Associate Professor Carol Tilley is the co-author of a chapter in The Routledge Companion to Comics, a newly published book edited by Frank Bramlett, Roy T. Cook, and Aaron Meskin. In the chapter, "Teaching and Learning with Comics," Tilley and Robert G. Weiner, a humanities librarian at Texas Tech University, examine how comics have been used as an instructional tool:
This chapter emphasizes the use of comics in formal instructional settings, although some examples and discussions touch on elements of nontraditional and informal learning settings. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide a detailed review of the full history of conventionally published and educational comics used for teaching and learning, but we will highlight both historical and contemporary texts and practices with a focus on the United States. Furthermore, the emphasis will be on positive examples of practice rather than on critiques of comics as educational tools. Finally, we will touch on developments in scholarship and research that pertain to teaching and learning with comics.
"I'm pleased to be able to integrate some original research about the little known 1940s & 50s Comics Workshop at New York University. There's much left to tell about it, but this chapter offers a glimpse of what was perhaps the first comics studies program at the university level," said Tilley.
At the iSchool, Tilley teaches courses in comics reader's advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship. Part of her scholarship focuses on the intersection of young people, comics, and libraries, particularly in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children's Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham was featured in The New York Times and other media outlets.