s Play and Topdog/Underdog. Summer, 2009.
Pirkle, Michelle. Preparing for exams
Brown, Marsha. (focusing on immigrant literature). In process.
King, Lola (“An Analysis of Student’s Perceived Level of Satisfaction Relative to Student Demographics and Campus Location at Trinity Valley Community College”). In process.

MFA (Terminal Degree) Committee Member For:

Ward, Bill. Common Ground for Religion Using the Language of Business. Graduated Fall, 2010.

M.A. Committee Member for:

Van Voris, Brendan. Draft of thesis
Swint, Jarrod. In process (proposal stage)
Cantrell, Rachell. In process (proposal stage)
Mead, Katy. In process (proposal stage)
Tasia Barrett Willhite. “The Testing Effect in Text Material: Examining Differences
Between Expository and Narrative Text.” Spring 2011
Choate, Yasminda. Untitled (focusing on Nella Larsen). Spring, 2011.
Thomas Fennimore (focusing on the “orphan trains” as depicted in children’s literature), Spring, 2009.
Daniel Ragusa (focusing on Slaughterhouse Five). Fall, 2007.
Kasey Thomas (focusing on representations of the treatment of animals in late 19th and early 20th century literature). Fall, 2007.

Honors Theses Director:

Joanna Firth. In process.
Kayla Morgan. Completed Spring, 2011

Honors and Awards

Paul W. Barrus Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, Texas A&M University-Commerce, April 2007
Winner, Clarence W. Sorensen Distinguished Dissertation Award (a university-wide award), Illinois State University, for 2004 (awarded in 2005).
Taimi Maria Ranta Children's and Young Adult Literature Scholarship, Illinois State University
Illinois State Foundation Fellowship for Graduate Students
Robert H. Hennigan Graduate Student Award, Southwest Missouri State University

Service

Professional

Article Award Committee, Children's Literature Assocation, 2010, 2011
Outside Reviewer for Yvonne Hammer, “Mythic Structure in Contemporary Children’s Fiction: Refunctioning Heroic Subjectivity in Contemporary Quest Novels.” Macquarie University, AustraliaPublicity Committee, Children’s Literature Association, 2007
Chair, Children’s Literature Section, South Central MLA, November, 2007
Secretary, Children’s Literature Section, South Central MLA, 2006
Judge, Children’s Literature Association 2006 Carol Gay Award for outstanding papers on children’s literature by an undergraduate student, 2006, 2010
Chair, “Disturbing the Universe,” Children’s Literature Association Conference, June 2006, Manhattan Beach, California
Referee for English Journal
Reviewer for Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
Reviewer for Children’s Literature in Education
Reviewer for PMLA
Reviewed proposal, preface, and chapter of An Introduction to Close Reading, (Prentice-Hall) (2005)
Reviewed: Foresman, Scott. SF Writer, 3^rd ed. (2005)

University Service

Quality Management Training (Pilot for university). 1 of 2 courses completed; the last course will be completed by the end of the year.
TERAC Committee, 2010-Present
University Studies Council, 2010-Present
UIL Literary Criticism Director, 2009-Present
University Faculty Awards Committee, 2005-2007
Mayo Convocation Committee, 2005
UIL Ready Writing Director, 2005-2008

Departmental Service

Schedule Classes
Assessment/WEAVE Committee (Fall 2011)
Hiring Committee Chair (Fall 2011) Graduate Admissions Committee Chair, 2010-2011
Scholarship Committee, 2010
Literature Committee, 2010
Co-Director, Studies in Children’s and Adolescent Literature and Culture
Sponsor for English Graduate Students for Academic Development, 2009 to present
Children’s Literature (Area Committee), 2008, 2009
Public Relations Committee (Standing Committee), 2007-2009
Graduate Committee (Standing Committee), 2006-2008
Ad hoc committee for a graduate certificate in children’s and adolescent literature and culture, 2007-2008
WEAVE Goals Revision/Course Inventory, English Ph.D. (ad hoc), 2008
Professional Development Committee, 2006
Search Committee for Department Head, 2006
Student Development Committee, 2004-2006
Chair, TExES/TOP/THEA Committee, 2005-2006
TExES/TOPT/THEA Committee, 2004-2005
Faculty Sponsor, EGAD
Faculty Sponsor, Alpha Lambda Delta

Professional Affiliations

Children's Literature International Association