Dr. Martha Hixon
Professor

Member, Honors Faculty
Doctoral Faculty

Office: PH 374; Phone/Voice Mail: 898-2599 

Dr. Hixon earned the Ph.D. at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. A specialist in children's literature, she joined the English Department in the Fall of 1999. She is co-director of the biennial Modern Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature conference hosted by MTSU and is also active in the Children's Literature Association, including past service on the Board of Directors and as ChLA President in 2007-2008.

See Publications

Presentations

• “Power Plays:  Paradigms of Power in Two Novels by Diana Wynne Jones.” Presented at the Diana Wynne Jones Conference, hosted by the University of the West in Bristol, England, July 2-6, 2009.
• “Power in the Land: Three Paradigms of Magical Geography.” Presented at the Children’s Literature Association Conference, Charlotte, NC, June 11-14, 2009.
• “ChLA: Entering the Third Generation.” Presidential Address presented to the Children’s Literature Association General Membership during the annual conference in Bloomington/Normal, IL, June 14, 2008.
• “The Presence of the Past: Bridging Time in Twentieth Century British Fantasy for Children.” Children's Literature Association Conference, Newport News, VA, June 14-16, 2007.
• “Story, Time, and Timelessness: Narrative Transformations in Diana Wynne Jones's Hexwood.” Presented at the Children's Literature Association Conference in Manhattan Beach, CA on June 6-8, 2006.
• “Under the Sea: American Adolescent Female Desire in Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid .” Presented at the “Hans Christian Andersen: A Celebration and Reappraisal” conference hosted by the British Library, the University of Newcastle, and the Institute of English Studies at the University of London in London, England, August 8-10, 2005.
• “Utopian Visions in Animal Land : Brian Jacques' Redwall Novels and Their Debt to Kenneth Grahame.” Presented at the Children's Literature Association Conference in Fresno, CA, June 10-12, 2004.
• “Mirrors, Towers, Dragons, and Wise Women: “The Lady of Shalott” as Paradigm in Patricia McKillip's The Tower at Stony Wood .” Presented at Mythcon 34, Conference of the Mythopoetic Society, Nashville, Tennessee, July 25-28, 2003.
• “The Postmodern Fairy Tales of Donna Jo Napoli.” Presented at the Children's Literature Association Conference in El Paso, Texas, June 5-8, 2003.
• “Inner World and Other World: The Use of Folklore in the Fantasies of Mollie Hunter.” Presented at the Children's Literature Association Conference in Wilkes-Barre , Pennsylvania, June 12-16, 2002.
• “The Hero's Journey: Brian Jacques's Redwall .” Presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, March 20-24, 2002.
• “Bridging Traditions: Turning Fairy Tale into Fantasy Story—Robin McKinley's Spindle's End.” Presented at the Children's Literature Association Conference in Buffalo, New York, June 6-10, 2001.
• "A Close Look at the Narrative Structure of Fire and Hemlock." Presented as part of a panel on Diana Wynne Jones at the Children's Literature Association Conference in Roanoke, Virginia, June 21-23, 2000.
• "Bayou Belles and Sons of the Swamp: Images of Acadiana in 20fh Century Children's Fiction." Presented to the Children's Literature Association, Roanoke, Virginia, June 21-23,2000.
• "Sex and the Schoolgirl: The Fairy-Tale Patterns of Adele Geras' Tower Room Trilogy." Presented at the Third Biennial Modem Approaches to Children's Literature Conference, MTSU, March 24-27, 1999.
• "Sir Galahad and the Victorian Spiritual Ideal: The Opposing Views of Tennyson and Morris." Presented to the Christianity and Literature Section of the South Central Modem Languages Association, Dallas, Texas, October 30-November 1, 1997.
• "Sleeping Beauty Awakens: Modem Revisions of an Old Tale." Presented to the Children's Literature Association, University of Nebraska at Omaha, June 19-22, 1997.
• "Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the Land of Faery." Presented to the Folklore Section of the South Central Modem Languages Association, San Antonio, Texas, October 31-November 1, 1996.
• "Myth, Magic, and Missing Parents: Fantasy and the Problem Novel." Presented to the Children's Literature Section of the South Central Modem Languages Association, Houston, Texas, October 26-28, 1995.
• "Of Enchanted Frogs and Princesses: Re-visioning The Frog Prince.'" Presented to the Children's Literature Association, University of New Hampshire, Durham, June 1-4, 1995.
• "Traditional Ballad and Plot Structure, or When Is a Ballad Not a Ballad?" Presented to the American Folklore Society, Lafayette, Louisiana, October 12-15, 1995.
• "Samuel G. Goodrich, American Romancer?" Presented to the Children's Literature Association, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, June 2-5, 1994.