Selected Scholarship

To CV (Selected Works)

Books

Apol, L.  (2021). Poetry, poetic inquiry and Rwanda: Engaging with the lives of others. Cham, Switzerland:  Springer International Publishing.

This book describes the practice of poetic inquiry and takes the reader through the process of translating lived experience into poetry that attends to the lives of others. Using her own writing―from early drafts to published poems―Apol demonstrates elements of poetic inquiry that both give it strength and make it complicated: the importance of craft (the aesthetic); the imperative of accuracy and reliability (the investigative); the significance of ethical responsibility that leads to action (witness); and the centrality of relational connectedness and accountability (withness). Apol raises questions about what it means for poems to function as both research and art, and illustrates what happens when there are irresolvable conflicts between the demands of the poem and a commitment to relationship. Throughout, Apol addresses her white privilege, as well as the dominant white/colonial narrative that often seeps into arts-based work unless it is overtly and critically addressed.

The book goes beyond arts-based research, speaking as well to other forms of cross-national, cross-cultural research. It is a call for relational scholarship that moves toward action, a heart-rending teaching, a post-traumatic aesthetic map laid down with clear and poignant theory and praxis to extend, serve and guide.

Editorial Review

"It has been a long time since I have been so powerfully affected by a book. I feel like I have been punched in the gut and am grateful for it. This book is unflinching, unapologetic, and haunting. The material is accessible to everyone; poets and non-poets alike, or anyone desiring to conduct ethical inquiry to transform self and the world." Morna McDermott McNulty, Towson University, Maryland, USA

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Refereed Articles and Book Chapters

Writing/Poetry

Apol, L. (2021). “What happens if I open that door?”: Art, truth-telling, and healing in a poetry course for prospective teachers. In T. Kress, C. Emdin & R. Lake (Eds.) Critical Pedagogy for Healing. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing (115-124).

Apol, L. & McCarthy, M.D. (2019). Pedagogy, poetry and politics: Using poetic inquiry to convey, challenge and co/create a response to literature. In S. Faulkner & A. Cloud (Eds.) Poetry and Social Justice. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press (3-16).

Apol, L. (2019). Stories as change: Using writing to facilitate healing among genocide survivors in Rwanda. In H. Grayson and N. Hitchcott (Eds.) Rwanda after 1994: Stories of Change. Liverpool: Liverpool UP (232-251).

Apol, L. (2017). Writing poetry in Rwanda: A means for better listening, understanding, processing, and responding. Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education, 30 (2), 71-83.

Apol, L. & Macaluso, K. (2016). Using the Author-Out writing workshop to counter students’ assumptions and anxieties about reading and writing poetry. English Journal, 105 (6), 31-36.

Apol, L. (2002). “What do we do if we don’t do haiku?” Seven suggestions for teachers and writers. English Journal, 91 (3), 89-97.

Children’s/Young Adult Literature

Wargo, J. & Apol, L. (2020). “But I can’t use this in a classroom!” or, Teaching “risky/risqué” young adult literature in a College of Education. In M. Cadden, K. Coats & R. S. Trites (Eds.) Options for Teaching YA Literature. New York: Modern Language Association (129-138).

Roue, B. & Apol, L. (2019). Parable of the Sower and anti-racist pedagogy: Reading Octavia Butler with pre-service teachers. In T. Stanley (Ed.) Approaches to teaching the works of Octavia Butler. New York: Modern Language Association (69-73).

Weippert, T., Domke, T., & Apol, L. (2018). Creating a third space through intertextuality: Using children’s literature to develop prospective teachers’ critical literacy. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 14(2), 1-23.

Apol, L. & Certo, J. (2010). A burgeoning field or a sorry state: U.S. poetry for children, 1800-present. In S. Wolf, K. Coats, P. Encisco & C. Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature. New York: Routledge Press (275-289).

Damico, J. & Apol, L. (2008). Using testimonial response to frame the challenges and possibilities of risky historical texts. Children’s Literature in Education, 39 (2), 141-158.

Apol, L., Sakuma, A., Reynolds, T., & Rop, S. (2003). “When can we make paper cranes?”: Examining pre-service teachers’ resistance to critical readings of historical fiction. Journal of Literacy Research, 34 (4), 429-464.

Apol, L. (1998). “But what does this have to do with kids?”: Literary theory in the children’s literature classroom. Journal of Children’s Literature, 24 (2), 32-46.
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Grants

Delia Koo Global Faculty Endowment (2019)
Project: The Role of Children’s Literature in an Indonesian Context: Curriculum Development, Research and Outreach, $5000 (funded).

MSU Humanities and Art Research Program (2018)
Project: Whose Poem is it Anyway?: The Challenge and Responsibility of Poet as Scholar and Witness, $7,735 (funded).

Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant (2018)
Project: Remembering the Rwanda Genocide Against the Tutsi Twenty-five Years Later. Role: Co-PI with Erik Ponder, Jean Kayitsinga, and Jean Pierre Nshimyimana, MSU, $14,500 (funded).

CASID International Strategic Partnership Grant (2017)
Project: Building Capacity for Early Childhood Education in Rwanda. Role: Co-PI with Lori Skibbe and Hope Gerde, MSU, $10,000 (funded).                                    

Fulbright-Hays Project Abroad (US Department of Education) (2012)
Project: Understanding, Interpreting and Teaching Africa in the World Through the Humanities and Social Studies: Case Study of Tanzania for Pre-Service and Mentor Teachers. Role: curriculum consultant (PI Dr. John Metzler, Dr. Margo Glew), $97,300 (funded).

Creating Inclusive Excellence at MSU Grant Program (2011-2012)
Project: Race, Dis/ability and Class: Confronting Interlocking Privilege and Oppression, with Dr. Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, MSU, $21,230 (funded).