PEN America has documented 10,000+ book bans affecting 4,000 titles, while the American Library Association has tracked 800+ censorship attempts targeting 2,500 books. Young Adult literature bears the brunt of these efforts, with 72% of challenges now originating from organized pressure groups.This seminar will provide a taste of recently banned, award-winning, bestselling books, examining why YA literature has become a primary target and what this reveals about cultural anxieties around young people's agency. We'll analyze the craft elements that make books exploring teen sexuality, queer identity, mental health, race, and social justice so powerful—and so threatening to censors. Our cultural investment in childhood innocence—an idea invented in the 19th century and historically reserved for white children—may lead us to romanticize what young people actually want to read about. Students will lead discussions, write short analytical responses, and develop a research project that situates a primary text within political debates.Modern Topics classes are focused on the critical investigation of a specific modern topic, movement, style, or tradition of literary and performative production, typically after the year 1900. Students will read and write critically on these topics, including multi-modal responses, and will position the texts within a socio-historical context.

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