

Dr. Derritt Mason, PhD
Positions
Associate Professor
Educational Leader in Residence (Online & Blended Learning)
Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, TI Academic and Research Team
Contact information
Phone number
Office: 403.220.3395
Location
Office: SS1112
For media enquiries, contact
Heath McCoy
Senior Communications Specialist
403.220.5089
403.607.8461 (cell)
hjmccoy@ucalgary.ca
I'm looking for...
Research partners
At the moment, I am only accepting inquiries from prospective graduate students who are interested in video game studies and children's/young adult literature.
Background
Educational Background
Ph.D., English, University of Alberta, 2015
M.A., Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, McMaster University, 2006
B.A. (Hons), Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, 2004
Biography
Primarily, I research and teach at the intersection of children's and young adult literature, queer theory, and media/cultural studies; I also have growing interest and expertise in video game studies and the scholarship of teaching and learning. I am the author of Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture (UP of Mississippi, 2021). With Kenneth B. Kidd, I co-edited Queer as Camp: Essays on Summer, Style, and Sexuality (Fordham UP, 2019), which won the Children's Literature Association Edited Book Award in 2021. Otherwise, my publications include essays on:
- Teaching close reading in the English classroom (Pedagogy 22.3)
- Queer representation in children's animation (Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture 6.3)
- Children and virtuality (The Lion and the Unicorn 45.1)
- Teaching and learning with "Let's Play" videos (Teaching & Learning Inquiry 9.1)
- The keyword "trans" in children's literature studies (Keywords for Children's Literature, 2nd Ed., 2021)
- The history of queer representation in picture books (Literary Cultures and Twenty-First Century Childhoods, 2020)
- Horror and slasher film tropes in queer young adult literature (with Joshua Whitehead, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature 2.1)
- A queer adolescent trope I call the "Earnest Elfin Dream Gay" (Public Books, 2018)
- The history of childhood and perversity (Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 3.1)
I also co-edited, with Ela Przybylo, a special issue of ESC (40.1) entitled Hysteria Manifest: Cultural Lives of a Great Disorder. For more, see my personal webpage.
Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
Course number | Course title | Semester |
---|---|---|
ENGL 685/529 | Video Games and the Bildungsroman | Winter 2022 |
ENGL 426 | Queer Theory and Video Games | Winter 2021 |
ENGL 396 | Literature for Young People | Fall 2020 |
Awards
- Teaching Excellence Award, Students' Union, University of Calgary. 2021
- Edited Book Award (for Queer as Camp), Children's Literature Association. 2021
- Outstanding Early Career Teacher, Faculty of Arts, University of Calgary. 2020
- Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2019
- Wayne O. McCready Resident Fellowship for an Emerging Scholar, Calgary Institute for the Humanities. 2019
Publications
- Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture. University Press of Mississippi. 246. (2021)
- Queer as Camp: Essays on Summer, Style, and Sexuality. Co-edited with Kenneth B. Kidd. Fordham University Press. 256. (2019)
In the News
- Derritt Mason, "Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture". New Books Network (Podcast). (2021)
- Three Questions with Derritt Mason. Calgary Public Library. (2019)
- What’s the Price of Invisibility? Changing Perceptions of Gender Through Representation in Art. University of Calgary. (2019)
- Highlights from Dr. Derritt Mason's Lecture. National Center for the Study of Children's Literature. (2018)
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