The Summit will return in 2026.

The Summit on the Research & Teaching of Young Adult Literature

There is no 2025 YA Summit. The Summit will return in 2026.

The 2024 Online Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature

Thank you for registering for the 2024 Online Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature.

All times are Central Standard Time. Use this time converter if needed.

We are eager to see and learn with you this week: February 29th and March 1st.

All you need to join us is in the program or on our website www.yalsummit.org .

For a positive tech experience, please be sure to try your Zoom and update the software BEFORE we meet next Thursday.

To access the sessions follow these instructions:

Click on the title of the session to view the full session description and featured young adult literature for that session.
Click on "Breakout" links to be taken to the Zoom room for that session; all the Zoom room links are also listed on page 2.
Justin Worley is our lead tech support if you have any questions about links or trouble logging on, contact him: juworle@okstate.edu

For presenters:

The Zoom room host will introduce you, give you screen-sharing access, and help with time - -especially in sessions with time-sharing.
Please check the program for your session date and time. Note that some session lengths vary.
You can share materials in the chat or share your email, but the Summit will not be collecting resources to share out later. We respect your intellectual property; how you choose to make that available is up to you.

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We will send another email the day before the event to check in with you: sarah.j.donovan@okstate.edu.

Program

Featured Session

Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 6:00 PM CST

Three YA Authors Discuss their 2023 Debuts of Intersectional Stories

We are three 2023 YA debut authors from underrepresented communities. Our novels feature intersectional characters [race, ethnicity, skin tone, sexual identity, nationality, domestic violence, mental health challenges, neurodivergence, socioeconomics], strong sibling relationships, and a variety of social and societal themes. Our writing includes a mixture of prose, verse, and other poetic devices. We experiment with voice, structure and format in our books. In our 40 minute panel discussion, we will discuss the role of Young Adult Literature (YAL) in showcasing marginalized, underrepresented, and intersectional stories, with an emphasis on social and societal issues that are rarely shared in YAL. In particular, we will focus on the physical abuse of children at the hands of a biological parent. Although our main characters are very different from each other, we used remarkably similar language and imagery in our writing. We will plan for 15-20 minutes of questions & answers with the audience participants.

Pedro & Daniel

Federico Erebia

My Father, the Panda Killer

Jamie Jo Hoang

Saints of the Household

Ari Tison

Featured Session

Friday, March 1, 2024 at 9:00 AM CST

Teaching Young Adult Literature: What the Research Indicates and What We are Doing

Teaching Young Adult Literature (YAL) is a dream job for many, yet there are few institutions providing direct instruction or mentorship. This conversation explores the emerging research on teaching YA, the variety of approaches that appear in syllabi, and an explanation of how three scholars construct their courses. With the rise in the publication of YA books and the growing scholarship of the YAL field in general, there are myriad ways, topics, and/or methods in which one may choose to teach a “Young Adult Literature” course. For example, the course may frame young adult literature from a historical perspective, a classic perspective, an identity-based perspective, or a contemporary perspective. Even with these different approaches, educators may have different goals for exposing others to young adult literature: to provide students access to a variety of books, to engage in a methodological considerations for the teaching of young adult books in classrooms, and/or to offer a more traditional approach, analyzing the texts from a literary perspective. In this sense, the conversations around young adult literature can feel a bit all over the place.

This session provides a larger picture of how YAL is formally taken up in classrooms. We will share relevant research on how YAL gets taught and researched (Suico et al., 2023; Bickmore et al., 2022). Then, three scholars who have taught a YAL course at different institutions will share their approaches to the teaching of young adult literature, including current syllabi. This session invites a scholarly conversation about how YAL could be taught, portrayed, and represented to those new to the field, as well as to those who are more experienced.

Steven Bickmore, YA Wednesday

Michael Macaluso, University of Notre Dame

Hunter Strickland, Georgia College & State University

(Closed)Call for Proposals

The 2024 Online Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature

Thursday evening, February 29 & Friday, March 1, 2024

Call for Proposals

Proposals Due December 1, 2023 through this form https://forms.gle/Mr4AoPzPoWyXUB9Z9
Masked Peer Review December 4-8, 2023
Notifications December 11, 2023
Register by February 9, 2024

Sponsored by Oklahoma State University and Aquinas College and facilitated by members of NCTE’s ELATE Commission on the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature, we are pleased to announce this call for session proposals.

In this 7th annual Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature, the planning committee invites all young adult literature educators and researchers in secondary and higher education spaces to share what you are or have been working on. All themes, lenses, and areas of interest are welcome. We want to celebrate the growing, evolving, and becoming of our research and practices.

As such, we invite proposals addressing the following questions:

What are you working on? What sort of studies and practices are you cultivating?
What work related to young adult literature matters to you and to your community now?
What role should YAL research play in the advancement of writing, technologies, and literacies?
How can our ongoing YAL research and teaching be an act of wonder, joy, and self-discovery?

Research

How can our evolving work with YAL inform future research and pedagogical practices for a more humanizing and socially just education?
How can we engage with varied and innovative research methodologies to document and share YAL as a pathway for a socially just literacies education?
In what phase are you currently involved regarding your work around YAL– literature review, theoretical framework, methodology, emerging findings, or implications (any part)?

Course/Classroom/Library/Community Practice

- How can literacy teacher education related to YAL explicitly address the intersection of historical, economic, social, political, and cultural influences on K-16 education?
- What moments of awe, joy, and wonder has YAL brought to your classroom or course?

Presenters are encouraged to explore answers to these questions and others from multiple contexts of grades 6-16 English language arts education and literacy research. The planning committee encourages proposals for works-in-progress that focus on questions and tensions about YAL research and teaching. Proposals are encouraged to be interactive and generative to center community building and rich discussions and action.

Our goal is to cultivate an accessible, affordable, and supportive Summit so that experienced and emerging teacher-scholars, classroom teachers using YAL, and graduate and undergraduate students theorizing about YAL can present their research and pedagogy.

The virtual format of this conference -- with all presenters also serving as discussants -- seeks to nurture a reciprocity of celebration, presence, and support. We will hold a number of concurrent sessions to allow for a substantial audience for each session and time to not only present but discuss and consider implications. In this way, we can bear witness to one another’s work, humanity, and passion for all that young adult literature does for our hearts and minds and learning spaces.

The one day conference will cost $35 for participants and presenters, including authors. A discounted rate of $25 is available for students. Proceeds provide tech support to run the online conference.

Welcomed Proposals

Flash Talk (10 min. + 5 for discussion). If you have a great book, some data to discuss, or an activity to share that is not a full lesson or research, propose a flash talk. This is 10 minutes to share a few details about the line of research, new syllabus development, student artifacts of a project that went well, titles that your students loved, a beautiful passage, or anything else you can think of to engage participants in some effective, engaging YAL. We will arrange you with three or four other Flash Talks in a session block so that participants can feel the joy and wonder.
Research Presentation (20 min + 10 for discussion) This is for higher ed or teacher action research presentations. Propose your 20-minute empirical or conceptual study. Discuss your questions, lit review, theoretical framework, methods, findings, and implications in detail, including lessons learned from the process or innovative approaches. If you are in the middle of a study, you can share any aspect of it. We will match you with one other researcher so that there will be 2 presentations in the one hour block and ample time for discussion.
Classroom Practice Session (50 min. + 10 for discussion) Take us through a class session from your college YA lit course or English language arts class. This is a full session that engages participants in a focused young adult literature experience grounded in research (e.g., facilitating a novel, independent reading, in content areas, writing instruction). Sessions will provide an introduction to and contextual support for a specific YAL activity that will allow participants to produce a tangible product or engage in an experience to adapt/apply to their own classrooms. We are especially interested in activities that engage reading, writing, speaking, and technology.
Conversation (45 min. + 15 with participants) Propose a panel of up to 3 people to talk about a hot topic, a research method, a teaching method, syllabus development, current tensions, etc. Prepare only 40 minutes of content AND then prepare robust discussion that welcomes dialogue with the audience. We are eager for conversations about research, publishing, libraries, problem solving, writing YAL or using YAL to write; community book initiatives, and digital YAL experiences. In this format, everyone should have a voice, and proposals should reflect this balance of participation.

Information Needed to Complete the Proposal Form

● Name and affiliation ● Postal address, Email address ● Title of presentation or session ● Format ● Abstract (maximum 50 words) ● Description (maximum 250 words) - topic, rationale including theoretical grounding, positionality, relevance, and plans for engaging the audience (flash talk format can be less detailed in this regard) ● Names and email addresses of others to be included in the session

All presenters are expected to register.

Professional development credit and badges offered through Oklahoma State University's School of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Sciences.

Contact Co-Directors

Sarah J. Donovan, sarah.j.donovan@okstate.edu

Gretchen Rumohr, ghr001@aquinas.edu

Advisory Board

Ashley Boyd, Michelle Falter, Melanie Hundley, Amy Piotrowski, Leilya Pitre, and Jessica Wiley

2024 Summit Sponsors

Oklahoma State University

Aquinas College

2024 Summit Co-Directors

Sarah J. Donovan

Dr. Sarah J. Donovan is a former Chicago junior high ELA teacher & assistant professor at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of the Alone Together , editor of Rhyme and Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, & founder of Ethical ELA, an open access site for educators.. Her publications focus on anti-bias reading practices of YAL and writing in teacher professional development using relational poetry pedagogy.

Gretchen Rumohr

Dr. Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English, department chair, and writing program administrator at Aquinas College, MI. She is the chief curator for YA Wednesday and editor of Contending with Gun Violence in the English Language Classroom. Dr. Rumohr lives in Zeeland, MI with her four daughters and a tiny baby Yorkshire Terrier.

2024 Summit Advisory Board

Michelle Falter is an associate professor of English education at North Carolina State University. She studies critical, affective, and discussion-based approaches to teaching English language arts. Michelle is an avid reader, critical scholar, and empathetic teacher of young adult literature and has been involved in one way or another with the YA Summit since its inception.

Jessica Wiley is an ALE Educator and Dyslexia Interventionist for the South Conway County School District in Morrilton, Arkansas. She serves as a board member for Arkansas Hands & Voices and volunteers as a Parent Mentor with Community Connections, two organizations that help improve the lives of children with disabilities.

Ashley S. Boyd is an associate professor of English education at Washington State University. Her research includes the development of critical literacies and social action projects with students reading young adult literature. Her books include Social Justice Literacies in the English Classroom: Teaching Practice in Action (Teachers College Press).

Leilya Pitre is an Assistant Professor and English Education Coordinator at Southeastern Louisiana University where she teaches methods courses for preservice teachers, literary analysis, American and Young Adult Literature courses. Her research interests include teacher preparation, secondary school teaching, and teaching and research of YA and multicultural literature.

Dr. Amy Piotrowski is an associate professor of English education at Utah State University. She teaches undergraduate courses in English education and secondary education as well as graduate courses in literacy education. Her scholarly interests focus on digital literacies, young adult literature, and teacher education.

Dr. Melanie Hundley is a Professor in the Practice of English Education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College; her research examines how digital and multimodal composition informs the development of pre-service teachers’ writing pedagogy. Additionally, she explores the use of digital media, poetry, and canonical texts in young adult literature.

2024 Technology Team from OSU

Justin Worley

Lisa Crane

Kushal Jha

Peter Terry

Jesse Kraybill

Let us know if you'll be attending!

2023 Thank You

The Summit is facilitated by members of NCTE's ELATE Commission on the Study of Adolescent Literature

On behalf of the organization committee of the sixth annual Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature, we’d like to thank you for your participation and conversation.

The theme of this year’s Summit was In Conversation: The Promise of Young Adult Literature, and so we’d like to keep the conversation going.

Here are several ways you can engage with the young adult literature community:

Join the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE.
The ALAN Review has many publications from our presenters and may give you ideas for publishing your own research and teaching of YAL.
Join and attend meetings at NCTE with the Commission on the Study and Teaching of Adolescent Literature of ELATE with co-chairs Alice Hays and Steffany Comfort Maher. Complete this form to get on the mailing list.
Learn more about our presenters and check out their books and articles. Ask your school or local librarian to order the book and consider hosting a book group with colleagues or in your English affiliate.
Check our website, www.yalsummit.org, for updates about next year’s conference.

We do hope you consider publishing an article or blog post inspired by your session. Some welcoming sites include the following:

Overall, the Board is committed to making the Summit accessible and inclusive. In selecting a Friday, we aim to recognize professional development as part of the workweek and respect our colleagues’ personal commitments. Please complete the feedback survey so that we can continue to be responsive as we plan for next year.

PD letters are on their way for anyone who completed the attendance sheets.

Sincerely,

Sarah Donovan and Gretchen Rumohr, Co-Directors

Ashley Boyd, Michelle Falter, Melanie Hundley, Chea Parton, Amy Piotrowski, Leilya Pitre, and Jessica Wiley, Advisory Board

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