Dahlen to deliver 2020 Gryphon Lecture

Sarah Park Dahlen

Sarah Park Dahlen (MS '09, PhD '09), iSchool research fellow and associate professor in the Master of Library and Information Science Program at St. Catherine University, will deliver the 2020 Gryphon Lecture on November 12. Sponsored annually by The Center for Children's Books (CCB), the lecture features a leading scholar in the field of youth and literature, media, and culture.

In "(Re)Presenting Korea: The Carpenters and the White American Imaginary," Dahlen will discuss how the writings of Frances and Frank Carpenter influenced Asian American youth literature.

Frances Carpenter was a 20th century writer who authored several children's books that were partially influenced by her travels with her father, Frank Carpenter, a journalist and travel writer. In 1908, they visited Korea while Japan was in the process of annexing the country. This trip and her continuing interest in Korea thereafter, likely inspired her writing of the children's folktale collection, Tales of a Korean Grandmother (1947). This book, in turn, inspired Newbery Award winner Linda Sue Park to write Seesaw Girl, her first chapter book.

Through her analysis of the Carpenters' archives, Dahlen hypothesizes that "Carpenter wrote compassionately about Koreans, despite the larger geopolitical context in which she published, because of her visits to Korea and experiences with Korean people."

"It was at the University of Illinois that my journey with Frances Carpenter really began," said Dahlen. "I first started studying Carpenter in Dr. Christine Jenkins' History of Children's Literature class in the 2000s; only recently did I begin to revisit Tales of a Korean Grandmother and decide to make it my next research project."

Dahlen's research addresses transracially adopted Koreans in children's literature, the information behaviors of adopted Koreans, and diversity in children's literature and library education. She is co-founder of the scholarly journal Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, with Gabrielle Halko, and co-editor of Diversity in Youth Literature: Opening Doors Through Reading (2013), with Jamie Campbell Naidoo. She facilitated the creation of the 2015 and 2018 Diversity in Children's Books Infographics based on data from the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Library Trends "Seventieth Anniversary Celebration" now available

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce the publication of Library Trends 71 (2). This issue, "Seventieth Anniversary Celebration Issue of Library Trends: Influence, Reach, Visibility, and Engagement," reflects the international contributions the journal has made to the field of library and information science.

Library Trends 71

Capshaw to deliver 2024 Gryphon Lecture

Katharine Capshaw, professor of English and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Connecticut, will deliver the 2024 Gryphon Lecture on March 21. Sponsored annually by the Center for Children's Books (CCB), the lecture features a leading scholar in the field of youth and literature, media, and culture.

Katharine Capshaw

Campus-community partnership launches new maker-in-residence program

A new program co-led by the Champaign-Urbana Community (CUC) Fab Lab aims to bridge and enhance the creative capabilities of local maker communities. The Champaign County Community (CCC) Maker-in-Residence Program was recently awarded a $29,293 grant through the Campus-Community Compact to Accelerate Social Justice initiative in the Office of Public Engagement.

Cu Community Fab Lab

Get to know Mojgan Momeni, executive director

Now the executive director of the World Innovations Network, Mojgan Momeni (MSLIS '09) credits her iSchool experience with leading her to discover her true passion—creating an innovative and entrepreneurial network model for global collaboration.

Mojgan Momeni

Kato joins recruitment and admission team

Todd Kato joined the iSchool on January 29 as a senior admissions and records manager. In this position, he will develop and implement innovative programs and processes for admission and records management across all the School's degree programs.

Todd Kato