story by Claire Miller
College of Education & Human Development Associate Professor Thomas Crisp has been named vice president/president-elect of the Children’s Literature Association, an international nonprofit organization that studies children’s literature.
Crisp, a faculty member in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, focuses his professional work on issues of justice and representation in children’s and young adult literature, media and culture. He is a recipient of the International Youth Library’s Research Fellowship, the International Literacy Association’s Elva Knight Research Grant and the International Research Society for Children’s Literature Research Grant. His professional writing can be found in several academic journals, including the Journal of Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature in Education, English Journal, Language Arts, The Journal of LGBT Youth, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly and International Research in Children’s Literature, among others. Crisp coordinates the CEHD’s annual Lecture on Diversity and Justice in Children’s Literature and is also an incoming co-editor of the Journal of Children’s Literature, the flagship children’s literature journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Crisp will spend a year as the Children’s Literature Association’s vice president/president-elect, then serve a year each as president and past-president, respectively.
“The Children’s Literature Association has been one of my professional homes over the last 15 years,” he said. “I am particularly committed to the organization’s stated aim to increase its diversity and inclusivity by helping advance the organization’s responses to equity and justice through youth literature.”
The Children’s Literature Association supports two peer-reviewed scholarly journals, hosts an annual conference, celebrates children’s literature that demonstrates high literary merit and recognizes exceptional scholarship in and service to the field of children’s literature. For more information, visit https://www.childlitassn.org.