Teaching Girls on Fire

Sarah Hentges is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Maine at Augusta. She also teaches women’s and gender studies and maintains a blog and website at www.cultureandmovement.com. Sean P. Connors is an associate professor of English education at the University of Arkansas. He is the host of The Storyteller’s Thread, a monthly podcast devoted to children’s and young adult literature.

• Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Girls on Fire: “Off the Page and Into the World” (Sean P. Connors and Sarah Hentges)Part One: Exploring New Ground for Girls on Fire Athletic Girls on Fire: Representations of the Female Athlete in The Hunger Games and ­Sports-Related Media (Wendy J. Glenn)From Girls on Fire to Historical Bad Girls: A Framework for Critiquing Postfeminism and Neoliberalism in YA Literature (Sean P. Connors and Lissette Lopez Szwydky)Teaching Feminisms: Triumphs and Failures in The Hunger Games Trilogy (Roberta Seelinger Trites) Part Two: #MeToo: Sexual Realities, Activism and EmpowermentYoung Adult Literature and Girls on Fire as Fuel for Teaching the #MeToo Movement (Arianna Banack, Caitlin Metheny and Amanda Rigell)Say Something, Do Something: Creating Allies and Agents Through The Nowhere Girls on Fire (Katie Sluiter and Gretchen Rumohr)Troubling Girls on Fire in Young Adult Literature: A Critical Examination of Systemic Violence and Sexual Trauma in Asking for(Kate Lechtenberg, Jenna Spiering, Amanda Haertling Thein and Nicole Ann Amato)Part Three: The Girl on Fire in the University Classroom On Teaching Girls Who Want to Burn: The Problems and Possibilities of Feminist Education (Tessa Pyles)It Starts with a Book: An Exemplary “Girl on Fire” and Her Undergraduate Thesis on Racial Social Justice (Katie Rybakova and Sydni Collier)Teaching Octavia Butler’s Diverse Body of Speculative Fiction: Genre, Race and the Radical Imaginary (Bryan Yazell)Teaching/Learning YA Dystopia’s Girls on Fire in Denmark’s Educational System and International Community (Sarah Hentges, Elaine Brum, Petra Ilic and Romaine Berry)Conclusion: “[Girls on Fire]: Tear This Wall Down!” International and Imaginative Contexts for Teaching Girls on Fire (Sarah Hentges)About the ContributorsIndex

“Teaching Girls on Fire does important work in the fields of pedagogy, social justice and activism, women's studies, and young adult literature, and is certain to be an excellent resource for scholars, educators, and students alike.”—Children’s Literature Association Quarterly