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Research and Publications

Academic Articles and Book Chapters

  • “‘Fixing Stories’ Is ‘Sure a Lot of Work’: Watching the ‘Men’s Dance’ in Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water," in Making it Like a Man: Canadian Masculinities in Practice, edited by Christine Ramsay, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011. 171-84.
  • "What Children’s Writing? Read by Whom, How, and To What Ends?: A Response to 'Quand l’enfant parle et que l’adulte se met à écouter, ou la littérature enfantine de retour à sa source'" by Sebastien Chapleau." Invited response in Canadian Children's Literature 34.1, Spring 2008: 106-115.
  • “‘The Cigar Was Essential’: The Circulation of Power in Roald Dahl’s Matilda,” in The Politics and the Political in Books for Children and Young Adults, edited by Laurie Ousley, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008.
  • Digital "Reception": Hearing "Stereo" in Matilda through Children's Web-Based Reader Response in Computing in the Humanities Working Papers January 2007: http://www2.arts.ubc.ca/chwp/CHC2005/.
  • “Queer (and Not-So-Queer) Childhoods.” Peer-reviewed article about Mom and Mum Are Getting Married!, Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children, and Hear Me Out: True Stories of Teens Educating and Confronting Homophobia. Canadian Children’s Literature (Fall 2006).
  • “When Men Have Babies: The Good Father in A Good Baby” in White Gloves of the Doorman: The Works of Leon Rooke, Ed. Branko Gorjup, Toronto: Exile Editions, 2004. 252-68.
  • “‘Here’s to Holy Fathers’: From the Law of the Father to the Love of a Father in Michael Ondaatje’s Writing” in Re-Constructing the Fragments of Michael Ondaatje’s Works: La diversité déconstruite et reconstruite de l’oeuvre d Michael Ondaatje, Ed. Jean-Michel Lacroix, Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, October 1999: 41-62.
  • “‘The Only Dirty Word’: The Rape of April Raintree,” article in critical edition of In Search of April Raintree, Ed. Cheryl Suzack, Peguis Publishers, September 1999.
  • “When Men Have Babies: The Good Father in A Good Baby.” Textual Studies in Canada 8 (1996). “Masculinities in Canadian Literature” issue. Guest eds. D. Coleman and Dr. C. Bullock: 96-108.
  • “Metaphor, Metonymy, and ‘Metaphoric Narration’ in Elizabeth Hay’s Captivity Tales: Canadians in New York” in Diverse Landscapes: Re-Reading Place across Cultures in Contemporary Canadian Writing. Selected Proceedings of the Inter-National Regions Conference. Eds. Karin Beeler and Dee Horne. University of Northern British Columbia Press, 1996: 100-119.
  • “‘The Prick and Its Vagaries’: Men, Reading, Kroetsch.” Essays on Canadian Writing 55 (June 1995). The George Wicken Prize in Canadian Literature for 1994: 115-39.

Trade and Professional Articles

  • “Drop Everything and Read All Over: Literacy and Loving It.” The Horn Book, November 1997
  • “‘Virtual English’: Multimedia Presentation in Literature Teaching.” ACCUTE Newsletter, Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, September 1996: 13-18.

Review Articles

  • “Where West Meets North.” Book review of Coyote Country: Fictions of the Canadian West by Arnold E. Davidson. Essays on Canadian Writing 61 (1997): 174-78.
  • “‘Dry Bones’ and ‘Fictional Flesh’: A Structuralist Reading of Margaret Laurence.” Book review of The Crafting of Chaos: Narrative Structure in Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel and The Diviners by Hildegard Kuester. Essays on Canadian Writing 58 (1996): 65-70. 

Reviews

  • “Pocahontas: The ‘Emptiness Inside.’” Film review. Canadian Children’s Literature 83 (1996): 142-43.
  • “Existence and Life.” Book review of Shelby by Pete McCormack and Invisible Man at the Window by Monique Proulx. Canadian Literature 150 (1996): 132-34.
  • “Diamonds and Shit.” Book review of Leonard Cohen: A Life in Art by Ira Nadel and Take This Waltz: A Celebration of Leonard Cohen ed. by Michael Fournier and Ken Norris. Canadian Literature 150 (1996): 134-36.
  • “Missing Gold in Muppet Treasure Island.” Film review. Canadian Children’s Literature 82 (1996): 111-112.
  • “‘Lovers in a Dangerous Time.’” Book review of Cerberus by Rai Berzins and Sweetheart by Peter McGehee. Canadian Literature 147 (Winter 1995): 147-48.

Conference Papers

  • "Wild Animals They Have Tried to Know: Ventriloquism as Silencing in Realistic Animal Stories for Children," Silence and Silencing in Children's Literature, 24th Biennial Congress of the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL), Stockholm, Sweden. 14 August 2019.
  • "Writing and Reading an Indigenous Adolescent: 'Cultural Appropriation' or 'Imaginative Empathy' in Lesley Choyce's Jeremy Stone," Borders, Territories and Transitions in Children's Literature, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, 5 April 2019.
  • "Writing Children's Voices: Youth in Crisis in Deborah Ellis's Nonfiction," Aesthetics, Pedagogies and Literatures: New Theoretical Approaches to Literary Research, Santiago, Chile, 7 September 2018.
  •  “All Children Play?” presentation as part of a roundtable at Wee Theatre Festival, Theatre Direct, Toronto, 17 May 2016.
  • “How a Picture Book Comes to Be: The Making of Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay,” Challenging Reading: English-Language Education with Children and Teenagers, University of Münster, Germany, 10 March 2016.
  • “In Search of ‘Other’ Readers: Reading Non-Aboriginal Readers Reading Aboriginal Texts,” Challenging Reading: English-Language Education with Children and Teenagers, University of Münster, Germany, 11 March 2016.
  • “Children in Love: Representations of Romance in Children’s Literature and Film," Creating Childhoods, 22nd Biennial Congress of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL), University of Worcester, UK, 8-12 August 2015.
  • “Implied Readers in Margaret Atwood’s Children’s Books,” Margaret Atwood’s Children, Margaret Atwood Society, Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2015, University of Ottawa, May-June 2015.
  • “Through Memory, Past, Present, Future: The Challenge of Young People Reading In Search of April Raintree,” Time, Space and Memory in Literature for Children and Young Adults, The Child and the Book Conference, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 10-12 April 2014.
  • “Multimodal Munsch: Picturebooks as Performance,” Children’s Literature and Media Cultures, 21st Biennial Congress of International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 10-14 August 2013.
  • “Representations of ‘Sexting’ in Contemporary Fiction For and About Youth,” Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Congress 2013, University of Victoria, 1-4 June 2013.
  • “‘Cognitive Dissonance’ as Subject of and Narrative Strategy in I Am the Cheese,” presented as part of a panel, “Cognitive Dissonance and Interstitial Interactions in Children’s and Young Adult Texts,” at Literary Slipstreams, 39th Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference, Boston, June 2012.
  • "Adolescent Endings: Hope and Lies in Contemporary, Canadian Young Adult Novels," Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Congress 2010, Concordia University, Montreal, May 2010.
  • "What Can Slumdog Millionaire Tell Us About 'Children's Studies'?  What Can 'Children's Studies' Tell Us About Slumdog Millionaire?" Million Dollar Questions and Answers: Slumdog Millionaire Roundtable, Association of Research in Cultures of Young People, University of Winnipeg, November 2009.
  • “Theories of Homelessness: Cultural Walls Between Implied Readers of and Street Teens in Theories of Relativity,” Children’s Literature and Cultural Diversity in the Past and the Present, 19th Biennial Congress of International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, August 2009.
  • "The Elephants in the Room: Dismantling Biology, Psychology, and Education to Make Humanities Children’s Studies Possible,“  Part of "The Children's Table: Childhood Studies in the Humanities, A Roundtable,"  Children at Risk/Children Taking Risks: Historical Inquiries in International Perspective, Society for the History of Children and Youth, University of California at Berkeley, July 2009 .
  • “Children’s Rights, Children’s Voices, Children’s Technology, Children’s Sexuality.” Part of "Youth, Sexuality, Technology,” a joint session between the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP) and the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2009, Carleton University, Ottawa, May 2009.** (See note at the bottom of this page.)
  • “Generation X as Children’s Literature: Douglas Coupland and the Construction of ‘Adultescents,’” Shifting Borders of Childhood, Youth, and Adulthood, Joint Session of Association for Research in Young People's Texts and Cultures (ARYPTC) and the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Congress 2008, University of British Columbia, June 2008.
  • “The ‘Play’ of Immigration: Canadian Multicultural Theatre in 1981 and 2008,” Celebrating Pluralism: Honouring the Work of F. Graeme Chalmers, University of British Columbia, May 2008. Co-presented with Nicholas Cumming.
  • “From ‘For and About’ to ‘By and For’: The Shifting Power of ‘Story’ in Queer Young Adult Anthologies,” Power and Children’s Literature: Past, Present and Future, the18th Biennial Congress of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Kyoto, August 2007.
  • “Reading Children Reading: Decolonizing Childhood Through the Voices of Child Experts,” part of “DeColonizing Childhood, Empowering Children: The Children's Studies Program at York University” at 34th Annual Children’s Literature Association Conference in Virginia, June 2007.
  • “It’s Quiz (and Reading, Attendance, Survey, and Review) Time!” TEL@York 2007, York University, Toronto, April 2007.
  • “‘Transforming Imposed Constraints into Risky Opportunities’ (Abdelkebir Khatibi): An Adultly Search for Childist Readings (in Internet-Based Book Reviews by Children)” in "Childist Transformations" panel, at Transformations, Children's Literature Association, Los Angeles, June 2006
  • “Necessity is the Mother of the Virtual Lecture” TEL@York 2006, York University, Toronto, April 2006.
  • “Parents, Geniuses, Pilots, Prophets, and Meddling Teachers: False Families and Compulsory Childhood in The Maestro” at Expectations and Experiences: Children, Childhood and Children’s Literature, International Research Society for Children’s Literature, Dublin, August 2005.
  • “‘I Am a Middle-Aged Playwright Trying to Look Hip’: Nostalgia, Angst, and the Impossibility of Adult Theatre for Adolescents,” part of the panel “Containment, Resistance, and Empowerment: The Shaping of Contemporary Children’s Culture,” at Children’s Worlds / Children in the World, Society for the History of Children and Youth, Milwaukee, August 2005.
  • “Digital ‘Reception’: Hearing ‘Stereo’ through Children’s Web-Based Reader Response” at The Networked Citizen: New Contributions of the Digital Humanities, Consortium for Computers in the Humanities, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Congress 2005, The University of Western Ontario, May 2005.
  • “The Carnival of Farts in Children's Literature: Comic Subversion or Adult (Lack of) Containment?” at Laughing Matters: Comedy and Society 2005, University of Portsmouth, UK, April 2005.
  • “‘The Cigar Was Essential’: The Circulation of Power in Roald Dahl's Matilda” at Off to See the Wizard: Quests for Memory and Culture in Children’s Literature, Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY, March 2005.
  • “Fixing Stories ‘Is Sure a Lot of Work’: Watching the ‘Men’s Dance’ in Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water” at Making It Like a Man! Masculinities in Canadian Arts and Cultures conference, University of Regina, June 2004
  • “Cultural Stereo: Rereading Ballantyne’s Ungava Through Pitseolak’s People from Our Side” Telling Stories, Writing Histories, Shaping Identities, Pacific Rim Literary Conference, University of Alaska, February 19-20, 1999.
  • “Places Close to Ellesmere and Other Home Movies,” multimedia reading of long poem (Finalist, Canadian Literary Awards, 1998) at Telling Stories, Writing Histories, Shaping Identities, Pacific Rim Literary Conference, University of Alaska Anchorage, February 19-20, 1999.
  • “‘Intercourse with the Natives’: Scottish-Inuit Encounter in ‘The Place of Translation’” at Culture, Community, Identity: Interdisciplinary Investigations, Graduate Student Conference, The University of Western Ontario, January 1998.
  • “Places Close to Ellesmere and Other Home Movies,” multimedia poetry reading at Culture, Community, Identity: Interdisciplinary Investigations, Graduate Student Conference, The University of Western Ontario, January 1998.
  • “From the Law of the Father to the Love of a Father in Michael Ondaatje’s Poetry and Fiction” at the Michael Ondaatje Symposium, Centre d’Études Canadiennes, Université de Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France, November 1997.
  • “‘His Other History’: Reading the ‘Male’ in Contemporary Canadian Poetry” at the Poetry and History conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, June 1996.
  • “Virtual English: Multimedia Technologies and Literature Teaching” at the conference of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, Brock University, May 1996.
  • “‘Intercourse with the Natives’: Scottish-Inuit Encounter in ‘The Place of Translation’” at the Boundaries conference, University of Edinburgh, May 1996.
  • “Visual Bakhtin, Derrida Interactive, and Virtual English: A Practical Exploration of Multimedia Technologies and Literature Teaching” in Colloquium Series of University of Western Ontario’s Department of English, London, January 1996.
  • “Metaphor, Metonymy, and ‘Metaphoric Narration’ in Elizabeth Hay’s Captivity Tales: Canadians in New York” at the Inter-National Regions: Contemporary Writing in English Produced in Canada conference, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, October 1994.
  • “The ‘Gude Mon’ and the ‘Little Pink Man’: Utopian Masculinities in Letters of a Woman Homesteader” in Literature Producing Masculinities, at the conference of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, University of Calgary, June 1994.
  • “The Emperor Has No / New / No New Clothes: The Man in The Studhorse Man” in Colloquium Series of University of Western Ontario’s Department of English, London, February 1994.
  • “When Men Have Babies: ‘Re-visioning’ American Manhood in Leon Rooke’s A Good Baby” at the Engendering America conference of Canadian Association for American Studies, Halifax, October 1993.

Trade Books

  • Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay, picture book, 1993, 2004
  • Mogul and Me, children’s novel, 1989, 1997
  • A Horse Called Farmer, picture book, 1984, 1988, 1998
  • An Eachdraidh air Flambois (The Story of Framboise), local history, 1984
  • Ti-Jean, children’s play, 1983, 1998
  • Snowdreams, play for young people, 1982, 1993

To see more about Peter Cumming’s children’s books and plays, see Peter Cumming: Children’s Author and Playwright .

Editorial

  • Member, Editorial Review Board, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature.  2011 to present.  Reviewed 7 articles.
  • Vetting Paper Proposals for Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE) for Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2012 to 2015.  Reviewed 10 proposals.
  • Reviewed articles for Men and Masculinities, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Children's Literature, The Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature, Canadian Children's Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse, and Mosaic, 2005 to 2014.

Research Projects

  • "Youth and Community Development in Canada and Jamaica: A Transnational Approach to Youth Violence" ("Project Groundings").  Principal Investigator - Andrea Davis, Co-Investigator - Peter Cumming, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, 2011-13.

Workshops and Presentations

  • "What is Children's Studies?" Orientation sessions for Vanier Colllege and Faculty open houses.  2007-present.
  • "Ten Firm Foundations for University Success," 4 Orientation Sessions for first-year students, Vanier College, York University, August 2006
  • WebCT Workshop for “Feminist WebWomen of Canada and Hungary,” Centre for Feminist Research, York University, February 2005
  • “Students Say the Darndest Things: Pedagogical Benefits—and Costs—of Asynchronous Online Communication” in Professional Concerns Committee Panel on “The Effects of New Educational Technology on Student Learning and Faculty Workload” at the conference of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, Dalhousie University, May 2003.
  • “Great Oaks from Little Acorns,” Guest Writing Instructor, “Packaging Your Imagination,” CANSCAIP, October 1997
  • Invited presentations at Acadia University (Department of English) and Dalhousie University (Office of Instructional Development and Technology) on “Virtual Teaching: Potentials, Pedagogical Implications, and Critiques of Multimedia Presentation in the Humanities,” 1996
  • Guest Faculty Member and Banquet Speaker, Writers’ Conference in Children’s Literature, University of North Dakota, October 1995

Honours and Awards

  • Finalist in Poetry, Canadian Literary Awards, 1998
  • Tiny Torgi (Best Canadian PrintBraille Picture Book), Canadian National Institute for the Blind, 1995
  • George Wicken Prize in Canadian Literature, Essays on Canadian Writing, 1994
  • Hilroy Award for Innovative Teaching Secondary School Teaching, 1990
  • Arctic Awareness Program, The Canada Council, 1989
  • 3 “Our Choice” Awards, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, 1984-93
  • 2 First Prize Awards, Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 1983-84
  • First Prize, Canada Festival Playwriting, 1981

Professional Associations

  • President, Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP) (2010-12)
  • Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE)
  • Children’s Literature Association (ChLA)
  • Consortium for Computers in Humanities (COCH/COSH)
  • International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL)
  • Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY)
  • Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers for Children (CANSCAIP)
  • Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC)
  • The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC)

    ** Conference Paper About Teen "Sexting" (May 26, 2009)
    • On May 26, 2009, as part of a panel on Youth, Sexuality, and Technology, a joint session by the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP) and the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), at the 78th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa, I delivered a paper, "Children's Rights, Children’s Voices, Children’s Technology, Children’s Sexuality."  The paper has received considerable legitimate media attention, but it has also "gone viral" around the Internet and so around the world.  Unfortunately, in doing so, many of my ideas have been taken out of context and misrepresented.
    • A conference paper, in my opinion, is a "test drive" of ideas, an opportunity to encourage public discussion, debate, and even disagreement.  It is in that spirit I presented this paper.  While I have met many wonderful, caring, thoughtful people from various walks of life--lawyers and workers in children's justice and rights, law enforcement officers, social networking workers, activists working on behalf of children--through the rapid spreading of my arguments through various media (newspapers, radio, and television) and the Internet, selective readings of parts of my conference paper have led to violent and abusive reactions from some quarters.  This has ranged from a questioning of my motivations to ridiculing of the name my parents gave me to personal attacks.  Rather than engage in civil discourse, some parties have chosen to make public and private ad hominem attacks.
    • For people interested in vital issues related to youth, sexuality, and technology, I am making available here the complete conference paper as presented in Ottawa--so that people can respond based on more complete knowledge than is available in press releases, interviews, and wire copy.  Although I prefaced my presentation by indicating that "children's voices" were not in the presentation as I had originally planned and hoped, the written copy of the paper below is a full and accurate reflection of the presentation I made. 
    • All I would ask of anyone downloading this paper is that they leave it complete, including my name, and that they link to the article here if wanting to refer the article to others. 
    • Download "Children's Rights, Children's Technology, Children's Sexuality."
    • For a more recent report and reflection on responses to the above paper, see "Conference Paper Goes Viral" in March 2010 newsletter of the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People at http://arcyp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/March-2010-ARCYP-Newsletter.pdf .

York University