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2 books match the query 'Halsall, Alison'
Growing Up Graphic
The Comics of Children in CrisisAlison Halsall
The Ohio State University Press, 2023
Honor Book, Children's Literature Association Book Award 2025
In Growing Up Graphic, Alison Halsall considers graphic texts for young readers to interrogate how they help children develop new ideas about social justice and become potential agents of change. With a focus on comics that depict difficult experiences affecting young people, Halsall explores the complexities of queer graphic memoirs, narratives of belonging, depictions of illness and disability, and explorations of Indigenous experiences. She discusses, among others, Child Soldier by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikwanine, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq, Matt Huynh’s interactive adaptation of Nam Le’s The Boat, and David Alexander Robertson’s 7 Generations. These examples contest images of childhood victimization, passivity, and helplessness, instead presenting young people as social actors who attempt to make sense of the challenges that affect them. In considering comics for children and about children, Growing Up Graphic centers a previously underexplored vein of graphic narratives and argues that these texts offer important insights into the interests and capabilities of children as readers.
In Growing Up Graphic, Alison Halsall considers graphic texts for young readers to interrogate how they help children develop new ideas about social justice and become potential agents of change. With a focus on comics that depict difficult experiences affecting young people, Halsall explores the complexities of queer graphic memoirs, narratives of belonging, depictions of illness and disability, and explorations of Indigenous experiences. She discusses, among others, Child Soldier by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikwanine, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq, Matt Huynh’s interactive adaptation of Nam Le’s The Boat, and David Alexander Robertson’s 7 Generations. These examples contest images of childhood victimization, passivity, and helplessness, instead presenting young people as social actors who attempt to make sense of the challenges that affect them. In considering comics for children and about children, Growing Up Graphic centers a previously underexplored vein of graphic narratives and argues that these texts offer important insights into the interests and capabilities of children as readers.
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Taylor Swift as Storyteller
Identity, Power, and Digital CultureEdited by Alison Halsall
The Ohio State University Press, 2027
Examines Taylor Swift as a nexus of music, media, fandom, and branding, revealing how her enterprise reflects and reshapes contemporary culture.
Taylor Swift as Storyteller examines one of the most influential cultural figures of the twenty-first century as both artist and “star text,” arguing that Swift’s global impact is shaped through the dynamic interplay of music, media, fandom, and branding. Bringing together literary scholars, ethnographers, and musicologists, this collection positions Swift as not just a pop figure but a transmedial construct.
Contributors explore how Swift’s carefully curated personae—from girl-next-door to feminist icon to “tortured poet”—generate powerful affective connections with audiences while also functioning as strategic marketing tools. At the same time, contributors retheorize authorship and control in the digital age. By foregrounding the roles of management, branding, and platform circulation, and by interrogating the participatory roles of Swifties as cocreators of meaning, Taylor Swift as Storyteller complicates the idea of singular authorship. Attending to questions of feminism, authorship, nostalgia, and literary adaptation, this collection ultimately reveals how Swift’s enterprise both reflects and reshapes contemporary media culture, illuminating the complex relationship between narrative, identity, and power in the digital age.
Contributors:
Natalie Abbott, Alexander Carpenter, Zixiao Chen, Katie E. Cline, Jennifer Duggan, Rachel M. Friars, Andrea LeMahieu Glaws, Wendy J. Glenn, Alison Halsall, Roxanne Harde, Juliette Holder, Erika Kvistad, Zhimou Li, Sarah E. Maier, Catherine McCarthy, Elly McCausland, Laura Carman McClintock, Adrianna Mirabal, Linh S. Nguy?n, Hazel O’Brien, Anah-Jayne Samuelson, L. M. Schmidt, Katlin Marisol Sweeney-Romero
Taylor Swift as Storyteller examines one of the most influential cultural figures of the twenty-first century as both artist and “star text,” arguing that Swift’s global impact is shaped through the dynamic interplay of music, media, fandom, and branding. Bringing together literary scholars, ethnographers, and musicologists, this collection positions Swift as not just a pop figure but a transmedial construct.
Contributors explore how Swift’s carefully curated personae—from girl-next-door to feminist icon to “tortured poet”—generate powerful affective connections with audiences while also functioning as strategic marketing tools. At the same time, contributors retheorize authorship and control in the digital age. By foregrounding the roles of management, branding, and platform circulation, and by interrogating the participatory roles of Swifties as cocreators of meaning, Taylor Swift as Storyteller complicates the idea of singular authorship. Attending to questions of feminism, authorship, nostalgia, and literary adaptation, this collection ultimately reveals how Swift’s enterprise both reflects and reshapes contemporary media culture, illuminating the complex relationship between narrative, identity, and power in the digital age.
Contributors:
Natalie Abbott, Alexander Carpenter, Zixiao Chen, Katie E. Cline, Jennifer Duggan, Rachel M. Friars, Andrea LeMahieu Glaws, Wendy J. Glenn, Alison Halsall, Roxanne Harde, Juliette Holder, Erika Kvistad, Zhimou Li, Sarah E. Maier, Catherine McCarthy, Elly McCausland, Laura Carman McClintock, Adrianna Mirabal, Linh S. Nguy?n, Hazel O’Brien, Anah-Jayne Samuelson, L. M. Schmidt, Katlin Marisol Sweeney-Romero
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