Annette Wannamaker

Annette Wannamaker serves as Professor and Children's Literature Program Coordinator in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University. Her academic leadership encompasses curriculum development for specialized children's literature courses and program coordination within the university's literature studies framework.

Her educational qualifications include:

• Ph.D. in Literature, Bowling Green State University (1997)
• M.A. in English, Virginia Commonwealth University (1992)
• B.A. in Communications, Virginia Tech (1987)

Wannamaker's research centers on children's and adolescent literature with critical examinations of media culture, folktales, and theoretical frameworks. Her scholarship investigates how literary representations construct childhood identities through intersections of gender, power, and cultural narratives, particularly in graphic novels and popular series. This theoretical approach extends to analyzing linguistic structures in canonical texts like Catcher in the Rye and posthuman themes in contemporary young adult fiction.

Her 17-year publication trajectory (2000-2017) reveals concentrated expertise in graphic narrative analysis (especially Bone), Harry Potter studies, and folktales reinterpretation. Methodologically, her work consistently applies cultural theory to examine power dynamics in children's media, with recurring attention to marginalized perspectives and subversive textual elements across diverse formats from comics to film adaptations.

Her scholarly impact is recognized through:

• ChLA recommended book shortlist (2010) for Boys in Children's Literature and Popular Culture
• ChLA Honor Award (runner-up, 2018) for edited collection The Early Reader in Children's Literature and Culture

While her teaching portfolio includes graduate seminars on children's literature criticism and undergraduate courses in folktales, no specific grant funding or student advising details appear in available records. Her editorial work demonstrates significant field contribution through multi-author collections addressing global perspectives and mediated boyhoods.