Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I am Programme Convener for the BA English Literature and BA Creative and Professional Writing, and the Knowledge-Exchange Lead for the Centre for Literature and Inclusion.
I have interests in:
- Young adult fiction
- Age studies
- Reading and wellbeing
- Memory and literature
- Rereading
I welcome enquires from potential PhD students and collaborators about any of these areas.
Research interests
My research in young adult literature and adolescence asks:
- how do ideas of ordinariness and extraordinariness shape our understanding of adolescence?
- what can national histories of YA literature tell us about our narratives of youth, society, and the future?
- what benefits can reading YA have for mental wellbeing?
I am currently writing a new study of 20th-century British young adult literature, and have published an article on The Art of Being Ordinary: Cups of Tea and Catching the Bus in Contemporary British YA. I was Principal Investigator for the British Academy-funded 'Reading for Normal: Young People and YA Fiction in the Time of Covid-19' project. I am the author of Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism (Routledge 2009) and General Editor of The International Journal of Young Adult Literature.
My research in age studies, memory, reading and wellbeing asks:
- how do adults negotiate relationships with books from their pasts?
- where do discourses of old age and youth intersect and how can this aid intergenerational understanding?
- what part can forgetting play in being human at any age?
- how can reading help us cope with threats of loneliness or anxiety?
My latest monograph, Rereading Childhood Books: a Poetics (Bloomsbury 2019), explores the practice of remembering and rereading childhood fiction and was shortlisted for the ESSE Book Prize. My peer-reviewed articles in this area include an account of a co-creative narrative enquiry involving older adults living with dementia and childhood books; a study of men’s memories of the children’s classic, The Secret Garden, and an analysis of symbolic scenes of amnesia in young adult novels.
I enjoy interdisciplinary and international collaboration and developing partnerships:
- I have developed the Reading4Normal Book Club, a funded national programme based on my research with young adult readers.
- I am working with Cheltenham Literary Festival's 'Teachers Reading, Pupils Reading' programme to deliver workshops and training to secondary educators.
- My ‘Lifelong Reading: New Stories’ project allowed me to collaborate with individuals living with dementia, creative practitioners, and a specialist day centre.
- I co-run the 'Ageing Adventurers' reading group.
- I am leading an international team on a new companion to young adult literature.
- I was co-organiser for the AHRC-funded ‘The Memory Network’, which brought together scholars working in arts and humanities and science.
Teaching
I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the MA Children's Literature by distance learning, which I convened for eight years. Modules I have designed and delivered include:
- ‘Memory and Being’ (UG)
- ‘British Young Adult Fiction’ (UG)
- ‘Critical and Theoretical Perspectives in Children’s Literature’ (MA)
- ‘Research Methods’ and ‘Dissertation’ (MA)
I have supervised five PhD projects to completion, on the following topics: Children's Neo-Romanticism, Lesbian Love Stories in YA Literature, Shifting Boundaries between Childhood and Adulthood, Textual Afterlives of Childhood Reading for LGBTQ Adults, and Representations of Motherhood in Popularist Children's LIterature. I won the Student-Led Teaching Award for 'Best Research Supervisor'.
My current PhD students are:
- Emily Corbett: '“There’s more than one story to be told about transgender teenagers”: Transitions in the Twenty-First-Century Young Adult Book Market'
- Odhran O'Donoghue: 'The "Gay Future Child": an analysis of homonormativity and assimilation in contemporary American LGBT+ young adult fiction'
"Alison is incredibly knowledgeable. She has an excellent manner (she is always calm and gentle), while offering firm and perceptive guidance."
Professional affiliations
Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Advisory Board member, YA Studies Association.
Editorial Board Member: European Journal of English Studies; Children’s Literature in Education journal; Angilca Wratislaviensia journal; ‘Studies in European Literature for Children and Young Adults’ book series
Qualifications
PhD, Nottingham Trent University.
PGCert: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Roehampton/HEA.
BA (Hons), University of Birmingham.
Links
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Reading for Normal: Young People and Fiction in the Time of Covid-19
Southlands Methodist Trust, British Academy
1/09/20 → …
Project: Research
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File
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Rereading childhood Books: A Poetics
Waller, A., 7 Feb 2019, London & New York: Bloomsbury. 232 p. (Bloomsbury Perspectives on Children's Literature)Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Open AccessFile48 Downloads (Pure) -
The Art of Being Ordinary: Cups of Tea and Catching the Bus in Contemporary British YA
Waller, A., 2 Nov 2020, In: International Journal of Young Adult Literature. 1, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile113 Downloads (Pure) -
Reading for Normal: Young People and Fiction in the Time of Covid-19
Waller, A. & Dashwood, R., 2022, (Accepted/In press) In: Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Floating Minds: How Young Adult Fiction Represents Forgetting in Old Age and Adolescence
Waller, A., 1 Oct 2021, In: INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH IN CHILDRENS LITERATURE. 14, 3, p. 283 298 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile46 Downloads (Pure) -
‘Life goes through in a book’: A case study of a co-creative narrative enquiry involving older adults living with early-stage dementia
Waller, A., Seltzer, G. & Eates, W., 1 Nov 2021, In: Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile71 Downloads (Pure)
Prizes
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Student Led Teaching Award - Best Research Supervisor
Waller, Alison (Recipient), 2014
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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Invited talk for Children's Literature Children's Lives research seminar - Reading for Normal: Young People and YA Fiction in the Time of Covid-19
Alison Waller (Speaker)
28 Oct 2021Activity: Talk or presentation for an academic audience › Invited talk for an academic audience
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'Our Reading History: exploring memory and rereading'
Alison Waller (Advisor)
12 Oct 2021Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Workshop and other training
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Keynote Address - Remembering Childhood Books: Stories of Self
Alison Waller (Speaker)
26 Aug 2021Activity: Talk or presentation for an academic audience › Invited talk for an academic audience
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Reading for Normal
Alison Waller (Advisor)
9 Nov 2021Activity: Public engagement and outreach › Workshop and other training
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International Journal of Young Adult Literature (Journal)
Alison Waller (Peer reviewer)
2020 → …Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorial Activity