Holly Blackford (BS, MA, Northwestern University; PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is an Associate Professor in the English Dept. at Rutgers, Camden, where she teaches diverse courses in American, women's, and children's literature. She has published articles on diverse topics such as African-American literature, ethnic women's literature, coming-of-age rituals, film, fantasy literature for children, and pedagogy. Her first single-authored book, Out of This World: Why Literature Matters to Girls (Teachers College Press, education division of Columbia, 2004) analyzes the empirical reader-responses of girls.

Dr. Holly Blackford is currently researching the responses of diverse teens to To Kill A Mockingbird and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, two texts in which characters learn racial consciousness and narrate their own stories. She also has gathered an international community of scholars to create a Centennial Studies volume for L. M. Montgomery's 1908 Anne of Green Gables, and is working on a manuscript titled Fifty Years of the Mockingbird: Placing Harper Lee’s Novel in Literary and Cultural Context.”

“Civilization and Her Discontents: The Unsettling Nature of Ma in Little House in the Big Woods.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 29.1(forthcoming 2008).
 
“Child Consciousness in the American Novel: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), What Maisie Knew (1897), and the Birth of Developmental Psychology.” Enterprising Youth: Social Values and the Project of Acculturation in 19th-Century American Children’s Literature. Ed. Monika Elbert. NY: Routledge, forthcoming, 2008.

“Uncle Tom Melodrama with a Point of View: To Kill a Mockingbird.” Telling Children’s Stories: Children’s Literature and Narrative Theory. Ed. Michael Cadden. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming, 2008.
 
“Recipes for Reciprocity and Repression: The Politics of Cooking and Consumption in Girls’ Coming-of-Age Literature.”Critical Approaches to Food in Children’s Literature. Ed. Kara Keeling and Scott Pollard. New York: Routledge forthcoming, 2008.
 
“Apertures into the House of Fiction: Novel Methods and Child Study, 1870-1910.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 32.4 (2007): 368-89.

 “PC Pinocchios: Parents, Children, and the Metamorphosis Tradition in Science Fiction.” Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture. Ed. Sharon R. Sherman and Mikel J. Koven. Salt Lake: Utah State UP, 2007. 74-92.

“English.” Resources for Children and Childhood Studies: A Research Guide and Annotated Bibliography. Ed. Vibiana Bowman. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007. 148-69.

"The Psychology of the Handmaid: Margaret Atwood's Novel Parables of the
Canadian Character," AmeriQuests 3.1 (2006): 20 pp.
http://ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu

"Vital Signs at Play: Objects as Vessels of Mother-Daughter Discourse in Louisa
May Alcott's Little Women." Children's Literature 34 (Spring 2006): 1-36.

“’I’m a Real Boy!’ Consciousness of the Breath of Life in Literature of Childhood.”
Approaches to Teaching Pinocchio. New York: Modern Language Association, 2006: 68-74.

"Mrs. Darling's Scream: The Rites of Persephone in Wuthering Heights and
Peter and Wendy." Studies in the Humanities (Winter 2006): 116-44.

"Epistles, Posters, and Pizza: Letter-Exchange Programs at Rutgers-Camden."
Diversity Digest 9.2 (2005):
http://www.diversityweb.org/Digest/vol9no2/blackford.cfm

“ Haunted Housekeeping: Fatal Attractions of Servant and Mistress in Twentieth-Century Female Gothic Literature.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory (Fall 2005): 233-61.

“ The Wandering Womb at Home in The Red Tent: An Adolescent Bildungsroman in a Different Voice.” The ALAN Review, published by the National Council of Teachers of English, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (Winter 2005): 74-85.

Out of this World: Why Literature Matters to Girls. Language and Literacy Series. Teachers College Press, education division of Columbia University, 2004.

“Playground Panopticism: Ring-Around-The-Children, A Pocketful of Women.” Childhood, International Journal of Childhood Studies, 2004: 227-50.

“The Spirit of A People: The Politicization of Spirituality in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, Ntozake Shange’s sassafrass, cypress & indigo, and Ana Castillo’s So Far From God.” Things of the Spirit: Women Writers and Spirituality. Ed. Kristina Groover. University of Notre Dame Press, 2004: 89-106.

“And Why Do Girls Like Harry Potter?” What’s the Word? Radio program produced by the Modern Language Association, 2003.

“The Writing on the Wall of Redwall.” Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children. Eds. Elaine Ostry and Carrie Hintz. Routledge, 2003.

“Adventures in Virtualand: The Challenges of Teaching an On-line Children’s Literature Course.” Technology Source, refereed journal of The Michigan Virtual University (March/April 2003). http://ts.mivu.org (webcast available)

“Figures of Orality: The Master, The Mistress, The Slave Mother in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself.” Papers on Language and Literature 37.3 (September 2001): 314-36.

“Preface: My Lips, Sealed for your Protection.” Moon Days: Creative Writings About Menstruation. Ed. Cassie Premo Steele. Columbia, SC: Summerhouse Press, 1999: 12-23.

“Little Women on the Big Screen: Heterosexual Womanhood as Social Performance.” Sisterhoods. Film/Fiction 3. Eds. Deborah Cartmell, I.Q. Hunter, Heidi Kaye, and Imelda Whelehan. Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1998: 32-47.

Rutgers Research Council Fellowship, 2006

The Center for Children and Childhood Studies ($1250)
Project Title: "The Race Children Run in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and
To Kill A Mockingbird"

Elva Knight Research Grant ($9600) of the International Reading Association, 2004 (Project Title: Multicultural Responses to Canonical Voices: Teen Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird)

Bildner Foundation Intercultural Fellowship Renewal, 2004 (Project Title: Epistolary Exchange Program between LEAP and Rutgers Students)

Human Dignity Award for Diversity and Writing Outreach, 2004

Rutgers Research Council Fellowship, 2003 (Project Title: Multicultural Responses to Canonical Voices: Teen Readers of Huck Finn and Scout Finch)

Bildner Foundation Intercultural Fellow, 2003 (Project Title: Epistolary Exchange Program between High School and Rutgers Students)

Rutgers Dialogues Grant, 2003 (Project Title: WIRE: Writing in Rutgers Education, virtual website)

Outstanding Instructor Award, 2001

English Department Fellowship, 2000-2001

Mellon Fellowships, 1998, 1999-2000

The Rainbow Foundation for Children’s Research Grant, 1998

UC Berkeley English Department Fellowship, 1995-1996

“Reading Mark Twain’s Jim: Why He Presents Difficulty for Teens,” International Reading Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, May 2007.

"Transforming Literature into Festival: Reflection of History or Reinscription
of Racial Tension? Tourism and the Towns of Twain's Hannibal and Lee's
Monroeville," Children's Literature Association Conference, Manhattan Beach,
CA, June 2006

“The Race Children Run in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird” THE 17 TH BIENNIAL CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE, Dublin, Ireland, August 2005

“Recipes for Reciprocity and Repression: Food, Female Labor, and Mother-Daughter Relations in Children’s Literature” M ODERN L ANGUAGE A SSN. C ONFERENCE, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 2004

“The Role of Myth and Romance in the Development of the Literate Person: Teaching The Future Teachers the Links between Literary History and Reader Development” I NTERNATIONAL C ONFERENCE OF M YTH AND M EANING IN E DUCATION, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, September 2004

“Models of Childhood Studies Programs” C HILDREN’S L ITERATURE A SSN. C ONFERENCE, Fresno, California, June 2004

“The Wandering Womb at Home in The Red Tent: A Discussion of the Novel and Teen Readers newly initiated into its Cave of Wonders” C HILDREN’S L ITERATURE A SSN. C ONFERENCE, Fresno, California, June 2004

“The Ecological Movement of the Female Body in Surfacing by Margaret Atwood” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, San Diego, California, December 2003

“Beyond Identity Politics, Beyond Harry Potter: The Surprising Formalist Reading Practices of Girls 8-16” NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH, San Francisco, California, November 2003

“The White Child’s Gaze upon the Drama of African-American Manhood: Positioning The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird in
Trajectories of American Literature and Narrative Theory” CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSOCIATION, El Paso, Texas, June 2003

“The White Child’s Gaze upon the Drama of African-American Manhood: Positioning The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird in
Trajectories of American Literature, the History of Race, and Contemporary Theory” THE SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, Baltimore, Maryland, June 2003

“Research at the Center for Children and Childhood Studies” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, New York, New York, December 2002

“Teaching Teachers of the MTV Generation” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, New York, New York, December 2002

“Playground Panopticism: Ring-Around-The-Children, A Pocketful of Women”
CENTER FOR WORKING FAMILIES, CENTER FOR CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH POLICY, Berkeley, California, May 2002

“Teaching the MTV Generation” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2001

“Why Do Girls Like Harry Potter?” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 2001

“The American Girls Series and the Production of the American Subject” ROCKY MOUNTAIN MLA CONFERENCE, Boise, Idaho,October 2000

“Beauty in the Beast: Animal Power and Metamorphosis of Self in Girls’ Fantasy”
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSN. CONFERENCE, Roanoke, Virginia, June 2000

“The GirlPower of Aslan, Harry Potter, Baloo, and a Mouse Warrior: Girls Position Themselves within the Tradition of Transcendent American Fantasy” AMERICAN LITERATURE ASSN., Long Beach, California, May 2000

“Fantasy and Transcendent Possibilities for the Child” SOUTHWEST/TEXAS POPULAR CULTURE & AMERICAN CULTURE ASSN., Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2000

“Adventures in Virtualand: Formal Aspects of an On-line Children’s Literature Course” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, Chicago, Illinois, December 1999

“Magic Realism as the Residue of Black Female Experience: Ntozake Shange’s sassafrass, cypress & indigo” MODERN LANGUAGE ASSN. CONFERENCE, Chicago, Illinois, December 1999

“Girl Talk: Narratives Which Structure the Transition to Womanhood: The Powers of Horror” ROCKY MOUNTAIN MLA CONFERENCE, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 1999

“Incestuous Imprisonment: The Father-Daughter Dynamic in Dickens”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN MLA CONFERENCE, Denver, Colorado, October 1997

“’EAT ME,’ SPEAK ME, BUT PLEASE DON’T SEAL ME IN YOUR SONOROUS ENVELOPE: Listening to the Hunger of Alice in Wonderland” ROCKY MOUNTAIN MLA CONFERENCE, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 1996

“Child Friendly Research” MARKETING RESEARCH ASSN., Chicago, Illinois, November 1995

“Age Trumps Race: How Kids Read Jim of Huckleberry Finn,” Center for Children and Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, Camden, December 2007

“Women Writers Re-Vision Fairy Tales,” Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, March 2007

“Planning Graduate-Level Research,” Liberal Studies, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, December 2006

“The Research for Out of this World,” Eastern High School, Voorhees, New Jersey, December 2006

“Children’s Literature and the Heritage Industry: Mark Twain’s Hannibal and Harper Lee’s Monroeville,” Center for Children and Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, Camden, May 2006

"Peter Pan and Wuthering Heights: Women and Gothic Literature," Ocean County Libraries Staff Development Day, Tom's River, NJ, July 2006

"Stimulating Literacy in 0-7 year-olds," SLEDD Program, Neptune, NJ, Feb 2006

“Teaching Walt Whitman,” Walt Whitman and Place Conference Commemorating the 15 0th Anniversary of the Publication of Leaves of Grass, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, April 2005

“Reader-Response Theory and Huckleberry Finn” RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, March 2005

“Children’s Literature Among the Literati,” English Graduate Association series on “The Future of the Canon” R UTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, December 2004

“Digital Age Response to Student Writing: New Methods for Old Problems,” Teaching Matters Workshop for Writing-Intensive Faculty R UTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, November 2004

“The Brain in Science Fiction: Problems with the Computer Metaphor for Cognition,” Graduate Liberal Studies Series on “the Brain” R UTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, October 2004

“Writing Tips for TAs,” Dean’s Office New Teaching Assistant Orientation R UTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, September 2004

“Preparing for college reading and writing” GILL ST. BARNARD’S COLLEGE PREP SCHOOL, Peapack, NJ, May 2004

“Scout Finch and Huck Finn Have a Tale to Spin,” Associate Seminar Series, Center for Children and Childhood Studies RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, Camden, NJ, February 2004

“Engaging Girls by Teaching Literary Form” Professional Development Videoconferencing Outreach Series RUTGERS OFFICE OF CONTINUOUS EDUCATION AND OUTREACH, New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 2003

“To Roam and Come Home: Wind in the Willows.” UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, English Department, October 1998

“Desire in Little Women” UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, Slavic Department, November 1997

“Little Women: Celebration of Female Community or Gender Ambivalence?”
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXTENSION, ON-LINE Lecture Notes: Classics of Children’s Literature. Berkeley: UC Regents, 1997.