CFP – Remediating Boundaries between Children’s Print and Digital Media

Call for Papers
Remediating Boundaries between Children’s Print and Digital Media

At the outset of their landmark work, Remediation: Understanding New Media, Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin explain the “double logic” of remediation accordingly: “Our culture wants both to multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation: ideally, it wants to erase its media in the very act of multiplying them.” Indeed, our culture is increasingly “hypermediated,” even as we see more and more calls for immediacy.

With this observation in mind, I seek papers that examine the boundaries between print and digital cultures for/of/by children and young adults. It has been over 15 years since Eliza T. Dresang first proclaimed the “radical change” offered by the so-called Digital Revolution. What characteristics, trends, tendencies, possibilities, and pitfalls define digital children’s culture today, and what is its connection to its print counterpart? How do print texts reveal the impact of digital media—or resist it? How do print texts inform our reading of digital texts and vice versa?

This panel seeks to explore the ongoing relationship between print and digital forms in children’s and young adult literature and culture. Papers may cover adaptation and remediation, intermediality, digital narratives, e-books and other digital delivery platforms, user-generated content, and transmedia storytelling. Submissions considering digital cinema (including CGI and computer animation), video games, viral videos, and other new media content are especially welcome.

This session is guaranteed for the 2017 MLA Convention in Philadelphia. Please send proposals of 350-500 words (including a working bibliography) to Pete Kunze at pkunze@utexas.edu by Tuesday, March 15.

Professor/Reader in Children’s Literature at Newcastle University

Vacancy Title: G690 – Professor/Reader in Children’s Literature
Location: Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
G690 – Professor/Reader in Children’s Literature
Closing date: 3 March 2016

We are seeking to appoint an outstanding individual to contribute to the leadership of Children’s Literature studies in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. The appointed candidate will help us build on our extremely strong performance in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF) by delivering research, and teaching, of the very highest quality. The post is open to specialists in any area of Children’s Literature in English, without regard to period, region or approach.

An established record of internationally-significant publications, and convincing plans for further high-quality outputs and projects able to attract substantial external funding, are essential. Equally important are the ability and commitment to add to our reputation for public-facing research and societal impact, and in particular to reinforce our established, highly successful partnership with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books (www.sevenstories.org.uk).

The qualities required to deliver excellent teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels are central to the position, as are the experience and leadership abilities to make a significant contribution to the culture and management of the School.

Informal enquiries about the post can be made to either Dr James Annesley, Head of School (tel: +44 (0)191 208 6617) or Professor Matthew Grenby, (tel: +44 (0)191 208 6182).

View the vacancy online.

CFP – Border Conflicts: Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature

Call for Papers
Border Conflicts: Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature

In September 2015, photos of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi — his corpse washed ashore on a Turkish beach — came to symbolize the urgency of the Syrian refugee crisis. World leaders promised to do more, people debated whether printing the pictures was appropriate, and charities experienced a surge in donations. In children’s literature, the figure of the child as refugee, migrant, or displaced citizen has long been a powerful trope, disrupting the assumed connection between personal identity and national identity, exposing virulent racism and xenophobia, but also awakening compassion and kindness. As Europe faces its largest refugee crisis since World War II, this guaranteed session (sponsored by the Children’s Literature Forum) will examine children’s literature’s response — both contemporary and historical — to refugees, migrants, and members of diasporic communities.

Subjects panelists might consider include (but are not limited to): the ways in which the term “migrant” can dehumanize people, whether persecuted minorities qualify for refugee status in their own countries, the many reasons for displacement (race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexuality), questions concerning human rights, and how the vulnerable figure of the child brings these questions into sharper focus.

The panel will convene at the Modern Language Association Convention in Philadelphia, which will be held from January 5 to 8, 2017.

Send 1-page abstracts by March 15, 2016 to Nina Christensen NC@dac.au.dk and Philip Nel Posted in calls for papers

CFP – The Great Depression in Children’s Literature: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

The Great Depression in Children’s Literature: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Call for papers for a symposium at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University
Dates: Friday, 23 and Saturday, 24 September 2016
Symposium keynote speaker: Michelle Martin, University of South Carolina
Teachers’ event keynote speaker: Gabrielle Cliff-Hodges, Cambridge University

Published in 1976, Mildred Taylor’s best-known work Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry continues to be highly celebrated and challenged. A Newbury Award Winner, appearing in school curricula in both the US and UK, Roll of Thunder also appears on the infamous “banned books” lists. Taylor’s work has been discussed by a range of academics in education and literary research, and this symposium will explore multiple strands of thought and dialogue on this landmark text. We will end the symposium with a teachers’ event, bringing together researchers with teachers and trainees to share ideas about Roll of Thunder and other 1930s-set novels in the classroom.

Possible topics for papers include:

  • Taylor’s life, work and influence
  • Children’s responses to Taylor’s work, and uses of Taylor’s work in the classroom
  • The 1978 film adaptation of Roll of Thunder
  • International translations and reception of Roll of Thunder
  • African American (and) women’s writing for children of and about the 1930s
  • Representations of race, gender, national and regional identity, class and political economy in children’s literature of and about the 1930s
  • Historical children’s fiction and the Great Depression in retrospect; the 1930s as taught through literature (e.g. Taylor, Morrison, Walker, Lee, Steinbeck, Faulkner and others); representations of the New Deal; issues of ethics and ideology in historical children’s fiction

Please submit a title and 150-word abstract by 15 March 2016 to Sarah Hardstaff, sflh2@cam.ac.uk

Cambridge/Homerton Research & Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature

CFP – Special Issue of Italica Wratislaviensia: Letteratura Italiana per l’infanzia tra ieri e oggi

CALL FOR PAPERS ITALICA WRATISLAVIENSIA 8
LETTERATURA ITALIANA PER L’INFANZIA TRA IERI E OGGI

La letteratura per l’infanzia, per molto tempo considerata Cenerentola (Bacchetti 2006) del mondo letterario, un tipo di scrittura marginale e di scarso valore artistico, da qualche tempo sta sperimentando un periodo di grande fioritura e innovazione. Oggi è diventata ormai un vero sistema letterario e culturale che ha inglobato e continua a inglobare moltissimi generi: dal libro illustrato alla poesia, dal romanzo realistico o di avventura a quello storico, fantasy o poliziesco, allo stesso tempo rinnovando e reinventando i generi tradizionali, quali la favola o la fiaba, per non parlare delle nuove forme dell’albo illustrato o della sempre più diffusa narrativa crossover.

Infatti, la sfida che deve affrontare la letteratura per l’infanzia nell’epoca attuale è di andare incontro ai rapidi cambiamenti della realtà in qui vivono i ragazzi del Terzo Millennio, per tale motivo, come sottolinea Peter Hunt (2014), annettendo anche i linguaggi che portano il libro ad estendere i suoi confini (TV, videogiochi, Internet).

La ricchezza e la pluralità di fenomeni che interessano la produzione per l’infanzia contemporanea ne fanno un oggetto di studio affascinante che infatti negli ultimi anni ha già registrato un crescente interesse degli studiosi di varie discipline, dalla pedagogia alla critica letteraria, dai Media Studies ai Translation Studies, testimoniato da un’impennata di studi e di pubblicazioni. L’ottavo volume di Italica Wratislaviensia intende fornire una riflessione sulle tendenze più attuali nell’ambito delle ricerche sulla letteratura italiana per l’infanzia (considerazioni di tipo letterario e linguistico), ma anche sulle evoluzioni recenti nella produzione letteraria dedicata ai bambini e ragazzi (relativi ad esempio al rapporto tra il testo e l’immagine o agli sviluppo dell’editoria per l’infanzia).

Il discorso si dovrebbe focalizzare sulla letteratura italiana, ma saranno benvenuti anche articoli relativi alla letteratura comparata o traduttologia, dedicati a vari collegamenti della letteratura italiana con altre letterature per l’infanzia, quelle che godono della fama internazionale (francese, inglese, russa, tedesca), e quelle meno conosciute.

Con questa call chiediamo di intervenire nel dibattito con contributi teoretici o analitici mirati al tema della LETTERATURA ITALIANA PER L’INFANZIA, proponendo, a titolo di esempio, i seguenti argomenti:

  • La narrativa young adult
  • La letteratura crossover
  • I nuovi classici per l’infanzia
  • Favola e fiaba oggi
  • La narrativa fantasy
  • Il testo letterario in formato elettronico (apps, e-books per ragazzi)
  • Traduzioni/adattamenti della letteratura per l’infanzia
  • La letteratura per l’infanzia al cinema
  • Editoria per l’infanzia
  • Letteratura per infanzia nell’ambiente scolastico

Le proposte dei contributi (abstract di 250 parole con 5 parole chiave destinati a sottolineare i punti salienti del contributo) con una breve nota biografica dell’autore (50 parole) devono essere inviate agli indirizzi italicawratislaviensia@gmail.com e katarzyna.biernacka-licznar@uwr.edu.pl entro il 20 marzo del 2016.

L’accettazione degli abstract sarà comunicata all’indirizzo di posta elettronica dell’autore entro il 20 aprile del 2016.

I contributi che rispettano le norme redazionali devono pervenire entro il 30 settembre 2016.

CFP – Visuality and Illustration in Children’s Literature

Call for Papers: Visuality and Illustration in Children’s Literature

“A picture is worth a thousand words,” Neil Gaiman explains and thus already hints at the immediacy and the sensual and intellectual presence of images – an appreciation which illustration is not always awarded, as pointed out amongst others by Jutta Bauer in her acceptance speech for the special price of the German Children’s Literature Award in 2009. Often neglected by readers and buyers, the visual and illustrational presentation of books has an enormous impact on the reading experience, a fact that has received growing attention in children’s literature research. Furthermore, various segments of the child lit market such as the comic are highly influential on the wider art and media scene – a fact, however, that is not always universally recognised and appreciated.

The visual nature of children’s literature is not limited to illustration, however: the impact of texts is also determined by the type, size and placement of font, the layout and accentuation of chapter titles and initials, as well as colour choice on the title, spine and cover pages. Electronic and interactive texts are also increasingly influenced by computer graphic aspects and negotiations.

interjuli 02/16 will deal with Visuality and Illustration in Children’s Literature. Possible aspects thereof are:

  • illustration and visuality in the course of history
  • picture book reception as an intergenerational activity
  • text‐as‐image in children’s literature
  • tension fields of text and image
  • cover presentation and layout as dialogue with the text
  • the use of picture books in teaching media literacy and criticism
  • the impact of children’s literature on the mainstream
  • cooperation of authors and illustrators
  • children’s book illustration and art discussion
  • children’s literature illustration and Avantgarde
  • children’s literature illustration and art pedagogy
  • illustrating problem literature
  • working and sales conditions of picture books and graphic novels
  • illustration and all age‐literature
  • picture books and graphic novels in the classroom
  • illustration and visuality in non‐fiction

As always, we also welcome contributions that do not pertain to our focal topic. Please send in your manuscripts by Feb. 1, 2016. Guidelines concerning formatting and editing standards will be sent out upon request and can be found at www.interjuli.de.

interjuli is an interdisciplinary scientific journal dedicated to the research of literature for children and young adults. We publish research papers as well as reviews of primary and secondary works.

CFP – Roald Dahl Centenary Cardiff Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS
Roald Dahl Centenary Cardiff Conference
Cardiff University (Wales, UK) 16–18 June 2016

Keynote Speakers
Professor David Rudd, University of Roehampton
Donald Sturrock, Author of Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl and editor of Dahl’s correspondence

This interdisciplinary international conference, held in the city of Roald Dahl’s birth and childhood in his centenary year, will give further impetus to the substantial critical attention devoted to the author’s work by seeking new ways of understanding his achievement and place in twentieth- and twenty-first-century culture, broadly considered. The emphasis will be on defamiliarizing Dahl in the very act of bringing him “home.” Dahl’s work for children and young adults will, naturally, receive robust attention; innovative cross-disciplinary approaches that encounter his writing through the lens of (for example) illustration, adaptation and performance are particularly welcome. Dahl’s output for adult readers will also be a key focus, as will the need to resist the compartmentalization that sees his books for adults and children as separate imaginative entities. The conference will also consider Dahl’s interventions in other disciplines, from education to medicine, together with his manifold, influential legacies (both enabling and contentious). Discussions of Dahl’s various locations of culture, from Wales to Washington, Tanganyika to Buckinghamshire, Norway to New York, are also sought. The conference will offer opportunities for delegates to visit the places of Dahl’s youth, to examine manuscript and visual material from the archive at Great Missenden, and to enjoy dramatic readings and performances of Dahl’s work.

We invite abstracts for either single, twenty-minute papers or proposals for sessions of ninety minutes (taking either a panel or a roundtable format). In addition, we welcome innovative proposals for session formats, including creative-critical, multi-media and digital approaches.

Topics/areas may include:

  • Dahl’s geographies
  • Dahl and the ghostly
  • Dahl’s influences
  • Dahl in performance
  • Dahl’s impact
  • Dahl and monstrosity
  • Welsh Dahl
  • Dahl and modernity
  • Defamiliarizing Dahl
  • Dahl and sexuality
  • Feminist Dahl
  • Dahl’s manuscripts
  • Dahl in the curriculum
  • Dahl and medicine
  • Dahl and (the Cold) War
  • Visual Dahl
  • Dahl and food
  • Dahl and language
  • Dahl and the family
  • Dahl and childhood
  • Dahl and the environment
  • Dahl and religion
  • Dahl and philosophy
  • Dahl and death
  • Dahl and the non-human

In all cases, please send proposals (300 words for single, 20-minute papers; up to 800 words for 90-minute sessions) to the conference academic committee, as detailed below, by 31 January 2016. For panel sessions, please also include the names and institutional affiliations of all speakers. Please direct submissions to the conference organizers, Dr Catherine Butler and Dr Carrie Smith, by email to: DahlConference@cardiff.ac.uk.