I am an Associate Professor of Children's Literature and Young Learners within the department of Teacher Education at NTNU. My research focuses on the visual iconography of the ‘Alice’ figure created in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and it traces the progression of Alice’s characterisation through multimodal platforms including illustration and fine art photography. I am also interested in representations of puberty and menstruation in children's texts. My current research project investigates how the female child's body is altered through physical and metaphysical space, thus initiating menstrual development. 

Research Interests:

Children's Literature

Visual Methodologies and Aesthetics

Literary Theory 

Girlhood Studies

Gender Studies

Picturebooks

Cinematography

Selected Publications:

Books

Dillon, J. and Spencer, E. (eds). (2022). Family in Children's and Young Adult Literature. New York: Routledge. (forthcoming).  

Journal Articles

Dillon, J. (2022). ‘(Re)Imagining Girlhood: The Artistic Evolution of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in the 21st Century’, Special Issue ‘Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: Girls’ Literature and Beyond’ in Barnboken: Journal of Children’s Literature Research. (forthcoming).  

Dillon, J. (2021). 'Examining the Bleeding Body in Wonderland', The Irish Society for the Study of Children's Literature Blog. 

Dillon, J. (2020). Quarantine Comfort Reads: Coraline, Children’s Literature Association International Committee Blog.

Dillon, J. (2019). ‘The Disney Effect: How Film Adaptations Reinforce Social Norms’, RTE Brainstorm. 

Dillon, J. (2019). ‘Exploring Female Identity in Carroll’s Wonderland and Barrie’s the Neverland’ in GLARE (Exploring Gender in Children’s Literature from a Cognitive Corpus Stylistic Perspective) Project funded by the European Commission within Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, University of Birmingham. 

Dillon, J. (2018). ‘Curiouser and Curiouser: Deconstructing the Fantastic within Victorian Children’s Fiction’ in The British Fantasy Society Journal, Issue 18, p. 35 – 44. 

Dillon, J. (2017). ‘Blessed Are The Meek: Atwood’s Desire for Female Autonomy in The Handmaid’s Tale’ in Fantastika Journal, Issue 2, p.213 – 216. 

Dillon, J. (2017). ‘The Politics of the Female Body in Louise O’ Neill’s Asking For It’ in In(visible) Lines Sibéal Journal, p.21 – 31.

Dillon, J. (2017). ‘Cinematic Discourse: Deconstructing Modes of Gender and Time in James Bobin’s Alice Through The Looking Glass’ in Fantastika Journal, Issue 1, p.164 – 167. 

Book Chapters 

Dillon, J. (2019). ‘Reimagining Alice through the Intertextual Realm of Children’s Film’ in Casie Hermansson and Janet Zepernick (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Children’s Film and Television, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p.131-146.

Dillon, J. (2018). ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. In Kevin Morrison (ed), The Companion to Victorian Popular Fiction, McFarland & Co. Inc., Publishing, p.7-8 (encyclopaedia entry).

Book Reviews

Dillon, J. (2021). Escape Review, Inis Magazine, Issue 63, Children’s Books Ireland.

Dillon, J. (2021). Filming the Children’s Book: Adapting Metapicture Review, International Research Society for Children’s Literature. (in progress). 

Dillon, J. (2021). The Ravenmaster’s Boy Review, Paper Laterns Journal. 

Dillon, J. (2021). Climate Action Review, Inis Magazine, Children’s Books Ireland.

Dillon, J. (2020). The Secret Lives of Mermaids Review, Inis Magazine, Children’s Books Ireland.

Dillon, J. (2020). Fashioning Alice: The Career of Lewis Carroll’s Icon, 1860 – 1901 Review, International Research Society for Children’s Literature. 

Dillon, J. (2019). Girls on Fire: Transformative Heroines in Young Adult Dystopian Literature Review, International Research Society for Children’s Literature.

Conference Papers: 

‘(Re)Imagining Girlhood: The Artistic Evolution of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’: ‘Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: “Girls’ Literature” and Beyond”’, Centre for Childhood Research in Literature, Language and Learning, Linnæus University, Växjö, Sweden, 6th – 8th October 2020.  

‘Breaking through the Looking-Glass’, Developments in Doctoral Supervision Practice Symposium, Poster Paper, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2nd September 2019.

‘Analysing Cinematic Appropriations of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy’: Irish Screen Studies Seminar, National University of Ireland, Galway, 9th & 10th May 2019. 

‘‘I’m your other mother’: Radical Identities in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002)’: ‘Radical Young People’s Literature and Culture’, The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, 29th & 30th March 2019. 

‘Reflected Realism: How Children’s Literature Simultaneously Reflects and Deconstructs Social Ideologies’: Irish History Students’ Conference, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 1st – 3rd March 2019. 

‘The Artistic Lens of the Picturebook’: ‘Synergy and Contradiction: How Picturebooks and Picture Books Work’ Conference, Homerton College, University of Cambridge, UK, 6th – 8th September 2018. 

‘Through the Looking Glass: Analysing Children’s Literature through the Theoretical Lens’: ‘Research Engagement’ Symposium, Poster Paper, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 3rd September 2018. 

‘No One Mourns the Wicked: Examining the Monstrous Other in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’: ‘Villainous Victims: Redefining the Anti-Hero from a Postmodern Perspective’ Conference, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 25th April 2018. 

‘Mirror, Mirror: Establishing the Gendered Gaze in Louise O’Neill’s Only Ever Yours’: ‘Revisiting the Gaze’ Conference, Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London, UK, 28th & 29th June 2017.  

‘The Mirror of Alice: Locating Lacan’s Mirror Stage and the Search for Female Identity in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’: Association of Franco-Irish Studies, Conference, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 19th & 20th May 2017.

‘Locating Alice: The Gendered Body of Identity within Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Tim Burton’s adaptation’; ‘Performing Fantastika’ Interdisciplinary Conference, Lancaster University, UK, 28th & 29th April 2017.

‘Reimagining Alice: Adaptation and Intertextuality of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in Popular Culture’: ‘Mum’s The Word: Voicing the Female Experience in Popular Culture’ Conference, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 9th March 2017. 

‘The Politics of the Female Body in Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It’:  Revolutionary Genders Sibéal Conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, 18th & 19th November 2016. 

‘Deconstructing Minds – A Psychoanalytical Deconstruction of the Brain as a Fantasy Island in Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out’: The European Society for the Studies of English (ESSE) Conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, 22nd – 26th August 2016. 

Academic Memberships:

International Research Society for Children’s Literature

The Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature

Children’s Literature Association 

The Lewis Carroll Society

The British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies

The European Society for Studies in English

Association of Franco-Irish Studies

Irish Women’s Writing Network 

Sibéal Feminist and Gender Studies Network