CFP – Youth Literature and Media Area of the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association

The Youth Literature and Media Area of the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association invites papers for the 2017 MPCA/ACA conference in St. Louis, MO, October 18-22.

There is much to query about the kids these days. This past year we saw the rise of Teen Vogue as a political voice, but a simultaneous decline in the percentage of youth who voted. Millennials now outnumber baby boomers, but are perhaps becoming old news themselves as Forbes Millennials are now outnumbered by Generation Z. Transgender youth have been at the center of debates over school bathroom policies, civil rights, privacy, safety, and identity. Meanwhile, Dorothy Wang became “funemployed” once again.

We are looking for proposals for papers on any aspect of Youth Literature and Media, from the latest YA best seller to my nine-year-old son’s YouTube channel. This area takes an expansive approach to youth, literature, and media. We are interested in youth as both producers and consumers of literature and media, representations of children and youth in literature and media, and the study of lit and media aimed at children and youth.

What more to chew on? How about:

  • Shifting definitions of youth
  • Revisiting youth through nostalgia, revivals, and reboots of old TV shows
  • Youth culture becoming adult culture
  • Millennials, elections, politics, and policies
  • Adult audiences of YA Lit and other youth culture
  • Images and discussion of youth in the news
  • Youth and Social Media: where the kids go when their parents join Facebook
  • Youth access to mediav
  • Youth and traditional, digital, and media literacy…and illiteracy
  • Moral panics around youth
  • Youth and technology
  • Youth subversion of mainstream discourses
  • “Youth” and intersectionality
  • Rural youth
  • Youth in the Trump Era
  • What’s absent from representations of youth in media?

Please submit proposals of single papers or full panels at http://submissions.mpcaaca.org by April 30, 2017.

More info about the conference is available here: http://mpcaaca.org/

For questions and queries about the Youth Literature and Media Area, please contact Patrick Cox, patrick.cox@rutgers.edu.

CFP – Inside the World of Harry Potter

Inside the World of Harry Potter is a proposed interdisciplinary, multi-contributor volume born of the robust field of Harry Potter Studies and the community of collaborators that exists within the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association.

This proposed volume will cover a range of topics within the works of J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series is such a rich text for analysis, particularly of social issues that can be extrapolated to real-world, non-fictional settings. The scholarship being produced surrounding the Harry Potter series is phenomenal.

As such, this call for chapters invites interested scholars to submit papers and/or proposals for publication consideration in this edited volume.

Contributions should use the works of J.K. Rowling (the Harry Potter series, or companion works such as The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find Them, or Quidditch Through the Ages) to address a social or political issue, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, societal structure, age, muggle vs. wizard relations, technology, religion, and so forth. Work using paratexts, such as Pottermore, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Potter Puppet Pals, and the like will be accepted as well. All themes will be considered as related to the overall direction of the volume. In addition, work related to fan practices, or application to real-world issues are always welcome.

Proposals from any academic discipline will be considered. Emerging and early career scholars are especially encouraged to submit. Final papers should be no longer than 30 pages, including references, and should be scholarly in nature yet accessible in language and tone.

For consideration, please submit an abstract/proposal of no more than 500 words to Dr. Christopher Bell, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, at cbell3@uccs.edu. Abstracts/proposals should be sent as Word Document attachments, and should include the author(s)’s name, affiliation, title and email contact information. Abstracts/proposals should be submitted no later than May 1, 2017. Final papers will be due September 1, 2017.

University Lecturer in English and Children’s Literature at University of Cambridge

The Faculty of Education in central Cambridge seeks to appoint a University Lecturer in English and Children’s Literature from 1 October 2017. The successful candidate will engage fully in research and teaching activities in this field and is expected to make an immediate contribution. He/she will be expected to contribute to strengthening the international profile of research within the Faculty. Teaching duties will include teaching and supervision of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students. This post offers an opportunity for a research-active educator to join a leading national and international centre for educational research, teacher development, and the study of education.

Candidates will hold a doctorate in a relevant field. They will have a record of internationally excellent research in their field. Contributions to excellence in research will be through peer-reviewed publications and other activities of a kind and quality that meet international standards as assessed in national research assessment exercises.

Candidates will normally have relevant experience of working with postgraduate students, including contributing to Masters programmes and supervising PhD students.

Please also see the further particulars for this post.

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the Apply. This will route you to the University’s Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Professor Geoff Hayward (gfh22@cam.ac.uk).

We hope to hold interviews on 8 and 9 May 2017.

Please quote reference JR11375 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.