My first book was published in February. For an academic, this is an entirely normal event: to progress in most humanities fields, you need a book. But it’s also a big deal. I started the book in 2008, as my doctoral dissertation, and it was a big part of my life for a long time.
This weekend I’ll be traveling in Jimmy Buffet’s footsteps, and will find myself down around Biloxi for the Children’s Literature Association conference. I’m presenting another section of the project I’ve been working on, about psychology, pedagogy, and literature in the nineteenth century. I’ve been thinking mostly about fact-based learning and prior knowledge, and that’s that
Having just completed a complete draft of my dissertation, I’ve been thinking lately about its scope, and about avenues of inquiry that might lead away from my study of the narrative forms of moral tales. My main focus is on the intersection of children’s literature and the novel in the nineteenth century (you can read