3 May 2021

The UMD iSchool 2021 MacLeod Lecture was entitled “Queerer and queerer: 50 years of LGBTQIA+ representation in books for young people”. During this one hour online lecture, presenters Arthur A. Levine and Sarah Moon discussed how representation of LGBTQIA+ people in books for young people has increased since the 1960s and also how those narratives have changed. Both presenters also described the effect this lack of positive representation had on them as young queer people and how it has influenced the directions they have taken in their adult lives.

I attended this lecture as it closely related to the themes and concepts I was studying in INF205 Literature and Other Resources for Children and Young Adults and I anticipated it would give me a greater understanding of the impact it can have on children and young adults to be exposed to a diverse range of narratives and characters. Bishop (2015) notes that “when children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read … they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part” (p. 2). This was echoed by Sarah and Arthur as they recounted their experiences as young people and how they were impacted by the lack of positive representation within the literature they were reading.

This lecture highlighted to me the importance of the role information professionals have in selecting materials for their collections. Collections which are diverse and inclusive show children from marginalised groups that they are important and that they matter. If children see no examples of inclusion or diversity in their world, they are unable to imagine taking on non-traditional roles, or being accepted for who they are.

I used what I learnt in this lecture to guide me in both of my assessment pieces for the subject which included creating a selection criteria, selecting books for a young adult book club, and selecting books for a young adult reading list. I was conscious of the role I had in each assignment scenario in ensuring the books I selected showed a range of diverse characters and narratives. As Arthur noted within the lecture, when we’re inclusive we reach more people and can make more people happy.

References

Bishop, R. S. (2015). Mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/sites/default/files/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf