Dr. Jennifer Gouck
Dr. Jennifer Gouck (she/her) is a DFG-Walter Benjamin Postdoctoral Researcher and previously held a Women in Research (WiRe) Fellowship from the University of Münster. Her research focuses on representations of girlhood in and the radical potential of contemporary American Young Adult literature, media, and culture. She is also interested in censorship and the rise of book banning in the United States and co-founded the Banned Books Network Münster with her colleagues Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl, Dr. Sarah Pyke, and Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl. Her current project, "Beyond the Problem Novel: Representing Abortion in Contemporary American Young Adult Fiction" („Mehr als ein Problemroman: Die Darstellung von Abtreibung in der zeitgenössischen amerikanischen Jugendliteratur“) seeks to theorise the representation of abortion in contemporary American YA, reading these texts through a reproductive justice lens.
Jennifer holds a PhD from University College Dublin, where she was a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar. Her doctoral research received awards from the Irish Association for American Studies and the Bassi Foundation. The monograph based on this project, The Manic Pixie Dream Girl in Contemporary American Young Adult Fiction, is under contract with the University of Mississippi Press.
Jennifer’s work has appeared in Women's Studies, The Irish Journal of American Studies, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, and The International Journal of Young Adult Literature, where she was the guest editor of a special section dedicated to the work of John Green on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of his debut novel, Looking for Alaska (2005). Jennifer is also passionate about engaging with audiences beyond academia: she has been a reviewer for Children’s Books Ireland’s Inis Magazine; had a regular feature called “Beyond the Books: Where a Love of YA Can Take You” in issues 2-6 of Paper Lanterns: The Teen and Young Adult Literary Journal; and appeared on an episode of the CodEX Machina podcast.
Outside of her research, Jennifer is an award-winning teacher, earning an Exceptional Contribution to Learning Award while at University College Dublin. During her time at Belfast Metropolitan College, she developed and lead the “Library Explorers” initiative. Informed by her experience as a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practitioner, the Library Explorers programme aimed to increase the confidence of students aged 14-16 from Special Schools in Northern Ireland in engaging with library services. Additionally, the pilot project encouraged these students to read for pleasure and provided the tools to foster a culture of lifelong learning.
Jennifer currently sits on the Membership Committee for the Children’s Literature Association (2024-2027). She previously served as Secretary-Treasurer on the YA Studies Association’s inaugural Executive Board (2020-2024) and as Digital Co-Ordinator on the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature’s Executive Committee (2021-2023).