Ithaca College

On July 14, Jeane Copenhaver-Johnson and Madeline S. May presented “Affirming Gender Expression for All: An Analysis of YA Realistic Fiction with Gender-Creative Protagonists” at the 29thAnnual Whole Language Umbrella’s Literacies for All Summer Institute in Baltimore. The researchers shared the results of a two-year content analysis of young adult novels with transgender and gender-creative protagonists, with particular emphasis on how this body of work offers (and often does not) affirming and believable representations of transgender protagonists and supporting/ally characters. The researchers also presented another portion of their study at the Literacy Essentials 12thAnnual Conference at Central Connecticut State University in April.