Rachel Maley

  • Teaching Assistant Professor

Rachel's Affiliations: Children's Literature, Digital Narrative and Interactive Design, Vibrant Media Lab

Rachel Maley earned her doctorate in Critical and Cultural Studies in Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and and has been an instructor with the English department since the 2013-2014 academic year. She teaches several courses in the Children's Literature program and the wider Literature program, and many of the courses incorporate emphases in archives, history of the book, material culture, print culture, and analog and digital media, games, and toys. Working with material artifacts and archival documents has inspired her to reimagine the classroom as not only a seminar space but also a laboratory. She regularly brings students into direct contact with historical and archival sources in all of her literature courses and incorporates hands-on activities and experiential learning both inside and outside the classroom. Her courses make regular class visits to Pitt campus sites including Archives & Special Collections, the Text and conText Lab, Open Lab, Center for Creativity, and the Vibrant Media Lab.

Courses Taught

ENGLIT 0315: Reading Poetry

ENGLIT 0354: Words and Images

ENGLIT 0506: Literary Field Studies

ENGLIT 0512: Narrative and Technology

ENGLIT 0560: Children and Culture (TA, co-teacher)

ENGLIT 0562: Childhood’s Books

ENGLIT 0655: Representing Adolescence

ENGLIT 0730: Archival Research Methods

ENGLIT 0762: Childhood Games

ENGLIT 1001: Interactive Literature

ENGCMP 0150: Workshop in Composition

ENGCMP 0200: Seminar in Composition

Education & Training

  • PhD in Critical and Cultural Studies Dissertation Title: “Transforming the Cultural Economy for Little Readers: Print-Based Adaptations for Children in Nineteenth-Century America” University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2017
  • MA in English Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 2011
  • BA in English; Pennsylvania Instructional I Teaching Certificate: English 7-12

Research Interests

Children’s literature and culture, book history and print culture, adaptation studies, media studies, narratology, material culture, early and 19th-century American literature, transatlantic literature, young adult literature, children and literacy, historical and contemporary girls’ books and girls’ culture