Yvonne Medina

I earned my doctorate in English literature at the University of Florida where I specialized in children’s literature and critical disability studies. My dissertation, Disability and the Maturation Plot: Coming of Age for the Disabled Child Protagonist, explores how children’s authors plot maturation around disability, often positioning disability as a catalyzing experience for individual growth. I examine disability and critique ability privileging in Anglophone children’s literature from the Victorian era into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in a wide range of children’s fiction and life writing from British, American, and Australian literary traditions. ​My other research areas include Francophone children’s literature, boyhood studies, and the Robinsonade tradition (castaway novels.)

My research in critical disability studies informs my pedagogical approach which is responsive to the needs of varied learning styles and neurotypes. Transparency about expectations, universal accessibility, and a commitment to hearing from every student promotes this collaborative spirit.