What’s Happening in the Classroom? Part 3: Banned Books

Censorship and book banning affects us all — through literature, the law, libraries and classrooms. How should we approach these issues?

Celebrate Banned Books Week by joining a transdisciplinary workshop connecting faculty, students and staff working on censorship issues across the university. With guidance from Samuel Cohen (editor of "Banning Books in America: Not a How-to") and Josh Coleman (author of "Ban Censorship, Not Books"), connect with scholars working in a variety of disciplines, strategize practical ways to engage with public conversations around censorship, and imagine new collaborations and projects around the topic of banned books.

A light lunch will be served after the event. Copies of "Banning Books in America: Not a How-to" will be available for purchase before and after the event. 

This event is in relation to Josh Coleman and Jessica Early’s seed grant project, and part of the institute’s "What’s Happening" series. Join a discussion on self-censorship on September 17 and a discussion on AI on September 23.

About the speakers

Samuel Cohen is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri, where he researches and teaches twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature and culture. He is the author of "After the End of History: American Fiction in the 1990s" (University of Iowa Press, 2009) and "50 Essays: A Portable Anthology" (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2023), which will be published in its eighth edition later this year. He has also coedited "The Legacy of David Foster Wallace" (University of Iowa Press, 2012) and "The Clash Takes on the World: Transnational Perspectives on The Only Band That Matters" (Bloomsbury, 2017), and coauthored "Literature: The Human Experience", thirteenth edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2018). He is the series editor of "The New American Canon: The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture". 

Josh Coleman is an assistant professor in the Department of English’s English education program. Coleman uses social science and humanities-based methods to study LGBTQ+ youth literature and educator well-being. His research on teacher resistance to classroom censorship — the “Banned Childhoods” project — is funded by a National Academy of Education and Spencer postdoctoral fellowship. Coleman is coauthor of “Restorying Young Adult Literature: Expanding Students’ Perspectives with Digital Texts” (NCTE, 2023).

For a full listing of all the Humanities Institute events, visit our events page.