Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Global Scholarship Grant

To support international children’s literature research, the Global Committee organizes panels at the Association's annual conference and from its submissions selects recipients of ChLA's Vivian Yenika-Agbaw Global Scholarship Grant. Named to honor the work and life of Dr. Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, the grant supports presentation at on-site ChLA Global Committee panels. 

Dr. Yenika-Agbaw’s research interests were informed by critical theories (critical multiculturalism, postcolonialism) as well as her experience in the middle school classroom; she was passionate about literature, literacies, and learning, and how they intersect with culture. Her work especially focused on children’s and young adult literature and literacies, West African and African Diaspora youth texts, and power issues in children’s and young adult literature. She was deeply interested in how such literature is received across the globe by educators, and in creating opportunities for ongoing critical dialogue about it.  This legacy lives on in her books, articles, the students she mentored, and the committees she helped create, structure, and empower. 

Dr. Yenika-Agbaw was the author of Representing Africa in Children’s Books: Old and New Ways of Seeing (Routledge, 2008) and co-editor of many edited volumes, such as Race, Women of Color and the State University System: Critical Reflections (with Amarilis Hidalgo-de Jesús, 2011); Fairy Tales with a Black Consciousness: Essays on Adaptations of Familiar Stories (with Ruth McKoy Lowery and Laretta Henderson, 2013); African Youth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture: Identity Quest (with Lindah Mhando, 2014); Adolescents Rewrite their Worlds: Using Literature to Illustrate Writing Forms (with Teresa Sychterz, 2015) and Using Nonfiction for Civic Engagement in Classrooms: Critical Approaches (with Ruth McKoy Lowery and Paul H. Ricks, 2018).