What kinds of dissertations do students write?
ASU has a long history of scholarship in adolescent literature. Students have written about specific authors (Karen Hesse), topics (characters’ religious development) and genres (the archetypal journey in winners of the Coretta Scott King Award). When Professor Ken Donelson retired in May of 2002, he donated an 800-book collection of historical adolescent literature to Hayden Library. These books, housed in Special Collections, could be a resource for students working in the history of books read by teenagers. The ASU Library also holds a nationally acclaimed collection of materials dealing with the history of children’s theater. Qualitative studies have been conducted in relation to questions on gender and literacy (both that of children and of well established women English teachers). A doctoral student from another university came to ASU and wrote her dissertation on the program that Professor Lynn Nelson has developed to work with Native American students, while one of our students
