A RENOWNED scholar from Canada is undertaking a nine-month project in Worcester to explore the ways in which children’s literature treats national identity and citizenship Dr Benjamin Lefebvre has joined the University of Worcester from the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures at the University of Winnipeg as a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow.

He will be based in the University of Worcester’s Institute of Humanities and Creative Arts, specifically in the International Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, Literacy and Creativity.

Dr Lefebvre will be working on a project comparing discourses of national identity in British and North American children’s literature, television and film post-1970.

“If you take Harry Potter for example,” Dr Lefebvre said. “The books themselves are unmistakably British, and so are all the actors in the films based on them. But the films are produced by Warner Bros, an American corporation that also owns the trademark ‘Harry Potter’ and controls the merchandising rights attached to the property.

“So who ‘owns’ Harry Potter – the British author or the American corporation?

It really depends on which version of the text you’re talking about.”

The university was awarded a grant from the Leverhulme Trust, which was established in 1925 under the will of the first Lord Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some £50 million every year.

Professor Jean Webb, director of the University of Worcester’s International Centre for Research in Children's Literature, Literacy and Creativity, said: “We are delighted to welcome Dr Benjamin Lefebvre from Canada as the Leverhulme Research Fellow for 2009-2010.