Location: Department digital files
Object: Photo from the Ninth Biennial Conference of Children’s Literature in English, Education, and Library Science, 27 April 2024, at the K-State Student Union and Zoom.
Observations: 1) This photo captures the Q&A portion of the first panel session for the 2024 ChALC Conference, featuring — from left to right — Jon Olsen (MA ’24), Sierra Knipe (MA ’25), Maggie Steuer (MA ’24), Molly Andrade (MA ’25), and Ian Lutz (MA ’24), with moderator Delaney Sullivan (MA ’24) assisting off-camera. 2) The conference theme for 2024 was “Between Generations in Children’s and Young Adult Literature,” which their lightning talks explored, followed by a talk by Dr. Vicki Sherbert (College of Education) for the second panel session and a keynote presentation by award-winning author and illustrator Jessica Love (Julian is a Mermaid). 3) While all of the biennial conferences organized by our department’s student organization, the Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community or ChALC, have been memorable, this one in 2024 stands out for two reasons. 4) First, after two conferences fully online in 2020 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2024 conference marked the return to an on-campus gathering for this event, along with a live-stream option for remote participants. 5) Second, one of the panelists — Molly Andrade (MA ’25), with the mic in this photo — was one of our first graduate students to complete the MA degree fully online. As she finished out her first year of coursework in Spring 2024, she decided to travel to Manhattan from Texas and visit campus for the first time. Molly also represents an important demographic within our graduate program: MA students who are current K-12 teachers. 6) The 2026 ChALC Conference will be held this Saturday, April 25, 9:00am-12:00pm, on campus and online, and the theme is “Imagined Futures in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.”
Join us for a great series of presentations, including a keynote by the award-winning author Cherie Dimaline and presentations by current and recent MA students in English, including two — Rachael Cox (MA ’21) and Jordan Dombrowski (MA ’24) — who are also high school teachers. Register for free at https://tinyurl.com/kstatechalc2026 by Friday April 24 at 5pm CT for access to the conference. See you there!
— Karin Westman, Department Head and Faculty Advisor for ChALC
K-State English 