Dr. Elizabeth Massa Hoiem is an associate professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, specializing in the history of children’s literature, material culture, and science writing for children. Her public writing on parenting has appeared in Visible Magazine and Fulcrum. Her academic writing has received multiple awards. Her recent book, The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children’s Literature, 1762-1860, published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2024, argues that with the rise of manufacturing, skillsets such as tinkering or experimentation became essential new literacies for an industrial economy. She lives in Illinois with her daughters, Rowan (age 5) and Isla (age 9), who were born while she worked toward tenure. She is a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.
