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Biography and education
Dr. Christian Hines is an Assistant Professor of Reading and Literacy at Texas State University. She is a former high school English teacher and Blerd (black nerd) and teacher educator whose work centers on the use of diverse young adult literature and multimodal texts in the secondary English Language Arts classroom. She received her PhD from The Ohio State University.
She leans into comics and graphic novels, specifically diverse teen superhero narratives as a way for students and practitioners to understand the intersectional lived experiences of youth and the impact that youth have on society and enacting resistance. She also centers her work around Black girls in comics, literature, pop culture, and in educational spaces.
She strives to contextualize the broader terms of her research on the representations of Black girls in middle grade and young adult literature and the ways in which that representation can aid in the identity formations and affirmations of Black girls in the ELA classroom as well creating avenues for them to amplify and create their own multimodal stories.
She leans into comics and graphic novels, specifically diverse teen superhero narratives as a way for students and practitioners to understand the intersectional lived experiences of youth and the impact that youth have on society and enacting resistance. She also centers her work around Black girls in comics, literature, pop culture, and in educational spaces.
She strives to contextualize the broader terms of her research on the representations of Black girls in middle grade and young adult literature and the ways in which that representation can aid in the identity formations and affirmations of Black girls in the ELA classroom as well creating avenues for them to amplify and create their own multimodal stories.
Research Interests
Featured grants
- Hines, Christian Marlene. Communities Literacies Collaboratory Literacies Research Grant Recipient, Community Literacies Collaboratory, University of Arkansas, Institutional (Higher Ed), $1900. (Funded: 2023). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Rodriguez-Astacio, R. M., Hines, C. M., & Miller, H. “Cody.” (2025). Striving for truth, justice and racial diversity: a critical race content analysis of DC Graphic Novel for Young Adults. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 24(1), 75–88. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-09-2024-0141
- Hines, C. M. (2025). Main Character Energy: Black Girls Getting the Love They Deserve in Elise Bryant’s Young Adult Novels. Journal of Popular Romance Studies, 14(1). Retrieved from https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/12/main-character-energy-black-girls-getting-the-love-they-deserve-in-elise-bryants-young-adult-novels/
- Hines, C. M. (2025). “All I saw was talent and beauty. Everybody has that”: Exploring the Gifts and Talents of Black Kids in Graphic Novels. In The American Dream 2.0: Recognizing the Academic Gifts and Talents of Black Students. Kendall Hunt Publishing.
- Hines, C. M., Rodríguez-Astacio, R., & Miller, H. “Cody.” (2024). Capes, Culture, and Racial Representation in Children’s Superhero Narratives: A Critical Race Content Analysis of DC Graphic Novels for Kids. Journal of Children’s Literature, 50(1), 10–21.
- Hines, C. M., & Igeleke Penn, J. (2023). Seeing beyond the Surface: Using Critical Lenses to Combat Anti-Blackness in the English Classroom. English Journal, 113(1), 17–24.
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: NCTE Edwin M. Hopkins Award, National Council of Teachers of English. 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: Frederick Luis Aldama Emerging BIPOC Comics Studies Leadership Award, Comics Studies Society. May 2024 - September 2024
Featured service activities
- Secretary
Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table Outstanding Comics for Children Award
- Editor
The ALAN Review
- Attendee / Participant
Comics Studies Society Award Committee
- Member
The Dunbar Heritage Association
- Organizer
Banned Books Week Awareness Intitiative
- Participant
Bobcat Welcome College of Education