I love helping my students understand how they fit into the world around them.

Rebecca Rowe, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Children's Literature

  • Faculty
Literature and Languages
Contact Rebecca
Office
David Talbot Hall of Languages 141
Related Department
Literature and Languages

Dr. Rowe is a passionate professor of children's literature who has a lifelong love for stories, Disney and world cultures. She often visits Walt Disney World, not only as a fan who enjoys the shows and attractions but also as a scholar who conducts research on the media and messages of the parks. She explores how children's media is constructed and received by various audiences and how it shapes their views of themselves and the world. She also loves teaching her students to find their own voices and to critically analyze the media they encounter every day. For her, teaching is the most fulfilling and rewarding aspect of her career.

A Conversation With Dr. Rebecca Rowe

Why do you like teaching?

More than anything, I've always loved helping people, and that's how I view my teaching. I'm helping my students understand how they fit into the world around them. I'm helping them find, strengthen and use their voice. I'm helping them analyze and understand the various media they engage with daily. I love getting to know my students, their education and life goals, and getting to walk along their paths with them for a while, helping them achieve whatever they set their minds to. Getting to listen to my students and watching them grow as thinkers and scholars really is just the most rewarding part of my career.

Why did you choose your research area?

I knew pretty early on that I wanted to be an English professor, mainly because I've always loved stories so much. I decided to focus on children's literature simply because it's the type of literature that I love most. My particular focus on childhood and adulthood as seen in children's media came about partially because of a conversation between my mom and uncle when I was working on my bachelor’s degree. He asked her when I was going to stop watching “all that kid's stuff.” My mom simply responded, “When her dad does.” It was the first time that I really understood that it was unusual for me (and my parents) to regularly engage with children's media. I was confused by the idea that we would suddenly be interested in a different kind of media when we hit a specific age and decided I needed to understand how my uncle and I could have such differing opinions on when children's media is appropriate. From there, I started researching what made children's literature “for children” and why adults love it so much if it's supposedly not intended for them. Understanding audiences, both real and implied, eventually became my main research focus.

What is a project you are working (academic or otherwise) on or have completed?

I'm founding and editing the International Journal of Disney Studies, the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to all things Disney, with my colleague Robyn Muir at the University of Surrey. We're working with scholars from every continent besides Antarctica to bring together research from a wide range of disciplines (including literature, film, media studies, cultural studies, fan studies sociology, psychology, musicology, business and tourism studies) to better understand how this media behemoth affects our lives and cultures.

What is your favorite vacation destination?

As a scholar and a fan, I'd have to say Walt Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida. I grew up going there with my family and some of my fondest childhood memories took place there. Now, I still love the Parks, especially being able to see that many shows in such a short amount of time. Also, as a Disney scholar, going there doubles as a research trip, which is highly convenient.

What did you want to be when you were a child?

At different points in time, I wanted to be an actress, a marine biologist and an archeologist (among other things). I think that my job as a professor is a strange combination of what drew me to each of those careers: I get to perform in front of a class of people and learn new things about cultures through my research. If I can just figure out how to make swimming with dolphins a regular part of my work, I'll hit the trifecta!

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A Conversation with Dr. FirstName LastName

What would you tell a student who is thinking about attending A&M-Commerce?

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How has A&M-Commerce influenced your life and/or career?

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Tell us about an academic project you are working on or recently completed.

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Education

  • Ph.D., English, University of Connecticut, 2021
  • M.A., English, Children's Literature Track, Kansas State University, 2016
  • B.A., English Literature and History, Hollins University, 2014

Research Interests

  • Children’s Literature, Media and Culture
  • Film and Television
  • Visual Culture
  • Popular Culture
  • Fans and Fandom
  • Digital Humanities

Teaching Areas

  • Children's and Adolescent Literature
  • Film
  • English Education
  • Digital Humanities
  • ENG 300 Reading, Analyzing, Teaching Literature
  • ENG 305 Children's Literature
  • ENG 406 Adolescent Literature
  • ENG 504 Graphic Narratives
  • ENG 505 History of Children's Literature
  • ENG 506 Problems in Adolescent Literature
  • ENG 507 Children and Adaptation
  • ENG 508 Reality in Children's Literature

Honors and Awards

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Research Interests

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Digital Projects

  • Our Teaching Materials Archive: A digital archive of the teaching materials students develops in Dr. Rowe’s courses (with student permission, of course) so students can benefit from each other's ideas, both in class and on the job, along with additional teaching resources curated by myself.
  • Multimodality, Film, and You: an educational website for students designing multimodal projects to explore how different media will interact with exploration and presentation of film.

Selected Publications

  • Rowe, R. (2022). Disney Does Disney: Re-Releasing, Remaking, and Retelling Animated Films for a New Generation, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 50:3, 98-111, DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2022.2094868
  • Rowe, R. (2021). Who Gets to Be on the Bus? Tracing Conceptions of Race in and around The Magic School Bus from 1986 to 2018. The Lion and the Unicorn 45(3), 274-290. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/853489
  • Rowe, R. (2019). A Tale of Two Mothers: Recombining Villainy and Motherhood in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Gender and Female Villains in 21st Century Fairy Tale Narratives: From Evil Queens to Wicked Witches, edited by Natalie Le Clue and Janelle Vermaak-Griessel, Emerald Publishing, 2022, 35-46.
  • Rowe, R., Henderson, T., & Wang, T. (2021). Text mining, Hermione Granger, and fan fiction: What's in a name? Transformative Works and Cultures. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.1997
  • Rowe, R. (2019). Shaping girls: Analyzing animated female body shapes. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1746847719829871
  • Rowe, R. (2018). The more accuracy the better? Analysing adaptation reception in reaction videos. OUP Academic. https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apx026

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