CFP – Special Issue of Papers: Charity and Children’s Literature

CALL FOR PAPERS
Charity and Children’s Literature
Special issue of Papers: Explorations in Children’s Literature
Edited by Kristine Moruzi, Deakin University

Virtually all children have the potential to act as charitable agents. However, in children’s literature the capacity to give and receive charity is not always straightforward. Which children are constructed as charitable beings and which are seen as the recipients of charity? This special issue seeks to disrupt common binaries – such as active/passive and worthy/unworthy – by examining the complex interaction between children and charity in children’s and young adult literature. Of particular interest is the question of how children are presented in relation to charitable organisations, ideas, and practices, especially in relation to dimensions of difference (social, cultural, economic, and political).

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Representations of charity during a particular historical period
  • The politics of charity in contemporary texts
  • Theorisations and discourses of children and charity
  • Children as social agents in historical and contemporary texts
  • The welfare state and charity to/by children
  • Empire and charity in children’s texts
  • Globalised representations of children’s philanthropy
  • Discourses of religion and children’s philanthropy
  • Affect and philanthropy in children’s texts

Articles should be no more than 6000 words in length. Harvard citation style preferred. As per Papers submission guidelines, all articles will be subject to blind peer review.

Please send your article, a brief author’s bio, and contact information to Kristine Moruzi kmoruzi@deakin.edu.au by March 1, 2016.

CFP – A Century of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s Priče iz davnine (Croatian Tales of Long Ago)

Call for Papers
A Century of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s Priče iz davnine (Croatian Tales of Long Ago)
12–15 October, 2016
Zagreb, Croatia

The International Conference A Century of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s “Priče iz davnine” (Croatian Tales of Long Ago) is dedicated to the centenary of the first publication of the collection of fairy tales Priče iz davnine (Croatian Tales of Long Ago, 1916), the most famous work by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić and one which brought its author world-wide renown. In the hope of your participation, we kindly ask you to submit your proposal, including a title, summary and keywords, no later than 28 February 2016 to: conf.pid.2016@gmail.com. Please include the submission form. Participants will be notified by 30 April 2016. The Call for Papers includes suggestions of more specific topics related to thematic areas covered by the Conference. Naturally, we welcome other topics related to the proposed thematic sections.

The official languages of the Conference are Croatian and English.

Literary, historical and cultural aspects of Croatian Tales of Long Ago

  • Origins of Croatian Tales of Long Ago within a historical (cultural, social, political, scholarly) context
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of the author’s biography and bibliography
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in an intercultural context and in translation
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of publication practices and publishing circumstances
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of reader and/or critical reception
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago within a folkloristic and ethnographic context
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in a religious context
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of media transpositions (theatre, film, comic books, multimedia, etc.)
  • Illustrations of Croatian Tales of Long Ago

Theoretical approaches to Croatian Tales of Long Ago

  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago from various perspectives of literary theory
  • Generic and narrative dimensions of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Themes, world views and ideology in Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago: (re)contextualising Christian ideologemes and Slavic mythologemes
  • Generic and/or media transpositions and/or resemantisations
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of virtual worlds and cyber culture
  • Interdisciplinary and postdisciplinary approaches to Croatian Tales of Long Ago

Linguistic and stylistic aspects of Croatian Tales of Long Ago

  • Linguistic aspects (vocabulary, phraseology, syntax, etc.) of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Stylistic aspects (descriptions, rhythm, idiolect, etc.) of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • General traits of the fairy tale in the language and style of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the linguistic and stylistic context of Slavic fairy tales
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago and oral literature
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago and language at the beginning of the 20th century
  • (Non)archaism of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Linguistic and stylistic aspects of translations of Croatian Tales of Long Ago

Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of pedagogy and education

  • Teaching and learning about Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago and the national curriculum for Croatian as a school subject
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago as required reading
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of picturebooks
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago and the child recipient
  • Pedagogical aspects of Croatian Tales of Long Ago
  • Educational aspects of Croatian Tales of Long Ago

Ivana Brlić Mažuranić’s opus in the context of European and world literature

  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago in the context of (children’s) literature at the beginning of the 20th century
  • Croatian Tales of Long Ago and Fairy Tales and Fables (Bajke i basne) by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić: interrelationship
  • Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s opus in the context of literature at the turn of the 20th century
  • Thematic/narratological/cultural/ideological aspects of individual works or the entire opus of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić
  • Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić and nominations for the Nobel Prize
  • Children’s literature in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century
  • Ideology and political turmoil in children’s literature
  • Traces of modernism, Secession, Art Nouveau and/or surrealism in children’s literature at the beginning of the 20th century
  • Children’s stories in bourgeois society
  • Anticipations of World War One in (children’s) literature
  • Poetics of early-20th-century children’s literature
  • The feminist movement and children’s literature

Fairy tales: the issue of genre

  • Fairy tales: generic and theoretical issues
  • Fairy tales: in the past and today
  • Fairy tales in a global context: geographical and cultural similarities and differences
  • The fairy tale: the future of a literary genre
  • Contemporary fairy tales: forms and perspectives
  • Fairy tales and contemporary media
  • Fairy tales and contemporary society
  • Fairy tales and gender criticism
  • Fairy tales and politics/ideology
  • Story/fairy tale and all-age/crossover literature

For additional information about the Conference, please:

Visit our official website: http://conference-pid-2016.hidk.hr/
Visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/price2016?fref=ts
Contact us at: conf.pid.2016@gmail.com.

CFP – Shifting Landscapes: Diversity, Text and Young People

CALL FOR PAPERS
The AUSTRALASIAN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH (ACLAR) CONFERENCE, 13-15 July 2016
Shifting Landscapes: Diversity, Text and Young People

Questions of diversity are not new in children’s and young adult fiction, however recent years have seen several notable and significant ‘shifts’ in the literary landscape surrounding these fields of practice: the rise, acceptance and popularity of LGBTI fiction for young adults, the reimagination of the picture book genre, the challenging of accepted definitions of “young adult,” the role of multimedia texts in the transgression of boundaries, and the collapsing of traditionally held binaries surrounding issues like race, sex, gender and power have all contributed to the construction of writing for children and young adults as an increasingly diverse field of practice and study. This conference seeks to explore just a few of these “shifting landscapes,” through the presentation of cross-disciplinary and diverse papers addressing the central strands below.

Location: Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga NSW
Wagga Wagga is the largest regional city in New South Wales and was the site of the first ACLAR conference in 1998. Flights from Sydney or Melbourne take 1 hour 10 mins. Driving from Sydney takes 5 hours 30 mins, from Melbourne 4 hours 30 mins and from Canberra 2 hours 45 mins.

Keynote speakers:
Prof Kenneth Kidd, University of Florida
Dr Erica Hateley, Sør-Trøndelag University College
Dr Irini Savvides, Meriden, Sydney

You are invited to interpret the conference theme creatively and cross-disciplinary submissions are particularly welcome. Individual submissions will run for no more than 20 minutes, with additional time for questions. Panel submissions are also invited and should consist of a single abstract of up to 500 words, detailing up to 3 speakers and the contribution each of them will make to the topic.

Abstracts might engage with, but are not limited to, the following:

  • changing representations of gender, race, class, age, nation, ability
  • literary texts in and about regional communities
  • innovation in Indigenous texts
  • literary texts and narrative therapy
  • the gothic in texts for children and teens
  • censorship, advisories and trigger warnings
  • representations of demographic change: tree changing, sea changing
  • publishing, retailing and marketing outside capital cities
  • archives and the digital environment
  • refugees, literary texts in community languages, the changing role of libraries
  • digital diversity: ebooks, apps, games and multi-literacy
  • “Have you read this week’s text?”: close reading, distant reading
  • ecocritical perspectives

Abstracts (individual 300 words; panel 500 words) are due by: 15 December 2015.

Please email abstracts and direct any further enquiries to Dr Mark Macleod mmacleod@csu.edu.au.

Fellowships to study at Kent State University’s Reinberger Children’s Library Center

Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for two $1,500 research fellowships:

The Jacqueline M. Albers Guest Scholar in Children’s Literature Fellowship was endowed by SLIS alumna Jacqueline M. Albers to support a guest scholar who will study children’s literature using the collections in the Reinberger Children’s Library Center.

The Kenneth and Sylvia Marantz Fellowship for Picturebook Research, supported by Dr. Kenneth and Sylvia Marantz, encourages scholarly research on the study of picture books using the resources of the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art.

If awarded, funds could be used to coordinate a research visit with attending the Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium, July 24-26, 2016.

Each fellowship provides a stipend of up to $1,500 for outstanding scholars to spend approximately one week on site, researching picture books, posters or ephemera related to picturebooks in the Reinberger Children’s Library Center and Marantz Picturebook Collection at the Kent State University School of Library and Information Science in Kent, Ohio, U.S.A. Stipends may be used toward travel, lodging, food and research-related supplies.

Mission of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center and the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art

From historical books for children to contemporary literature for young people, the Reinberger Children’s Library Center and the Marantz Picturebook Collection encompass diverse collections of youth literature that span geographic, cultural, physical, technological and temporal borders. The collections represent the best literature and related materials for young people. They also demonstrate the processes involved in producing, publishing and marketing such literature over time, from evolving means of production to differing constructions of childhood. In addition, the state-of-the-art Center provides opportunities to study connections between literacy, reading and digital technologies, which is valuable for practitioners as well as scholars.

The Center’s purpose is threefold: 1) to support and encourage scholarly research within its collections; 2) to provide professional training to students and practitioners; and 3) to engage in activities and outreach to the community and beyond. The Center’s collection is of interest to interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners from such fields as youth services librarianship, school library media, children’s literature, education, English, communication, media studies, design, and others interested in studying youth literature, publishing, young people and reading in both an historical and contemporary context.

The Reinberger and Marantz collections combine to form a research library collection of more than 30,000 books and related ephemera.

Following is a sampling of the types of studies which could be done using the collections:

  • The art of picture book illustration (media and techniques)
  • Themes and trends in children’s literature
  • Social construction of childhood through children’s literature
  • Social justice in children’s picturebooks
  • Studies of American Children’s Award winners
  • Historical perspectives on children’s literature (and the work of May Hill Arbuthnot)
  • Contemporary perspectives (ebook vs. print picture books)
  • Reviewing studies (Including the work of Ken and Sylvia Marantz)
  • Publishing studies on books for young readers
  • Study of pop-ups/paper engineering

Criteria for Eligibility

  • Albers: Applicants will be evaluated based on their proven dedication to the study of children’s literature (not specifically picture books) and selection of a topic of study related to the Reinberger and Marantz collections.
  • Marantz: Applicants will be evaluated based on their proven dedication to the study of children’s picture books and selection of a topic of study related to the Reinberger and Marantz collections.
  • Preference will be given to topics likely to be published or otherwise disseminated.
  • Awards also will be based on applicants’ scholarly qualifications.
  • Applicants from diverse academic disciplines are welcome to apply, including but not limited to: youth services librarianship, school library media, children’s literature, art, education, English, communication, media studies, design, art education, illustration, publishing, and others interested in studying youth literature, young people and reading.
  • Applicants must hold at least a master’s degree.

Application Process

Please provide the following materials using the form at this link: http://bit.ly/ksuSLISfellowsApp.

  • A two-page summary addressing the topic of your proposed study and the potential impact of your work. Include an outline of the project and its relationship to previous and current scholarship in the field, how the resources of the Kent State collections will support your research, as well as the anticipated outcome of the project and plans for publication.
  • Curriculum vitae / resume including name, title, contact information, education.
  • A proposed budget of anticipated travel and research expenses, and suggested dates of study in Kent.

Stipends must be used within one year from receipt of funds, at which time expenditure reports will be due.

Applications must be submitted on the appropriate form (http://bit.ly/ksuSLISfellowsApp) no later than midnight on Jan. 30, 2016.

Winners will be announced via email on or before March 1, 2016.

Conditions

  • Recipients of the Marantz Fellowship for Picturebook Research must be willing to present (in-person or online) their research related to the fellowship findings at a future picture book symposium hosted by Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science.
  • Recipients of the Albers Fellowship must be willing to present (in-person or online) their research related to the fellowship findings at a future symposium hosted by Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science.
  • Recipients must be willing to have their name, photo and title of research promoted via publicity and marketing channels at Kent State University.
  • Any publications resulting from this support should credit the appropriate fellowship.
  • Applicants agree to send a copy of any ensuing publications to the Reinberger Children’s Library Center at Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science.

For questions please contact Michelle Baldini: mbaldini@kent.edu or Marianne Martens: mmarten3@kent.edu.

CFP – Reimagining the Child: Next Steps in the Study of Childhood(s)

Call for Papers
Reimagining the Child: Next Steps in the Study of Childhood(s)
A Graduate Student Conference

The Rutgers University – Camden Graduate Student Organization in Childhood Studies is pleased to announce our third graduate student conference, to be held 22-23 April 2016 in Camden, New Jersey. Graduate students and others at a similar stage of career in all disciplines who are engaged in research relating to children and youth are encouraged to submit proposals.

Since its inception, the field of childhood studies has pushed boundaries in academic approaches to children and childhood. It has challenged scholars to refigure children as active participants in society and constructors of their own life experiences, worked to give voice to young people in research, promoted the understanding of childhood as a socially-constructed category, and encouraged groundbreaking interdisciplinary methodology and analysis. We recognize, however, that innovative thinking about children and childhood is not limited to those scholars working directly in the field of childhood studies. The goal of this year’s graduate student conference is to bring together graduate students and other early-career scholars whose work represents a contribution to expanding academic understandings of and approaches to children and childhood.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Theorizations and discourses of childhood
  • Representations of children in media
  • Relationships between children and technology
  • Considering children in approaches to human rights, ethics, and morality
  • Children’s culture(s)
  • Children as social agents
  • Bringing children’s voices to academic study
  • Children’s participation in research and as researchers
  • Emerging and diverse perspectives on childhood in psychology
  • Children and views of “the child” in politics and policy
  • Geographies and histories of childhood
  • Differences and parallels in diverse experiences of childhood
  • Intersections of childhood with other social categories, such as gender, race, and disability
  • Changing understandings of childhood and their implications for teaching and learning

Proposals are welcome from scholars in all fields, including sociology, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, media studies, fine arts, political science, public policy, geography, psychology, and education. We are particularly looking for presenters engaged in interdisciplinary work.

Submissions: Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to the conference chair, Julian Burton, at julian.burton@rutgers.edu. Include the words “conference abstract” in the subject line. Please include your name, current level of study, and affiliated institution in the body of your e-mail. Attach your abstract as a separate document containing no personally identifying information.

Deadline: 20 December 2015
Notifications will be sent to accepted presenters by January 31, 2015.

Further information will be made available on the Childhood Studies Rutgers Facebook page at facebook.com/childhoodruc and the Childhood Studies Grad Student Organization events page at rulinked.camden.rutgers.edu/organization/csgs/events.

CFP – Children’s Comics, Past and Present

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Children’s Comics, Past and Present

In connection with the Children’s Literature Association Conference that is being hosted by The Ohio State University in 2016, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at OSUL (The Ohio State University Libraries) will mount an exhibit on children’s comics, past and present. The exhibit will open June 4, 2016 and run through October 30, 2016.

The Billy Ireland has partnered with the University Libraries Digital Publishing Program for this venture and plans to publish a peer-reviewed digital exhibit catalogue of critical essays about children’s comics, past and present. The essays will address a variety of aspects of children’s comics—artists, characters, titles, themes, trends, publishers, etc.—and are intended to augment the material displayed in the exhibit. The essays are intended for a general educated readership and so need to be written in accessible prose that is free of academic jargon.

Please submit 500-word abstracts by October 15, 2015 to Michelle Ann Abate at abate.30@osu.edu and Joe Sutliff Sanders at dr.joess@gmail.com.

Full-length essays of 5,000 words will be due by January 1, 2016.

The peer-reviewed digital exhibit catalogue of critical essays will be released sometime in summer 2016 to coincide with the exhibit.