Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell, professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the recipient of the 2014 Virginia Hamilton Essay Honor Award for her paper, “Multicultural Young Adult Literature as a Form of Counter-Storytelling.” The Virginia Hamilton Essay Award recognizes a published journal article that “makes a significant contribution to professional literature concerning multicultural literacy experiences for youth.”

“Counter-storytelling is defined by critical race theory scholars as a method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told, including people of color, the poor, and members of the LGBTQ community. This article discusses multicultural young adult literature as a form of counter-storytelling, with an emphasis on how counter-stories challenge the stereotypes often held by the dominant culture, give voice to marginalized youth, and present the complexity of racial and ethnic identify formation,” according to the essay abstract.

Hughes-Hassell’s article was published in “The Library Quarterly” in July 2013. As recipient of the Virginia Hamilton Essay Award, she will be recognized at the Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature held at Kent State University in April 2014. The conference, now in its 30th year, is the longest running conference dedicated to multicultural literacy for youth in the world.

In addition to having this article published in “The Library Quarterly,” Hughes-Hassell recently co-authored a Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) publication titled “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: A Call to Action.”

This publication highlights some of the demographics, habits and knowledge of today’s teens. It also describes steps necessary for libraries to fully accommodate teens’ needs. This report was published following the “Future of Teens and Libraries Summit.”

According to the report, the summit, hosted by YALSA, “examined the current state of library services for and with young adults and explored how library services need to evolve to meet the needs of 21st- century adolescents.”

To view the full report, visit http://www.ala.org/yaforum/sites/ala.org.yaforum/files/content/YALSA_nationalforum_final.pdf

To view Sandra Hughes-Hassel’s essay, “Multicultural Young Adult Literature as a Form of Counter-Storytelling,” visit http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670696  

 

 

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Wanda Monroe

Director of Communications

School of Information and Library Science

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

04 Manning Hall, CB#3360

Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3360

919.843.8337

sils.unc.edu

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