Department of English

Meghan Sweeney

Associate ProfessorMeghan Sweeney
Morton Hall 159
910.962.3054
sweeneym@uncw.edu

Degrees

Ph.D., State University of New York, Buffalo
M.A., State University of New York, Buffalo
B.A., John Carroll University

Academic Interests

Dr. Sweeney teaches courses in children's literature, critical theory, and popular culture. Her current research examines twentieth- and twenty-first-century American children's literature and culture. She is particularly interested in the ways that the books, clothing, and rituals of the wedding industry have been marketed to young girls in the United States.

Courses Taught

ENG 230: Women in Literature
ENG 380: Literature for Children
ENG 381: Literature for Young Adults
ENG 386: Critical Theory and Practice
ENG 564: Studies in Children's/YA Literature

Major Publications

  • Co-editor, with Jonathan Silverman. Remaking the American College Campus. McFarland Press, 2016.

  •  “Whether Willing or Unwilling: the Personal, the Professional, and Two Years of Too Much.” Letting Go: Feminist and Social Justice Insights and Activism. Eds. Donna King and Kay G. Valentine. Vanderbilt UP, 2015. 91-102.

  •  “You Don’t Have to Be Here.” Best Practices in University Teaching. 2nd ed. Ed. Diana Ashe and Carrie Clements. Wilmington: Center for Teaching Excellence, 2014. 49-56.
  •   “‘A Solemn and Strange and Perilous Thing’: Rereading a Reading of Jane Eyre.” Jane Eyre: Critical Insights. Ed. Katie Peel. Salem Press, 2014. 227-42.
  • "'Where Happily Ever After Happens Every Day': Disney's Official Princess Website and the Commodification of Play." Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, and Cultures. 3.2 (2012): 66-87.
  • "Rethinking Ugliness: Lynda Barry in the Classroom." The ALAN Review. 37.3 (2010): 23-30.
  • "Here Comes the (Daughter of the) Bride: Parental Weddings in Contemporary Girls' Series Books."Children's Literature in Education. 40.1 (2009): 1-18.
  • "'Like a Vanishing World: the Role of the County Fair in Three Depression Era Children's Books." Children's Literature Quarterly 32 (2007): 142-162.
  • "Better a Bridesmaid Than a Bride: Nuptial Sisterhood in Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy's Wedding." Lion and the Unicorn 31.1 (2007): 1-20.
  • "Checking Out America: Libraries as Agents of Acculturation." Children's Literature 33 (2005): 41-65.