Southport, CT - Join Pequot Library for a lively panel discussion over Zoom about the significance of youth fantasy literature with a panel featuring professors from Fairfield University and Pequot’s own librarians. From education to emotional development and morality, youth fantasy literature offers a variety of benefits to readers of all ages. This panel will illuminate the importance of this frequently overlooked genre, and is offered in conjunction with the exhibition "Magic, Mayhem and Maturity: The Growth of Youth Fantasy Literature".
Dr. Betsy A. Bowen is Professor of English and Faculty Chair of Community-Engaged Learning at Fairfield University where she teaches courses on rhetoric, literacy, and children’s literature. Her current research explores access to literacy among the last generation of Americans who were enslaved, using interviews collected by the Federal Writers’ Project. Some of that research is available on the “Reading Slavery, Writing Freedom” website. She was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as the 2010 Connecticut Professor of the Year.
Dr. Bryan Ripley Crandall is Director of the Connecticut Writing Project and Associate Professor in the School of Education and Human Development at Fairfield University where he teaches literacy, philosophy, and action research courses, and runs teacher leadership institutes and young adult literacy labs. His scholarship includes the teaching of writing in diverse, inclusive settings, young adult literature, and K-12 professional development. He is recipient of a Divergent Award for Excellence from the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research and an Elizabeth M. Pfriem Civic Leadership Award for his teacher and youth programming. Most recently, he is co-producer and co-host of The Write Time, a National Writing Project show that unites teachers with children’s and young adult authors.
This program is supported by the Connecticut Humanities.
To register please go to: https://www.pequotlibrary.org/event/the-intellectual-importance-of-youth-fantasy-literature/