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Karen Chandler

Karen Chandler

Visiting Associate Professor

Karen Chandler Karen Chandler

Karen Chandler teaches American and African American literature at the University of Louisville. Her essays on literature and film have appeared in journals such as Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Arizona Quarterly, and African American Review, and collections such as Who Writes for Black Children? She is the author of Tending to the Past: Selfhood and Culture in Children’s Narratives about Slavery and Freedom and co-editor, with KaaVonia Hinton, of Teaching Black Speculative Fiction: Equity, Justice, and Antiracism, both forthcoming in 2024. She is also the co-editor, with Michelle H. Martin, of a special issue of IRCL, International Research in Children’s Literature, focusing on Black Spaces in international children’s literature.

Areas of Expertise

  • African American literature
  • Film
  • American literature
  • Women’s literature
  • Personal narrative

Courses Taught

  • Cultural Representations in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
  • History and Criticism of Children’s Literature
  • Nineteenth-Century Fictions of American Childhood

Accomplishments

  • Outstanding Director of Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Louisville, 2023
  • Francelia Butler Lecture, the Children’s Literature Association Conference, June 2023
  • Guest speaker, Newcastle University, November 2023

Research Interests

  • Representations of Black history in young people’s literature
    Autobiography and biography
  • Children’s film
  • Immigration literature

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
  • M.A., University of Pennsylvania
  • B.A., The University of Chicago

Publications & Articles