Emily Murphy, Ph.D.

I specialize in American studies, children's literature and culture, and post-1945 American literature, with a special emphasis on literature after 9/11. I employ an interdisciplinary approach in my research in order to combine the study of childhood with the goals and concerns of American studies, answering early calls for an end to the division between "adult" and "child" texts (see, for example, R. Gordon Kelly's essay on "Literature and the Historian"). In my current project, I trace the deployment of the figure of the child in several American national myths that were popular during the Cold War. If you would like a more detailed overview of my book project, please contact me and request a copy of my manuscript abstract.