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Staff Profile

Dr Emily Murphy

Senior Lecturer in Children's Literature

Background

Introduction

I work in the fields of children’s literature and American studies, with a special interest in the way childhood shapes constructions of national and global identity.

Background

I completed my BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Florida. Following the completion of my PhD in 2014, I worked at New York University Shanghai for two years (2015-2017) before beginning my current post at Newcastle University.            

Previous Positions

Writing Lecturer, New York University Shanghai (2015-2017)

Research

Overview

My research interests include post-1945 American literature (both for children and adults) and childhood studies. I am interested in the intersections between constructions of national identity and childhood, including new forms of identity in a 'global' or 'post-national' world. My work is also informed by the scholarship in American studies, especially the topics of U.S. imperialism and globalization, and I have also extended my research outside of the American context to include Chinese and Taiwanese children’s and YA literature.

In 2020, I published my first monograph, Growing Up with America: Youth, Myth, and National Identity, 1945 to Present (UGA Press), which won the 2021 International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL) Book Award. The book focuses on the adolescent's role in redefining U.S. national identity in the post-Cold moment, and considers how historical, scientific, and literary representations of adolescence intersect to critique U.S. national myths. It has been described as a "unique scholarly contribution to multiple fields" by the IRSCL award committee (see review here). 

Current Work

I am currently working on a new book project, The Anarchy of Children's Archives: Children's Literature and Global Citizenship Education in the American Century, where I trace the way in which children's literature aided national campaigns to raise children as global citizens. Crucially, I approach this topic from the child's point of view by considering innovative ways to recover historical children's voices. I am currently theorising what I call a 'participatory' approach to children's archives, which is based on participatory research methodologies in the social sciences where children are given the role of co-creators in the design, execution, and dissemination of research projects. As part of this research, I will be working with schoolchildren as a way of grounding this theory in practice-based work with children.

Research supervision

I have supervised MLitt projects on dystopian children’s fiction, representations of trauma and the Holocaust in young adult literature, and British children's poetry and prizing.

I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students on my research areas.

Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

Close Reading (Stage 1 module)

Fictions of Migration (Stage 2 module, convenor)

Growing Up Global (Stage 3 module)

Postgraduate teaching

Children's Literature Studies: Past, Present, Future (convenor)



Publications