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Dr. Jason Vanfosson
Assistant Professor
College of Arts & Humanities - English
Bio
Dr. Jason Vanfosson is an assistant professor of youth literature at West Chester University who also teaches courses in composition and writing. His current research project focuses on boyhood road trips in young adult novels. A part of this project, "New Directions for Old Roads: Rewriting the Young Adult Road Trip Story" is in the edited collection Beyond the Blockbuster: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Literature. More broadly, his research interests include: youth literature, gender and sexuality studies, literary theory, writing for children, and media studies.
Vanfosson has taught over fifteen courses since 2009 at the post-secondary level. These include courses in first-year writing, youth literature, gender and media, American literature and culture, and linguistics. He also taught English Language Arts at Fairfield Jr-Sr High School in Goshen, Indiana from 2015-2016.
In 2017, Vanfosson embarked on a cross-country road trip with the PBS documentary television series Roadtrip Nation. Along with two other doctoral candidates, they interviewed twelve inspiring leaders who hold doctoral degrees to find out how to best use their education after graduating. The film, Degree of Impact, can be streamed on online.
Education
- B.A., Fairmont State University, 2009
- M.A., Duquesne University, 2011
- Ph.D., Western Michigan University, 2018
Media
Roadtrip Nation, PBS, 2017