Second year PhD candidate Stacey Bliss has been awarded the 2017 Kenneth and Sylvia Marantz Fellowship for Picturebook Research. The purpose of the Marantz Fellowship is to encourage and engage scholars from around the world with the resources of the Marantz Picturebook Collection. The research fellowship is offered through the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science and is possible due to a generous donation supported by the late Dr. Kenneth A. and Sylvia Marantz.

Stacey was at Kent State University, Ohio June 4 - 9 with Lauren Christie, a fellowship recipient from The University of Dundee in Scotland. Over the week, Stacey researched the library’s collection for her project titled: Welcomed and Unwelcomed Guests in Picture Books: Querying Uncertainty and Unpredictability of the Environment, Self, and Others.

Stacey drew from her initial inspiration and analysis from Kyo Maclear (Faculty of  Education PhD Candidate) & Katty Maurey’s (2015) contemporary picture book The Specific Ocean - http://kyomaclearkids.com/books/the-specific-ocean/. Within The Specific Ocean, readers experience the interwoven nature of external and internal environments where welcomed and hospitable guests, including the ocean, the creatures in it, as well as nature within – the breath. Stacey queries: What then of unwelcomed others such as unexpected guests, monsters, silence, or death? Stacey’s study casts a fresh look at picture books through the lenses of Derridian and Levinasian ethics calling into question the responsibility to and for the other, whether the other presents itself as real, imaginary, scary, or benevolent. The project rethinks Marah Gubar’s (2011) notion of not defining children’s literature and similarly does not define the illustrations as particular to children; rather extends the query: Is there such a thing as children’s picture books? Is there such a thing as the unwelcomed in the illustrations and what or who is unwelcomed?

Stacey is utilizing the Marantz extensive collection to look at Maurice Sendak’s artwork and contemporary titles such as Duck, Death and the Tulip, and Du Iz Tak?. She will present her research at the upcoming International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL Congress) on July 31. The IRSCL Congress will be held at York University from July 29 – Aug 2. http://www.irscl.com/conferences.html. The 2017 Congress theme is: Possible & Impossible Children: Intersections of Children's Literature & Childhood Studies.

To pursue scholarly research using the center's collection or to schedule a tour, contact Michelle Baldini at mbaldini@kent.edu, 1-330-672-0017.