Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor of English; Afroamerican and African Studies; and Women's and Gender Studies; and Director of Graduate Studies
meganls@umich.eduOffice Information:
3032 Tisch Hall
hours: ZOOM: Thursdays, 11:30-1:00, by appointment
Womens Literature; Latino Literature; Graduate Faculty; Novel and Narrative; Twentieth Century American; Pedagogy; American; Law and Literature; English; Theory; Gender and Sexuality; African American
Education/Degree:
B.A., Northwestern University, 1989; Ph.D., Duke University, 2002
Highlighted Work and Publications
Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women’s Prisons
Megan Sweeney
Drawing on extensive interviews with ninety-four women prisoners, Megan Sweeney examines how incarcerated women use available reading materials to come to terms with their pasts, negotiate their present experiences, and reach toward different futures.Foregrounding the voices of African American women, Sweeney analyzes how prisoners read three popular genres: narratives of victimization, urban crime fiction, and self-help books. She outlines the history of reading and education in U.S. prisons, highlighting how the increasing dehumanization of prisoners has resulted in diminished prison... See More
The Story Within Us: Women Prisoners Reflect on Reading
Megan Sweeney
"The Story Within Us: Women Prisoners Reflect on Reading" features in-depth, oral interviews with eleven incarcerated women, each of whom offers a narrative of her life and her reading experiences within prison walls. The women share powerful stories about their complex and diverse efforts to negotiate difficult relationships, exercise agency in restrictive circumstances, and find meaning and beauty in the midst of pain. Their shared emphases on abuse, poverty, addiction, and mental illness illuminate the pathways that lead many women to prison and suggest possibilities for addressing...
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