"I Disrupted Something": (Re)Mapping Power, Belonging, and Public Space With Young Adult Fiction

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Seven
  In Roundtable Session: Theories and Methods of Analytic Engagement With Children's and Young Adult Literature (Table 7)

Abstract

During this era of acute spatial inequity, the literature classroom offers a rich space for students and educators to take critical inventory of how we negotiate everyday worlds. In this paper, I examine how secondary students engaged with methods of spatial literary analysis and related activities to deepen their engagement with YA literature and critically explore the fluid contours of adolescent belonging, participation, and citizenship. Building on discussions of literacy and public engagement (e.g., Author et al., 2020; Mirra & Garcia, 2020; 2021), I seek to illuminate the ways in which students’ entwined navigations of story and experience (re)mapped conventional discourses of space, place, and mobilities—reframing the differentiated bounds of youth engagement across school and community sites.

Author

• Caroline Hamilton-McKenna, University of British Columbia
  Presenting Author