Research Interests

As an independent scholar Janet’s on-going research relates to:
- Creative and critical responses to challenging and controversial picturebooks
- Children’s responses to picturebooks which reflect socio-economic, political and philosophical issues in society.
- Wordless picturebooks and the art of the wordless picturebook
- Creative, multimodal connections between art, visual literacy and picturebooks
- Literacy and popular culture: play, talk and stories
- Picturebooks, digital literacy and moving image texts
- Children’s process of writing and bookmaking as a response to visual texts.
Research Scholarships


In addition to working abroad on several occasions Janet was awarded three research scholarships:
1994 |
Hewitt/Driver Education Trust Scholarship |
1995 |
Walter Hines Page Scholarship |
2010 |
International Youth Library, Munich, Germany |
Research Group Membership
Janet has been a member of several research groups to include:
- The ESRC funded research seminar group, Children’s Literacy and Popular Culture, organized by Jackie Marsh and Elaine Millard in 2002 – 2004 University of Sheffield.
- The ESRC funded research group on Play, Creativity and Digital Literacies, organized by Muriel Robinson and Rebekah Willett in 2005 – 2007 University of London, Institute of Education and Bishops Grosseteste College, Lincoln.
Review Boards
Janet currently serves on the review board of the following academic journals: