CFP – Special Issue of Feast: Consuming Children

Call for contributions: academic papers and creative writing

Food is a powerful and versatile force in children’s literature, standing in for familial love, sexual relationships, deprivation and excess, denial, shame and control. For Consuming Children, Feast is seeking academic papers and creative writing that explore the use of food and its significance in Children’s Literature. The editors are particularly interested in pieces that examine the tension between children as consumers and children as consumables, recognising that the figure of the child can perform as both actor and goal in food-related transactions. Taking the broadest possible definition of children’s literature/culture, they are particularly interested in papers that respond to social issues encouraging articles and creative writing on topics such as (but not limited to):

  • Empirical or archival research presenting children’s perspectives on food
  • Children as consumers of food
  • The relationship between food and the commodification of children/childhood
  • Representations of disordered eating in children’s literature/culture
  • Representations of food (in)security and inequality in children’s literature/culture
  • Representations of children’s control or lack of control over consumption
  • Food as reward/denial of food; issues of childhood and food as pleasure/punishment
  • Illustrations and other visual representations of food in children’s books

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 6PM 12 MARCH 2018 for full academic articles of 5000–6000 words or pieces of creative writing of up to 3000 words.

For further information regarding academic submissions please contact Sarah Hardstaff: sflh2@cam.ac.uk

For further information regarding creative writing submissions please contact: info@feastjournal.co.uk

CFP – Remix, Reconcile, Remediate, Represent: New Research Snapshots from the Field of Young People’s Cultures

The Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP) is holding a research symposium at Ryerson University on March 9, 2018. This symposium will include presentations by leading scholars in the field of young people’s cultures, and provide opportunities for graduate students (and recent grads) to workshop and receive feedback on their research.

The day will include both thematic presentation panels (with 20-minute papers) and work-in-progress roundtables featuring shorter presentations around key research questions and research in progress (10 minutes each) with time for discussion, feedback and dialogue.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Remixes, remediations, and adaptations of literary and other young people’s texts
  • Digital fan cultures of young people including remixes, fan art, and fan fiction
  • Cross-media representations of Indigeneity in young people’s texts and cultures
  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action with a focus on young people
  • Remixing and remediating queer youth cultures and 2SLGBTQ+ texts
  • Critical race theory and youth activism
  • Remediations of young people’s texts through comics and graphic narratives
  • Research snapshots from new research about/with young people
  • Dynamic takes on key terms: Remix, reconcile, remediate, represent

Please submit an abstract (300 words), bio (100 words), and your preference of presentation format (20-minute research presentation or 10-minute talk about research questions/work in progress). We especially welcome submissions from graduate students and new scholars.

This is a great opportunity to discuss your research and network with emerging and established scholars in the interdisciplinary field of young people’s cultures. If you are interested in participating as a discussant or panel chair, please be in touch with the organizers via naomi.hamer@ryerson.ca.

CFP – In the Shadows: Illuminating Monstrosity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture

In the Shadows: Illuminating Monstrosity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture
Call for Paper Proposals
Deadline for submission: February 28, 2018

A peer-reviewed graduate student conference on children’s literature, media, and culture
University of British Columbia – Friday, May 11 – Saturday, May 12, 2018

In the Shadows: Illuminating Monstrosity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Culture is a two-day conference on May 11th – 12th 2018 showcasing graduate student research in children’s literature. You are invited to submit a proposal for an academic paper that contributes to research in the area of children’s and young adult literature, media, or cultural studies. Submissions of creative writing for children and young adults are also welcome. We are particularly interested in research and creative work that draw on the broadly interpreted theme of monstrosity–including research on narratives that feature monstrous figures and the monstrous side of humanity.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Literature from the genres of horror, gothic, mystery, or science fiction
  • Post-humanism/trans-humanism
  • Narratives of physical or emotional trauma, scars, disfigurement, etc.
  • Themes of fear, captivity, empathy/apathy
  • The uncanny and the sublime
  • Narratives focussing on the duality of human nature
  • Themes of survival, lost innocence, or childhood innocence
  • Experiences of marginalized groups, otherness, and social outcasts
  • (Mis)representations of people as “monsters”
  • Government atrocities, tragedies, and other perspectives on historical events
  • Analyses of monstrosity from critical or theoretical perspectives (e.g. psychoanalysis, post colonialism, feminism, etc.)
  • Adaptations, bringing a narrative to life in a new story or medium
  • Stories of real-world monsters, such as bullies or personal, inner demons
  • Narratives featuring monsters, vampires, werewolves, zombies, ogres etc.
  • Villains and beasts from fairy tales, folktales, or mythology
  • Friendly monsters or imaginary friends (e.g. Pokémon, The BFG, Monsters Inc.)
  • The allure and romanticism of monsters (e.g. Twilight)
  • Papers related to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in honour of the 200th anniversary of publication

The topics above are a guideline for the proposals we would like to see, but we are eager to receive paper proposals on any facet of monstrosity in children’s and young adult texts.

Academic Paper Proposals
Please send a 250-word abstract that includes the title of your paper, a list of references in MLA format, a 50-word biography, your name, your university affiliation, email address, and phone number to the review committee at submit.ubc.conference@gmail.com. Please include “Conference Proposal Submission” in the subject line of your email.

Creative Writing Proposals
Submissions of creative writing for children and young adults in any genre are welcome, including novel chapters, poetry, picture books, graphic novels, scripts, etc. Please send a piece of work no longer than 12 pages double-spaced. (Anything shorter is welcome– poetry, for example, might only be a page). The submission should include the title of your piece, a 150-word overview of your piece (describe age group, genre, and links to the conference theme), a list of references in MLA format (if you have any), a 50-word biography, your name, your university affiliation, email address, and phone number. Please send your submission to the review committee at submit.ubc.conference@gmail.com. Please put “Creative Conference Proposal Submission” in the subject line of your email.

Out of Province/Country Submissions
For those who may need extra time to plan their travels please put “Travel” in the email subject line and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

For more info, please contact ubc.conference.2018@gmail.com or visit https://blogs.ubc.ca/intheshadows/. Join our mailing list at http://eepurl.com/dht7_z.

CFP – Climate Change in Children’s and Young Adult Fiction (MLA 2019)

Children’s Literature Association non-guaranteed session on children’s and young adult climate fiction (“cli-fi”)
Modern Language Association Conference
Chicago, 3-6 January 2019

Often abbreviated as “cli-fi,” climate fiction is a new—and booming—genre of Anglophone literature that addresses and thus compels its readers to think about anthropogenic climate change. Recent work by Adam Trexler, Amitav Ghosh, and others has ignited a lively conversation in environmental literary studies about the genre—especially cli-fi novels, which dominate it. Although more and more cli-fi novels are written for young audiences (including some of the genre’s better-known titles, like Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker [2010]),environmental literary critics have not yet devoted sustained attention to children’s and YA cli-fi.

Given the growing number and popularity of children’s/YA climate novels, the time is ripe to analyze this significant subgenre of environmental literature.

We consequently invite proposals for presentations on children’s and/or YA cli-fi, especially those which help identify dominant characteristics of the genre, account for its emergence, analyze its significance, and outline areas of further research.

Possible topics include, but are certainly not limited to:

  • Children’s and YA cli-fi in the media
  • Children’s and YA cli-fi and climate change awareness/activism
  • Conventions and characteristics of the genre
  • Social and environmental justice in children’s and YA cli-fi
  • Corporate corruption in children’s and YA cli-fi
  • Depictions of altered geographies
  • Kinship/community in children’s and YA cli-fi
  • Resilience in children’s and YA cli-fi

Please submit a 500-word abstract and CV to Clare Echterling at cechterling@ku.edu by March 1, 2018.

CFP – Special Issue of IRCL: Curating National Histories

Paper Call for a Special Issue of IRCL: Curating National Histories

Canonical, national, classic: all these terms imply quality with regard to children’s literature, but too often these labels ignore the forces of privileging a dominant group’s work over all others. Because the reifying of children’s literature means longer shelf-life, sales, and interest, the public curation of a nation’s children’s literature matters. An increase in global migration (for both economic and political reasons), shifting international relationships, and isolationist and nationalist movements around the world suggest that now is a useful moment to focus on the question of the composition of national children’s literatures. How are such histories compiled, and who has a stake in the creation, promotion, and maintenance of the idea of a national history of children’s literature? What voices are left out? Are there ways that non-dominant groups can usefully intervene in the curation process ensuring that a national children’s literature represents the nation? Guest editors Dr. Lucy Pearson, Dr. Aishwarya Subramanian, and Professor Karen Sands-O’Connor invite abstracts for papers on the theme of the curation of national histories of children’s literature. We are particularly interested in papers that consider how or if non-majority groups within a nation find space/place within the national conversation about children’s literature, and how different stakeholders (publishing, education, award committees, museums and archives) play a role in the creation and marketing of alternative voices in the national children’s literature story.

Abstracts due: 1 March 2018; completed papers 1 September 2018, publication July 2019.

CFP – Inaugural Issue of Journal of Literary Education: Interdisciplinary Links between Children’s Literature and the Arts

Journal of Literary Education
Monographic Issue: Interdisciplinary Links between Children’s Literature and the Arts

The links between the different arts have always been very solid throughout history. The Renaissance Man is probably an archetype. Nevertheless, other examples like the tight relationship between artists during the avant-garde period show that the disconnection is very recent. This circumstance is probably related to the fact that arts have been included in scholarly studies, which has led to their specialisation. As a result, the different arts have been studied in isolated academic spaces without any relation among them. In addition, students have been very often deprived of seeing art as a whole. Many artistic manifestations have still included the interdisciplinary use of them as a main expressive resource. This is the case of opera, the so-called global art, but also cinema or animation are current examples of a combination of arts.

For specialised critics children’s literature has always been considered a privileged field of study since it includes many different indicators of artistic expression. Picture books are one of the most prominent ones, but then current multimedia devices have increased considerably the variety of supports, together with other resources linked to children’s literature that interact simultaneously.

The Journal of Literary Education will devote its first issue to this topic. Specific topics that we want to address include:

  • The relationship of music, fine arts and other kind of artistic expressions with children’s literature
  • Adaptations, intermediality, trans-mediality, cross-mediality
  • Animation and films for children and young adults
  • Opera, folktales and children’s literature
  • Fine arts and picture books
  • Ekphrasis in children’s books
  • New methodological approaches in the interdisciplinary use of arts in children’s literature

Should you prefer to deliver an article for the Miscellaneous section or Monopraphic section we recommend that you check our Author’s guidelines (https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/JLE/about/submissions#authorGuidelines).

For submissions and further information, please visit our site: https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/JLE/index.

The deadline for the first issue is 31 March 2018.

CFP – Special Issue of ChLAQ: Cognitive Approaches to Children’s Literature and Culture

Call for Papers
Cognitive Approaches to Children’s Literature and Culture
Sara Van den Bossche and Lydia Kokkola (Eds.)

Submissions are invited for articles using cognitive approaches to the study of children’s literature and other media for a special issue of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Cognitive approaches are inherently cross-disciplinary as they combine insights from fields such as the cognitive sciences, linguistics, and education with more traditional literary approaches such as narratology and reader response to form new types of knowledge about readers and viewers. Publications such as Reading for Learning: Cognitive Approaches to Children’s Literature (Nikolajeva 2014) and Literary Conceptualizations of Growth: Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature (Seelinger Trites 2014) have proposed that cognitive approaches are particularly relevant for the study of children’s literature and culture since the latter are defined by the reader/viewer rather than the producer. Essay collections, such as Affect, Emotion, and Children’s Literature: Representation and Socialisation in Texts for Children and Young Adults (Moruzi, Smith & Bullen [eds] 2017), attest to the broad range of topics that cognition-oriented analyses of children’s texts and cultural products can address.

The aim of the special issue of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly is to create a “state of the art” overview of the contribution cognitive approaches have to offer the field. We welcome contributions that highlight the multidisciplinary nature of this approach, and particularly encourage contributors to reflect on marginalization on the grounds of age, race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability etc. in relation to both literature and readers. We also welcome constructive critiques from scholars who remain skeptical towards cognitive approaches to children’s literature and culture.

Possible areas of investigation may include, but are not limited to, the following inquiries:

  • Are young readers really cognitively different from adult readers?
  • How are scripts and schemas deployed in children’s cultural products, for instance, to confirm or question national, racial, gendered or other stereotypes?
  • How do metaphors shape the way we think about certain topics?
  • What is the cognitive impact of the literary techniques such as alienation, focalization, and multiple narrators?
  • Do cognitive approaches risk essentializing “the child” or qualities such as ethnic identity?
  • How do children’s changing bodies and cognition impact on their understanding of literature and other media?
  • How are empathy and Theory of Mind (mind-reading) used as narrative strategies in texts for children?
  • How are children’s cultural products designed to exploit their cognitive development for educational, moral, or political gain?
  • In what way are emotions represented in children’s cultural products?
  • What is the value of empirical studies of young readers?

Manuscripts of articles (c.a. 5-6000 words, conform to MLA style) should be submitted to Sara Van den Bossche (S.VandenBossche@uvt.nl) and Lydia Kokkola (lydia.kokkola@ltu.se) by 31 October 2018 for peer review. Please send your submission by e-mail attachment in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. The journal issue will be published in Volume 44 (2019). Good-quality submissions that are not included in the special issue can be considered for later issues of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

CFP – Fandom Spaces (MLA 2019)

Call for Papers
Modern Language Association Convention
Chicago, IL
January 3 – 6, 2019

Fandom Spaces

The history of fandom within children’s and young adult literature and media has grown exponentially in the last thirty years. The advent of the Internet created new avenues for fans to express their love for their favorite stories and characters as well as connect with other fans to discuss the pros and cons of certain elements of the plot.

From the fanzines that published Star Trek fanfiction in the late 60s and early 70s to the creation of web-based archives such as Fanfiction.net and ArchiveOfOurOwn.org, fanfiction has been a central facet of fandom from the beginning. The growth of fandom has resulted in a great number of new opportunities for writers, including Wattpad and Amazon’s Kindle Worlds publishing service. It could also be argued that fanfiction influenced the rise of eBooks in the 21st century due to the prevalence of online reading material.

The fandoms of media produced for children and young adults are vast. The Harry Potter fandom, for instance, has more than 781,000 fanfictions published on Fanfiction.net alone. Although a great deal of scholarship has looked at the Harry Potter fandom, much less has focused on LCYA as a whole or on the ways that fans interact with texts through videos, LARPing, or costume creation in addition to writing their own versions of the story.

This guaranteed panel session examines the multitude of spaces created by fandom within literature and other media for children and young adults. How and why do fans create spaces for expressing their own desires for the plot, characterization, and setting of their favorite stories? What happens when the lines between fan creations and authorial creations are blurred? What kind of influence do “viral” fanfictions and videos have on the rest of the fandom? What happens when a fan author crosses the line into plagiarism or gets their fanfiction published by changing the character names? What socio-cultural and historical connections can be made between fandom and the creation of literature for children and young adults?

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • fandom as a space for adults to enjoy “childish” things
  • racial diversity and fandom
  • dysfunctional or elitist fandom spaces
  • the history of fandom and fanfiction
  • social media as a fandom space
  • YouTube/Vine/Snapchat/Instagram creation of a visual fandom space
  • cosplaying and comic conventions
  • the politics of fanfiction websites; the rise of AO3
  • the spaces formed within texts by fandom creators
  • the blurring of fanon and canon
  • interactions between authors and fandoms
  • the trend of fanfiction being published as original fiction; the same trend with doujinshi in Japan helping aspiring manga-ka break into the market
  • the power of fandom over content creation; the power of authors over their fans

Send 500-word paper proposals by March 1, 2018 to Susan M. Strayer, strayer.100@osu.edu. Accepted panelists must become members of MLA by April 1, 2018.

CFP – Histories of Disadvantage: Meanings, Mechanisms, and Politics

We invite you to participate in the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association by submitting a session proposal or paper to the Childhood and Youth Network of the SSHA. The conference will take place in Phoenix on November 8-11, 2018. For more information on the conference as well as the general call for proposals, please see the SSHA website: http://www.ssha.org. The deadline for full panel or individual paper proposals is February 16, 2018.

The association particularly emphasizes interdisciplinary and transnational research, and the annual meeting provides a very supportive environment in which to present new work. The theme of the 2018 conference is “Histories of Disadvantage: Meanings, Mechanisms, and Politics” though papers on any other aspects of the history of children and childhood are also certainly welcome. Some possible topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Children, Youth, and Political Movements 

  • Youth Empowerment, Resistance, and Activism 

  • Children and Conflict 

  • Child Rights and Governance 

  • Indigenous Childhoods and Children 

  • Children and Globalization 

  • Child Migrants and Refugees 

  • Children and the Environment 

  • Children and the Media 

  • Turning Points in Childhood History 

  • Youth and Commodification 

  • Spaces of Childhood
  • Children and Familial Relationships
  • Child Labor
  • Institutions/Institutionalization of Childhood
  • Schooling and Education

We especially encourage complete panels, which should include at least 4 papers and presenters from more than one academic institution and discipline. Other formats, including roundtable discussions and book sessions, are also possible. Please do get in touch with the network chairs if you have an idea for a session but need help gathering presenters.

Proposals can be submitted by means of a web conference management system
 at http://ssha.org/annual-conference. If you haven’t used the system previously you will need to create an account, which is a very simple process. Graduate students presenting at the conference may apply for a travel grant from the SSHA (http://ssha.org/grants).

If you have any questions, please contact the Children and Childhood network co-chairs:

Emily Bruce: bruce088@umn.edu
Elizabeth Dillenburg: eadillenburg@gmail.com
Mateusz Świetlicki: mateusz.swietlicki@uwr.edu.pl

CFP – Children in Space, Place and Time

Contemporary Childhood Conference
6 – 7 September 2018

CALL FOR PAPERS
Children in Space, Place and Time

The School of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, is pleased to announce its third Contemporary Childhood Conference. The theme of the conference is: Children in Space, Place and Time.

Children exist in their own social worlds while inhabiting a range of spaces and places in and over time. The question of how they are situated in the world we inhabit together is an important one, significantly in how they are portrayed through the likes of history, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, education, law, health, geography and politics.

We invite proposals for academic papers/symposia from across disciplines and nations to address the conference theme. We welcome both empirical and conceptual papers.

Abstracts of up to 200 words should be submitted electronically by the deadline of Friday, 13 April 2018. Abstracts should also note the author, the author’s affiliated institution, the paper’s title and up to five key words. Invitations to present will be sent by May 23.

To upload your proposal, please go to: https://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/schoolofeducation/newsevents/contemporarychildhoodconference2018/.