Dr. Maggie Morris Davis
Assistant Professor
Office
STV Stevenson Hall 421p
Office Hours
By appointment
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Selected Research
Current Courses
ENG 435.002 Critical Conversations in the Teaching of English
ENG 296.001 Teaching Diverse Readers and Texts
Grants and Contracts
New Faculty Initiative Grant (NFIG): “‘Method(s) of Reordering the World’: Using literary theory to center inquiry in secondary English language arts (ELA) literature instruction.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Illinois State University. ($3,500). 2024 - 2024
Book, Chapter
“‘When he saw the pencil put to paper’: The Meaning Making of Children’s Language in Depression-era Harlem.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2025)
“Markers of Class: The Antebellum Children’s Book Adaptations of The Lamplighter and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2023)
Journal Article
“‘[H]e Realized the Shabbiness of His Own Self’: Reading Children in Poverty in Twain’s Adaptation Network.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2025)
“‘I Thought Maby You Might Help as You Other Little Children’: Using Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt to Reread the Classed Other in Depression-Era Children’s Literature.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2024)
“Recovering the Worker in Meridel Le Sueur’s Worker Writers (1939/1982).”
Wilson Chen, Maggie Morris Davis.
(2024)
“Their Worlds Felt Smaller: Rebuilding Classroom Communities in Pandemic Times.”
Abigail Byrnside, Maggie Morris Davis.
(2022)
“‘People of this world are less inclined to shoot a hostess’: The Moral Authority of Fargo’s Midwestern Girlhood.”
Maggie Morris Davis, William Morris.
(2019)
“The Urban Antithesis: Crane's Whilomville Sketches.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2019)
“Sound and Silence: The Politics of Reading Early Twentieth Century Lynching Poetry.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2018)
“Tommie's Resurrection: The Role of the Impoverished Child in Stephen Crane's New York Sketches.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2017)
“Reframe, Reframe: An Adaptation Study of Benjamin Percy, Danica Novgorodoff and the Iraq War.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
(2012)
Presentations
“Writing Shared Futures: Growing the Place-based Literacies of Rural Learners.”
Maggie Morris Davis, Lauren Lacy.
National Council of Teachers of English, Denver, CO., November, 2025
“‘Beneath View’: Learning from the Federal Writers’ Project Archive.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
REACH Summer Exploration Program, Online, June, 2025
“Meridel Le Sueur’s Radical Vision for Worker Writing in the 1930s and Its Literary Lessons for Today.”
Wilson Chen, Maggie Morris Davis.
Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature Symposium, Lansing, Michigan, May, 2025
“Making Visible Rural Literacies: Possibilities from using Adaptation Theory in a Secondary ELA Classroom.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Modern Language Association, New Orleans, LA., January, 2025
“Restorying rurality: Using adaptation theory to position rural learners as agential storytellers.”
Maggie Morris Davis, Brooklyn Vogel, Kelsey Kern, Michael Rocco, Lauren Lacy.
National Council of Teachers of English, Boston, MA., November, 2024
“Finding the Child in the FWP Archive.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Kluge Scholar Talk, Washington, D.C., July, 2024
“‘[P]eople lacking in material things’: Valuing the Working Class in Lenski’s Regionals.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Valuing: 2nd Biennial Symposium at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA., July, 2024
“‘Methods of Reordering the World’: Using Adaptation Theory to Center Inquiry in Literature Instruction.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA., April, 2024
“A Cultural ‘Infrastructure’ for Worker Writing: Meridel Le Sueur’s Radical Vision in the 1930s and Its Literary Lessons for Today.”
Wilson Chen, Maggie Morris Davis.
Benedictine University Faculty Colloquium Series, Lisle, IL, April, 2024
“‘Beneath View’: Finding the Child in the Federal Writer’s Project Archive.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Library of Congress Symposium: Rewriting America: Reconsidering the Federal Writers' Project 80 Years Later, Washington, D.C., June, 2023
“Finding the Child in the Federal Writers’ Project Archive.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Society for the History of Children and Youth, Ontario, Canada., June, 2023
“Reading the Poor Child in The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Modern Language Association, San Francisco, CA., January, 2023
“Radical Listening: Humanizing Pedagogies that Nurture Equitable Classroom Instruction.”
Danielle Lillge, Maggie Morris Davis, Shannon Maney-Magnuson.
National Council of Teachers of English, Anaheim, CA., November, 2022
“Taking Stock and Naming Frameworks at Play: Teaching Pre-Service Teachers to Negotiate the Challenges of Sticking Points in Fieldwork.”
Danielle Lillge, Maggie Morris Davis, Abigail Byrnside.
National Council of Teachers of English, Anaheim, CA., November, 2022
“‘This was the only thing that we could do’: The Language of Poor Children in Ward’s Bois Sauvage.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
The Faulkner and Ward Conference, Cape Girardeau, MO., October, 2022
“‘[H]e realized the shabbiness of his own self’: Reading Children in Poverty in Twain’s Adaptation Network.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
The Ninth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, Elmira, NY., August, 2022
“Vardaman’s Capacity: The Modernist Language of the Poor Child in As I Lay Dying.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Faulkner’s Modernisms Conference, Oxford, MS., July, 2022
“‘i thought maby you might help as you other Little Children’: Rereading Children’s Letters to Eleanor Roosevelt.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Own and Others Voices: 1st Biennial Symposium at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA., July, 2022
“‘How does the child fit into his America?’: Reading Children in Ellison and Wright’s Fiction.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
American Literature Association, Chicago, IL., May, 2022
“Beyond Lip Service: Socially Just Methods for Developing Pre-Service Teacher Listening and Equitable Instruction.”
Danielle Lillge, Maggie Morris Davis, Abigail Byrnside.
American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA., April, 2022
“‘When he saw the pencil put to paper’: The Meaning Making of the Language of Play of Children in Harlem in the Depression Era.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C., January, 2022
“Re-reading and Re-writing Rural Narratives and Communities: Socially Just Possibilities for Teacher and Student Critical Literacy Learning and Inquiry.”
Danielle Lillge, Maggie Morris Davis, Brooklyn Vogel, Destiny Dungey, Abigail Byrnside, Aunshree Rayarikar.
National Council of Teachers of English, Virtual., November, 2021
“Empowering Diverse Learners: ISU’s The Representation Project.”
Maggie Morris Davis, Omar Gomez, Lauren Lacy, Colleen Keefe.
Illinois Association of Teachers of English, Springfield, IL., October, 2019
“Finding Voice: Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘How It Feels to be Colored Me’ as Mentor Text.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
National Council of Teachers of English, Houston, TX., November, 2018
“Wellness Fostered by Enough to Eat: The Curious Concomitance of Beauty and the Grotesque in Erskine Caldwell's Pearl.”
Maggie Morris Davis.
Southern American Studies Association, Williamsburg, VA., March, 2017