Academic staff

Dr Evelyn Arizpe is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a Board member of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL). She has been working in the field of children’s literature and literacy for over 25 years, developing her expertise by bridging, on one hand, the theory and analysis of text and, on the other, reading and reader response. She has worked with both young adult texts and picturebooks in research with participants of different ages and across different countries, especially in Mexico. Her research projects have had a focus on migration and displacement (Visual Journeys and Journeys from Images to Words). She has published widely in both English and Spanish.

Dr Jennifer Farrar is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and was also a member of the first cohort to graduate with an MEd in Children's Literature and Literacies. After completing an ESRC funded PhD which explored intergenerational readers’ responses to the disruptive effects of metafiction in picturebooks, she joined the teaching team as a lecturer in Children’s Literature and secondary English. Her research interests include critical literacy and developing teachers’ knowledge about the power of children’s literature.

Dr Maureen Farrell  is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow and the Programme Leader for the M Ed Children’s Literature and Literacies programme.  She has previously held positions as Associate Dean Initial Teacher Education; B Ed Programme leader and Director of Partnerships within the School of Education. She is a member of the research team focusing on the role of children’s literature in the area of migration and displacement and in assisting teachers and student teachers to work sensitively with this material in schools. (Visual Journeys and Journeys from Images to Words). A specialist in Scottish Children’s Literature, she is currently co-editing a book on this topic. She has presented at international conferences on Children’s Literature, Scottish Children’s Literature and on teacher education topics.

Julie McAdam is a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in Language and Literacies. She has developed teacher education programmes in Scotland and the Middle East, emphasising inclusive and culturally relevant pedagogy to promote learning in diverse contexts and publishing on threshold concepts in becoming a teacher.  Over the past ten years she has worked on research projects with Evelyn Arizpe and Maureen Farrell, looking at the role played by children’s literature to support teachers working with New Arrival children across Europe. A focus on migration and displacement has permeated this work, published in Visual Journeys and Journeys from Images to Words. Her current work is connected to the use of directed hope and storytelling in the creation of Narratives of Change, which are used to challenge prevalent negative discourses and recount positive stories connected to identity, language and migration.