Michelle Abate

Michelle Abate

Michelle Abate

Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology, Associate Professor

abate.30@osu.edu

229A Ramsayer Hall

Areas of Expertise

  • Cultural Studies and American Studies
  • LGBTQ Studies
  • Women’s Studies and Gender Studies
  • U.S. Literature and Culture
  • Childhood Studies
  • Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Education

  • Certificate in Women’s Studies
  • 2001 M.Phil in English, Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (New York, New York)
  • 1997 B.A.in English, Canisius College (Buffalo, New York)
  • 2004 Ph.D. in English, Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (New York, New York)

Michelle Ann Abate is Associate Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults.  

She is the author of three books of literary criticism: Bloody Murder: The Homicide Tradition in Children's Literature (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), Raising Your Kids Right: Children’s Literature and American Political Conservatism (Rutgers University Press, 2010), and Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History (Temple University Press, 2008).   Michelle is also the co-editor of three books of critical essays:  C. S. Lewis:  The Chronicles of Narnia Casebook, with Lance Weldy (Palgrave, 2012);Global Perspectives on Tarzan: From King of the Jungle to International Icon, with Annette Wannamaker (Routledge, 2011), Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature, with Kenneth B. Kidd (University of Michigan Press, 2010).

In addition, Michelle has published critical essays on a wide range of topics, includingThe Muppet ShowAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, Louisa May Alcott, Caddie Woodlawn, Where the Wild Things Are, Mark Twain, “Snow White,” the Left Behind novels for kids, and the genres of lesbian pulp fiction and young adult novels.

In recent years, Michelle's work has been discussed in The Boston Globe, she has been a featured guest on NPR's The Colin McEnroe Show, and she has written an invited opinion piece for The New York Times about current trends in young adult fiction.  Michelle's book Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History was a finalist for the national Lambda Literary Awards in the category of LGBTQ Studies.

Experience

  • 2010 – 2013 Associate Professor of English, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.
    • Faculty Member in the M.A./M.F.A. Program in Children’s Literature
    • Affiliated Faculty with Gender and Women’s Studies Program
  • 2004 – 2010Assistant Professor of English, Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia.
  • 2011 – 2013 Editor, Children’s Literature, annual of the Modern Language Association and the Children’s Literature Association, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • 2013 Application Reviewer, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grants. 
  • 2012 – 2014 Editorial Board, invited member, The Journal of Lesbian Studies (Taylor & Francis Publishers: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/WJLS ).
  • 2011 Guest Editor and Introduction, The Journal of Lesbian Studies, special issue on tomboys and tomboyism.  15.4  (2011). 
  • 2010 – 2013 Executive Board, Elected Position, Children’s Literature Association (ChLA)
  • 2010 Guest Editor and Introduction, The Lion and the Unicorn, special themed issue on L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of  Green Gables 34.2  (April 2010). 
  • 2008 – 2010 Co-Editor, Children’s Literature, annual of the Modern Language Association and the Children’s Literature Association, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • 2004 – 2008 Assistant Editor, Children’s Literature, annual of the Modern Language Association And the Children’s Literature Association, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • 2006 – 2010 Editor, Emerging Scholars and New Voices section, The Looking Glass:  NewPerspectives on Children’s Literature, an independent electronic journal founded in 1997 by the Toronto Centre for the Study of Children's Literature (TCSCL), then housed at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, now at York University. http://www.the-looking-glass.net/

Honors

  • 2009 Herta Freitag Faculty Legacy Award, Hollins University.

Grants

  • 2010 Cabell Grant (competitive monetary award given to support sabbatical travel and research), Hollins University.
  • 2009 Faculty Research Grant, Children’s Literature Association (ChLA)
  • 2005 – 2011 Faculty Travel and Research Grant, Hollins University.

Presentations

  • [2014 “The American Urban Jungle:  Tarzan of the Apes and Chicago,” Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention, Chicago, IL.  Panel title:  Deliver Us from Normal—Children’s Literature and the Midwest.  January 9th – 12th, 2014.] 
  • 2013 “A Womb with a Political View:  Barbara Park’s MA! There’s Nothing to Do Here!, Prenatal Parenting and the Battle over Personhood.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  The University of Southern Mississippi.  Biloxi, MS.  June 13th – 15th, 2013. 
  • 2012 “The Big Smallness:  Niche Market Picture Books and the New Children’s Literature.” Annual Conference of The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).  Conference theme:  Beyond the Book.  Roehampton University.  London, England.  November 10th, 2012.
  • 2012 “No Kids Allowed:  The Littlest Bitch, Go the F**k to Sleep, and Misopedia.” Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  Simmons College, Boston, MA  June 14th – 16th, 2012.
  • 2011 “ ‘The Tricky Reverse Narration That Impels Our Entwined Stories’:  Queer Temporalities in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.”  International Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels.  Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.  November 10th – 12th, 2011.
  • 2011 “ ‘A Grand Amount of Fagginess’:  The Faggiest Vampire, Bizarro Fiction for Children, and the De-Homosexualization of LGBTQ Terminology.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.  June 23rd – 25th, 2011.
  • 2010 “Old Father, Old Artificer’:  Time, Memory, and Aging in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.” Modern Language Association Conference (MLA).  Panel Session: “Graphic Aging.”  Co-Sponsored by the Age Studies and Comics and Graphics Novels Discussion Groups.  Los Angeles, CA.  January 6th – 9th, 2011.
  • 2010 “ ‘Making Mischief of One Kind or Another’:  Turning Literary Rebellion into Filmic Reminiscence in Where the Wild Things Are.”  Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association Conference (MAPACA).  Alexandria, VA,  October 28th – 30th, 2010.
  • 2010 Session Chair and Panel Chair, “Writing a Biography of a Children’s Author:  Projects, Processes, and Problems.” Panelists:  Philip Nel (Kansas State University) on Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss; June Cummins (San Diego State University)on Sydney Taylor;  Michael Patrick Hearn (Simmons College) on L. Frank Baum. Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI.  June 10th – 12th, 2010.
  • 2010 “Plastic Makes Perfect:  My Beautiful Mommy, Cosmetic Surgery, and the Medicalization of Motherhood.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI.  June 10th – 12th, 2010.
  • 2009 Session Chair and Panel Organizer:  “When Girls Will Be Boys:  Tomboyism in Children’s Literature and Childhood Culture,” Mid-Atlantic Popular / American Culture Association Annual Conference (MAP/ACA), Boston, MA.  November 5th – 7th, 2009. 2009    “Pundit Knows Best:  The Self-Help Boom, Brand Marketing, and The O’Reilly Factorfor Kids.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  University of North Carolina, Charlotte.  Charlotte, NC.  June 11 – 13th, 2009.
  • 2008 Session Chair and Panel Organizer, “Anne of Green Gables at 100,” Modern Language Association Annual Conference (MLA).  San Francisco, CA.  December 27th – 30th, 2008.
  • 2008 “A Sunday School for the End of the World:  The Left Behind – The Kids Series and The Battle for Young Adult Souls.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  Illinois State University, Normal/Bloomington, IL.  June 12th – 15th, 2008.
  • 2008 “Bury My Heart in Recent History:  Mark Twain’s ‘Hellfire Hotchkiss,’ the Massacre at Wounded Knee, and the Dime Western Formula.”  Panel on “New Approaches to Mark Twain.”  Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Conference (NeMLA), Buffalo, NY. April 10th – 13th, 2008.
  • 2007 “From Lesbian Pulp Fiction to YA Novels and Back Again:  The Many Literary Genres (and Pen Names) of M. E. Kerr.”  Panel on “Jumping Between Audiences.” Modern Language Association Annual Conference (MLA), Chicago, IL.  December 27th – 30th, 2007.
  • 2007 “Becoming a ‘Red-Blooded’ American:  White Tomboyism and American Indian Tribalism in Carol Ryrie Brink’s Caddie Woodlawn.”  Children’s Literature Association Conference (ChLA).  Christopher Newport University.  Newport News, VA.  June 14 – 16th, 2007.
  • 2006 “Trans/Formations:  Sharon Dennis Wyeth’s Tomboy Trouble and Transgenderism in Contemporary Picture Books,” Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference (ChLA), Manhattan Beach, California, June 8 – 10th, 2006.
  • 2005 “Launching a Gender Backlash:  E. D. E. N. Southworth’s The Hidden Hand and the Emergence of American Tomboyism.”  Modern Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature (MCACL), Nashville, TN.  March 31 – April 2nd, 2005.

Selected Publications

Books:

  • Bloody Murder: The Homicide Tradition in Children’s Literature.  Johns Hopkins University Press. February 2013.
  • Raising Your Kids Right:  Children’s Literature and American Political Conservatism. Rutgers University Press, 2010.
  • Tomboys:  A Literary and Cultural History.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008.

Co-Edited Books

  • C. S. Lewis:  The Chronicles of Narnia Casebook.  Co-edited with Lance Weldy.  Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2012.
  • Global Perspectives on Tarzan:  From King of the Jungle to International Icon.  Co-edited with Annette Wannamaker.  Routledge Press, 2012.
  • Over the Rainbow:  Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature.  Co-edited with Kenneth B. Kidd. University of Michigan Press, 2011. 

 Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles (Selected)

  • “ ‘A Grand Amount of Fagginess’:  The Faggiest Vampire, Bizarro Fiction for Children, and the Dehomosexualization of LGBTQ Terminology.”  Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  37.4  (Winter 2012):  400 – 414.
  • “ ‘You Must Kill Her’:  The Fact and Fantasy of Filicide in ‘Snow White.’ ”  Marvels and Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies.  26.2 (2012):  178 – 203.
  • “When Clothes Don’t Make the Man:  Sartorial Style, Conspicuous Consumption and Class Passing in Lothar Meggendorfer’s Scenes in the Life of a Masher.”  Children’s LiteratureAssociation Quarterly.  37.1  (Spring 2012):  43 - 65. 
  • “ ‘The Queen Had Only One Way of Settling All Difficulties. . . Off With His Head!’: Alice’sAdventures in Wonderland and the Anti-Gallows Movement.”  Papers:  Explorations in Children’s Literature.  21.1  (2011): 33 – 56.
  • “Constructing Modernist Lesbian Affect from Late-Victorian Masculine Emotionalism:  Willa Cather’s ‘Tommy, the Unsentimental’ and J. M. Barrie’s Sentimental Tommy.” Women’s Writing.  18.4. (Fall 2011):  468 – 465.
  • “Plastic Makes Perfect:  My Beautiful Mommy, Cosmetic Surgery, and the Medicalization of Motherhood.”  Women’s Studies:  An Interdisciplinary Journal.  39.7 (October/November 2010):  715 – 746.
  • “From Christian Conversion to Children’s Crusade:  The Left Behind Series for Kids and the Changing Nature of Evangelical Juvenile Fiction.”  Jeunesse:  Young People, Texts, Cultures.  2.1  (Summer 2010):  84 – 111.
  • “Bury My Heart in Recent History:  Mark Twain’s ‘Hellfire Hotchkiss,’ the Massacre at Wounded Knee, and the Dime Western Formula.”  American Literary Realism.  42.2  (Winter 2010):  114 – 128.
  • “Taking Silliness Seriously:  Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show, the Anglo-American Tradition of Nonsense, and Cultural Critique.”  The Journal of Popular Culture.  42.4 (August 2009):  589 – 613. 
  • “The Politics of Prophecy:  The U.S. Culture Wars and the Battle Over Public Education in the Left Behind Series for Kids.”  International Research in Children’s Literature (IRCL).  2.1  (July 2009): 1- 20.
  • “One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State:  Bringing Partisan Politics to Picturebooks in Katharine DeBrecht’s Help! Mom! Series.”  The Lion and the Unicorn.  33.1  (January 2009):  77 - 103.
  • “Becoming a ‘Red-Blooded’ American:  White Tomboyism and American Indian Tribalism inCaddie Woodlawn.”  Mosaic:  A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature.  41.4  (December 2008):  143 – 159.
  •  “Trans/Forming Girlhood:  Transgenderism, the Tomboy Formula, and Gender Identity Disorder in Sharon Dennis Wyeth’s Tomboy Trouble.”  The Lion and the Unicorn.  32.1 (January 2008):  40 – 60.
  • “From Cold War Lesbian Pulp to Contemporary YA Novels:  Vin Packer’s Spring Fire, M. E. Kerr’s Deliver Us from Evie, and Marijane Meaker’s Fight against Fifties Homophobia.”Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.   32.3  (Fall 2007):  231 – 251.
  • “The ‘Possessed’ Reassessed:  Elizabeth Stoddard’s The Morgesons, the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria and Literary (Anti)Nationalism.”   ATQ:  American Transcendental Quarterly. 21.1  (March 2007):  47 - 65.
  • “Topsy and Topsy-Turvy Jo:  Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and/in Louisa May Alcott’s Little WomenChildren’s Literature.  vol. 34.  Special issue on Louisa May Alcott. Guest edited by Anne K. Philips and Christine Doyle.  (2006):  59 - 82.
  • “Launching a Gender B(l)acklash:  E. D. E. N. Southworth and the Emergence of (Racialized) White Tomboyism.”  Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  31.1  (Spring 2006): 40 - 64.
  • “Oversight as Insight:  Reading the Second Shepherds’ Play as the Second Shepherd’s Play.” Early Theatre.  8.1 (2005):  95 - 108.
  • “Reading Red:  The Man with the (Gay) Red Tie in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.The Mississippi Quarterly.  54.3  (Summer 2001):  293 – 312.
    • Reprinted in Bloom’s Modern Critical InterpretationsWilliam Faulkner’s The Sounds and the Fury, Edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Infobase, 2008.  181 – 196. 

Chapters in Peer-Reviewed Books:

  • “ ‘Mischief of One Kind and Another’:  Nostalgia in Where the Wild Things Are as Text and Film.”  Portrayals of Children in Popular Culture: Fleeting Images.  Eds. Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic and Debbie T. Olson.  Lanham, Maryland:  Lexington/Rowan & Littlefield Press, 2013.    139 – 152.
  • “ ‘An Axe in the Hands of a Burly Negro Cleft the Captain from Forehead to Chin’: Tarzan of the Apes and the American Urban Jungle.”  Global Perspectives on Tarzan:  From King of the Jungle to International Icon.  Co-edited with Annette Wannamaker.  Routledge, 2012:  13 – 27. 
  • “When Girls Will Be Bois: Female Masculinity, Genderqueer Identity, and Millennial LGBTQ Culture.”  Mediated Boyhood: Boys, Teens, and Tweens in Popular Media and Culture.  Ed. Annette Wannamaker.  Peter Lang, 2010.  15 – 35.