Graduation Term

Summer 2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of English

Committee Chair

Roberta Seelinger Trites

Committee Member

Mary Jeanette Moran

Committee Member

Meghann F. Meeusen

Abstract

My dissertation extends existing work on mental health in children’s literature to examine the different narratives strategies that text, film, and media for young audiences use to connect childhood, caregiving, and emotional wellbeing. Three areas of scholarship—children’s literature scholarship, health humanities work, and feminist care ethics—inform my project. Overall, I am interested in how a variety of genres for young readers represent mental health not only as an individual experience, but also as something shaped by family, culture, community, and adult-child relationships. It is therefore important to delineate the different concepts and frameworks that help make sense of how mental health is represented, mediated, and supported across these texts. I theorize a range of narrative approaches that move from overly individualized or simplified portrayals of mental health to more relational, contextual, and culturally attentive representations. I argue that narratives which place children and adults in shared systems of care tent to portray mental health in more thoughtful, ethical, and sustainable ways.

Access Type

Dissertation-Open Access

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