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English Faculty Take Top Honors
KarenCoats
Dr. Karen Coats
After carefully considering every book and article published in children’s literature in 2004, the Children’s Literature Association, an organization with members from almost 20 countries, has awarded Karen Coats, Associate Professor of English, and Nathalie op de Beeck, Assistant Professor of English, with its top honors. Coats won the Children’s Literature Association Honor Book Award and op de Beeck won the Children’s Literature Associate Article Award. “The competition is tremendously stiff,” said Roberta Trites, Graduate Studies Director for the Department of English and President-elect of Children’s Literature Association. “For two of our faculty to receive these top honors in the same year speaks directly to the international reputation of our program in children’s literature. To my knowledge, no university has ever taken home two of these awards in the same year. Truly, we are fortunate to count scholars such as these among our colleagues.”

NathalieopdeBeeck
Dr. Nathalie op de Beeck

Coats won the Children’s Literature Association Honor Book Award for Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature. This award annually recognizes significant book-length contributions on the history, scholarship, and criticism on children’s literature. op de Beeck won the Children’s Literature Association Article Award for “The First Picture Book for Modern Children: Mary Liddell’s Little Machinery and the Fairy Tale of Modernity,” originally published in the scholarly journal Children’s Literature. This award annually recognizes the best literary-criticism article published in English about children’s literature.

Coats earned her Ph.D. in Human Sciences from The George Washington University. She also holds an M.A. and a B.A. in English from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. In 1998, Coats joined Illinois State’s Department of English. Prior to coming to Illinois State, she taught at The George Washington University, Virginia Tech, and in the Jones County Public Schools in North Carolina and Chesapeake Public Schools in Virginia. Her many honors include an Honor Article Award for Literary Criticism in Children’s Literature from the Children’s Literature Association and the Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2004 for Looking Glasses and Neverland: Lacan, Desire and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature.

op de Beeck earned her Ph.D. in Cultural and Critical Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. She also holds an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. in English/Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2001-2002, op de Beeck received the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship. In 2002, op de Beeck joined Illinois State’s English Department. She is a member of the Academic Senate and the English Department’s DFSC. In 2005, she was awarded the University Service Initiative Award. Also while at Illinois State, she has been awarded with the Pretenure Faculty Initiative Grant and the New Faculty Initiative Grant.

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