2027 Gryphon Lecture: School Book Lists and the Civic Education of U.S. Teens: from 1950 to Texas

Jonna Perrillo, education historian and professor of English education at the University of Texas at El Paso, will deliver the 2027 Gryphon Lecture hosted by the Center for Children's Books in the School of Information Sciences. She will present "School Book Lists and the Civic Education of U.S. Teens: from 1950 to Texas."

Bio: Jonna Perrillo's scholarship focuses on humanities education and social citizenship formation, both historically and in contemporary schools. She is the author of three books: Uncivil Rights: Teachers, Unions, and the Battle for School Equity (winner of the New Scholar Book Award from the American Education Research Association, 2013) and Educating the Enemy: Teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War Borderlands (winner of the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association, 2023, and the Bolton-Cutter Prize from the Western History Association, 2022, and Uncensored: Educators Speak Out on Teaching in the Time of Book Bans (Harvard Education Press, 2026). Her writing and research have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME magazine, the Boston Review, Education Week, Slate, Post45, The 74 and on PBS and National Public Radio. With Dr. Andrew Newman, she is the three-time co-director of the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for Teachers, “Making the Good Reader and Citizen: The History of Literature Instruction in American Schools.” In June 2026, she and Newman co-published the open access report "Atomized English: Fewer Whole Books, More Isolated Learning Experiences."