Alisa Clapp-Itnyre

Professor of English, Department of English
Asst. Director of Sustainability, Office of Sustainability
264 Whitewater Hall
Phone: (765) 973-8531
aclappit@iu.edu

Education

• Ph.D. in English. May 1996. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
• M.A. in English. October 1991. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
• B.A. in English. June 1989. Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.

Current Teaching Interests

Victorian Literature, Children’s Literature, Sustainability and Food

Current Research Interests

Victorian children’s hymns and music; 19^th-century children’s diaries; Bands of Mercy music

Books

• British Hymn Books for Children: Re-Tuning the History of Childhood. Ashgate Studies in Childhood Series: 1700-Present series. Claudia Nelson, series editor. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2016 (now Routledge). See website here.
• Edited Book Collection, “Perplext in Faith:” Essays on Victorian Beliefs and Doubts, co-edited with Julie Melnyk. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2015.
• Angelic Airs, Subversive Songs: Music as Social Discourse in the Victorian Novel. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.

Research Website

Sounding Childhood. Part of Sounding Victorian collaborative. Includes live children’s performance of Victorian hymns and songs. Launched June 2017. www.soundingchildhood.org

Selected Invited Academic Appearances

• Documentary Segment on “Bands of Mercy songs” in Taking Note: The Animal Rights Music Documentary. Chris Hines, director. UK. Forthcoming 2024. See website here.
• Plenary Speaker. “How He Called Little Children as Lambs to His Fold:” The Legacy of Victorian Children’s Hymnody in 20^th- and 21^st-Century America’s Hymn-Singing. For the Christian Congregational Music 2023 Conference, Ripon College, Oxford, UK. 1 August 2023.

Selected Article-Length Publications

• “Childhood Diaries of a British Girl and a British Boy, 1899-1924: Drawing Some Conclusions.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 48.1 (Spring 2023). Pp. 22-44. See abstract
• Invited Chapter, “‘Hymns that Have Helped:’ Hymnody as Lived Verse for the Victorian Public.” for Victorian Verse: The Prosody of Everyday Life. Ed. Lee Behlman and Olivia Moy. Palgrave, 2023. Pp. 253-78. See abstract
• “ ‘Thy love to me impart:’ The Literary-Theological Legacy of Hymns in Patrick and Anne Brontë’s Father-Daughter Relationship.” Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature. Anne Brontë Bicentennial Special edition. Eds. Deborah Denenholz Morse and Amber Pouliot. No. 138 (Winter 2020). Pp. 181-199. Available at Project Muse, View abstract here.
• “Advocating for the Least of These: Empowering Children and Animals in The Band of Mercy Advocate.” Chapter 5 in Animals and Their Children in Victorian Culture. Ed. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier. NY and London: Routledge, 2019. Pp. 87-105.

Selected Teaching & Research Awards

• 2011 Winner, Herman Frederic Lieber Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence, IU-system
• 2009 Recipient (1 of 3, internationally), Children’s Literature Association Faculty Research Award ($1200)

National/International Professional Organization Leadership

• Midwest Victorian Studies Association: Treasurer, 2024-; Executive Secretary, 2004-14.
• Children’s Literature Association: Co-Host of the Annual Conference, Indianapolis, 2019.