Professor / Graduate Faculty
Ph.D. 1997, Vanderbilt University

Fields of interest:
20th Century American Literature and Culture; Children's Literature; American Studies; Cultural Studies; Gender and Women's Studies.

Philip Nel's books include Keywords for Children's Literature (co-edited with Lissa Paul, NYU Press, 2011), Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature (co-edited with Julia Mickenberg, NYU Press, 2008), The Annotated Cat: Under the Hats of Seuss and His Cats (Random House, 2007), Dr. Seuss: American Icon (Continuum, 2004), The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity: Small Incisive Shocks (University Press of Mississippi, 2002), and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide (Continuum, 2001). Forthcoming: The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (University Press of Mississippi, 2012), and The Complete Barnaby (5 vols., co-edited with Eric Reynolds, Fantagraphics, 2012-2014). Crockett Johnson's Magic Beach, with an Afterword by Nel and an Appreciation by Maurice Sendak, was published in 2005. Nel's essays can be found in a range of journals and edited collections, including American Art, Children's Literature, Comic Art, Contemporary Literature, Cultural Studies, The Lion and the Unicorn, Modern Fiction Studies, Mosaic, The Journal of Popular Culture, A New Literary History of America, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life, Harry Potter's World: Multidisciplinary Perspectives revised edition, Approaches to Teaching DeLillo's White Noise, and The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo.

Nel is Director of the English Department's Program in Children's Literature. He also serves as webmaster for the Don DeLillo Society, the Crockett Johnson Homepage, and is co-webmaster (with Naomi Wood) of the website you're visiting now.

Photo credit: Dane Webster

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