Meghan Sweeney

Dr. Meghan Sweeney is Associate Professor of English and has been the Graduate Coordinator of the M.A. in English since 2013. She oversaw the creation of the B.A./M.A. program in English and has played a role in other changes to the graduate program, including the switch to a portfolio model. She particularly enjoys showing students the relevance of humanities degrees in the twenty-first century and strengthening English department connections among undergraduate and graduate students. Her work has appeared in Children's Literature Association Quarterly, The Journal of Popular Music Studies, The Lion and the Unicorn, and other journals and edited collections. With Jonathan Silverman, she co-edited Remaking the American College Campus, a collection of essays on the cultural, economic, and aesthetic significance of campus spaces. Recently, she has increased her sustainability efforts in the community, through work with Friends School of Wilmington and at UNCW, with Sustainable Networks, which led to new coalitions of scholar-teachers. She helped co-lead the efforts for a large-team SAIL (Seahawks Advancing Interdisciplinary Learning) that will begin in fall 2025 and will use zines—short, DIY magazines that are created, copied, and distributed within networks—to communicate complicated information about flooding and water quality in the Cape Fear region.

Education

Ph.D. in English, State University of New York at Buffalo

M.A. in English, State University of New York at Buffalo

B.A. in English, John Carroll University

Specialization in Teaching

Dr. Sweeney teaches these and other courses in our program: ENG 286: Critical Theory and Practice, ENG 379: Comics and Graphic Narratives, ENG 380: Literature for Children, ENG 381: Literature for Young Adults, ENG 418: Research Methods,
ENG 501: Introduction to Research Methods in English, ENG 564: Studies in Children’s and YA Literature: Adaptation, and ENG 580: Graphic Narratives and Illustrated Texts

Research Interests

Dr. Sweeney has worked primarily in the field of children's literature, focusing on American children's literature of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. She has published numerous articles on wedding culture in twentieth-century fiction and popular media for youth audiences. More recently, she has worked on issues of sustainability in children's literature and, with Nicholas Laudadio, is exploring the unexpected ways that children's culture has shaped twentieth-century experimental music.

Selected Recent Work:
“How are YOU Going to Save the Planet?’ the Trope of the Eco-Warrior Girl in Mini-Biographies for Children.” Children’s Literature Quarterly. Forthcoming spring 2025.

“Beyond the Eco-Warrior Child in Contemporary Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature in Place: Surveying the Landscapes of Children’s Culture. Edited by Željka Flegar and Jennifer Miskec, Routledge, 2024.

“Way Out Music for Way Out Kids: Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson’s Experimental Electronic Music Collaborations.” Co-authored with Nicholas Laudadio. The Journal of Popular Music Studies, vol. 32, no. 4, Fall 2020. pp. 60-74.

Professional Service

Reviewer for the journal Children's Literature
Previous member of committees of the Children's Literature Association, including the Judith Plotz Emerging Scholar Award and the Grants Committee

Community Engagement

Clerk of Friends School of Wilmington Green Team
Co-host of former "What's Your Story?" Wednesdays

Honors & Awards

Graduate Faculty Mentor Award
Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award
Discere Aude