Thomas Crisp
Associate Professor - Focus on Literacy Early Childhood and Elementary Education- Specializations
Children's and young adult literature, media, and culture; literacy instruction; critical multiculturalism; identity politics and queer theory
- Biography
Thomas Crisp is an associate professor of literacy and children’s literature in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education. His professional work focuses on issues of representation in children’s and young adult literature, media and culture. His research and scholarship centers primarily on youth literature by and/or about people who self-identify as LGBTQ+. His professional writing can be found in academic books and professional journals, such as Reading Research Quarterly, Children’s Literature in Education, English Journal, Language Arts, Taboo: The Journal of Education and Culture, The Journal of LGBT Youth, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Lion and the Unicorn, Journal of Children’s Literature, International Research in Children’s Literature, Voice of Youth Advocates, and the Horn Book Magazine. He is also the co-editor of Reading and Teaching with Diverse Nonfiction Children’s Books: Representations and Possibilities (NCTE Press, 2021). Crisp is currently Past-President of the Children’s Literature Association, co-editor of the Journal of Children’s Literature, and is an Internationale Jugendbibliothek/International Youth Library Fellow. He also created and leads the department’s study abroad program in Munich, Germany titled, “Global and Intercultural Understanding through Youth Literature.” In 2021, Crisp received the College of Education & Human Development’s Outstanding Faculty Service to the Profession Award.
- Publications
Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., & Gardner, R. P. (2021). Reading and teaching with diverse nonfiction children’s books: Representations and possibilities. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Crisp, T. (2021). Children’s and young adult literature (2nd edition). Oxford Bibliographies in Education.
May, L., Crisp, T., Bingham, G., Pickens, M. T., & Schwartz, R. (2020). The hybrid nature of science trade books: A purpose-driven typology. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(3), 399-418.
Crisp, T. (2018). Beyond Harold and Dumbledore: (Re-)Considering children’s books depicting gay males. The Journal of LGBT Youth, 15(4), 353-369.
Crisp, T. (2018). Beyond Harold and Dumbledore: (Re-)Considering children’s books depicting gay males. The Journal of LGBT Youth, 44(1), e1-e7.
Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., & Gardner, R. P. (2018). Diverse nonfiction children’s literature in the university. Journal of Children’s Literature, 44(1), e1-e7.
Crisp, T., Gardner, R., & Almeida, M. (2018). Depicting LGBTQ identities in award-winning children’s nonfiction: A critical content analysis of Orbis Pictus Award books, 1990-2017. Children’s Literature in Education, 49(3), 246-263.
Stiles, J., & Crisp, T. (2018). Where do we go from here?: Resources to connect, engage, and inspire. In D. A. Wooten and B. E. Cullinan (Eds.), Children’s literature in the reading program: Engaging young readers in the 21st century (5th edition) (pp. 203-222). Newark, DE: International Literacy Association.
Liang, L., Parsons, L., & Crisp, T. (2017). Diverse children’s literature at the university. Journal of Children’s Literature, 43(1), e5-e10.
Crisp, T., Knezek, S. M., ⧾Quinn, M., Bingham, G., ⧾Girardeau, K., & ⧾Starks, F. (2016). What’s on our bookshelves?: The diversity of children’s literature in early childhood classroom libraries. Journal of Children’s Literature, 42(2), 29-42.
Crisp, T., & King, J. (2016). “I just love kids…is that a problem?”: Desire, suspicion, and other good reasons men don’t choose elementary grades teaching. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 15(1), 41-60. Available free online.
Crisp, T. (2016). Queer children’s and young adult literature and the need for inclusive library spaces. Voice of Youth Advocates, 39(2), 20-22.
Crisp, T. (2015). A content analysis of Orbis Pictus Award-winning nonfiction, 1990-2014. Language Arts, 92(4), 241-255. Available free online.