Restorying Young Adult Literature to Reconstruct Educational Possibility in Classrooms and Beyond

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Youth literature has, in today’s digital age, transformed into a ubiquitous feature of life, and young people are harnessing these narratives to powerful effect. Young people—particularly those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color, queer, trans, and more—are using Young Adult Literature to reimagine futures through a process called restorying. This process has been defined as a practice of analyzing one’s lived experiences, then synthesizing and recontextualizing a multiplicity of stories to form new narratives. In this symposium, panelists will present findings from research studies that informed a recently published NCTE book, Restorying Young Adult Literature. Implications for this session will provide methodological and practitioner approaches to integrating the restorying of YAL both in and out of school contexts.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Literature

Chairs

• Josh Coleman, Arizona State University

• Autumn A. Griffin, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

Participants

• Rabani Garg, University of Pennsylvania

• Bethany Monea, University of the District of Columbia

• Latrice Ferguson, University of Pennsylvania

• Perla Gonzalez, George Mason University

• Joselyn Andrade, George Mason University

Papers

• Youth Librarians: Access Builders in a Digital Era - Latrice Ferguson, University of Pennsylvania

• Engaging YouTube to Tell Our Own Stories - Bethany Monea, University of the District of Columbia; Perla Gonzalez, George Mason University; Joselyn Andrade, George Mason University

• "Local" Youth Writers in a "Global" Networked Literacies Ecology - Rabani Garg, University of Pennsylvania