CFP – Home in Children’s and Young Adult Literature From the Alpl to the WWW

Call for Papers
Home in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: From the Alpl to the WWW
Conference venue: PH Steiermark / University College of Teacher Education Styria, Aula, Hasnerplatz 12, 8010 Graz
Conference date: Friday, November 23, from 14:00, to Saturday, November 24, 2018, 18:00

Home has always played an ambivalent part in children’s and young adult literature. In adventure stories, home can be a starting point and destination for a journey towards maturity and independence or a place to which young protagonists have to flee in order to make themselves a new home. In the English language, “home” is both a term to describe a location in which one feels “at home,” as well as the place from which one originates, whereas in the German language, the term “Heimat” has been subjected to racist and nationalist discourses that persist despite more recent attempts at reclaiming the concept.

In 2018, we commemorate the anniversaries of both birth and death of Austrian writer Peter Rosegger (1843-1918), whose work, set around the idyllic mountainous Alpl area of Styria, lends itself ideally for an analysis of the ideological connotations of the concept of home. Various positions can be found in and towards his work: a critical perceptiveness, a rejection of violence, a failure to distance himself from antisemitism, a rejection by the German nationals, and a posthumous appropriation by the national socialists. These coexisting discourses lend themselves for a critical analysis, as regards both Rosegger’s work for children and its role in learning contexts.

At this conference, we will set these critical results side by side with analyses of more recent texts for young readers that focus on constructions of home: realistic representations of topographical and social spaces that depict an oftentimes problematic home, the traumatic loss and imaginary recreation of old homes, or the difficulties of arriving and finding one’s place. While heroes and heroines of postapocalyptic dystopias create new homes to escape from oppressive regimes, fantasy protagonists fight dark powers that threaten the preindustrial landscapes they inhabit, and futuristic settings demonstrate how technology allows young people to build homes in virtual realities.

In order to analyse these and other facets of home in children’s and young adult literature and multimodal narratives, we would like to invite experts from the fields of children’s literature, history, cultural studies and literature education to submit proposals for 20-minute presentation or a poster.

Please submit 300-500 word abstracts for your presentation or poster in German or English by May 7, 2018. Please include a short bio of max. 100 words. Address both to oegkjlf@univie.ac.at with the subject line “Home conference 2018.” We will be in touch in early June; the programme will be made available towards the end of June 2018.

Organisers: German Academy of Literature for Children and Young Readers (Volkach, Germany), Department for Children’s and Young Adult Literature Research at the Goethe-University (Frankfurt/Main, Germany), KiJuLit-Centre for Research and Teaching of Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the PH Steiermark (Graz, Austria), and the Austrian Association for Research into Children’s and Young Adult Literature (Vienna, Austria)

Partners: Austrian Forum for Teaching Literature (Vienna, Austria)

CFP – Children, Youth, and International Television

This is a call for submissions to a collection critically examining children in international (i.e. non-American) television. Programs may include those targeted to children, or those targeted to adults but prominently featuring children. We invite submissions on programs from Canada, the UK, Continental Europe, Australasia, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Middle East. These chapters will explore how international television has been a significant conduit for the public consumption of changing ideas about children and childhood, and will connect relevant events, attitudes, or anxieties within their respective countries of origin to an analysis of children or childhood in international programs. This volume will function as a companion to our collection Children, Youth, and American Television (Routledge, forthcoming). We welcome submissions from a range of disciplines and theoretical perspectives, including television studies, cultural studies, childhood studies, critical race studies, gender studies, sociology, and social history.

Please submit a 500 word abstract, current contact information along with a brief biography as attachments in Word to both Debbie Olson at debbieo@okstate.edu and Adrian Schober at beatles9@optusnet.com.au by 30 April 2018. The deadline for finished essays (which should not exceed 8,000 words, inclusive of references, using Chicago notes style) is 30 November 2018.

Debbie Olson has a PhD in English: Screen Studies from Oklahoma State University and is Assistant Professor of English at Missouri Valley College. She is the author of Black Children in Hollywood Cinema and has edited or co-edited several collections on children and media, including The Child in World Cinema (2018), Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg (2016), The Child in Post-Apocalyptic Cinema (2015) and Children, Youth, and American Television (Routledge, forthcoming). She is the founder/editor-in-chief of Red Feather: An International Journal of Children in Popular Culture and Series Editor for Lexington’s Children and Youth in Popular Culture Series.

Adrian Schober, who has a PhD in English from Monash University, Australia, has published widely on the child figure in cinema and literature. He is the author of Possessed Child Narratives in Literature and Film: Contrary States (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and co-editor (with Debbie Olson) of Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg (Lexington Books, 2016) and Children, Youth, and American Television (Routledge, forthcoming). He is also Senior Editor on the board of Red Feather: An International Journal of Children in Popular Culture and is on the advisory board for Lexington Books’ Children and Youth in Popular Culture Series.

Contact Info:
Debbie Olson, debbieo@okstate.edu
Adrian Schober, beatles9@optusnet.com.au

CFP – 2019 SHCY Conference: Encounters and Exchanges

SHCY 2019 Conference CFP: 26-28 June, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia
Conference Theme: “Encounters and Exchanges”
Proposal Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 30 May 2018

The Society for the History of Children and Youth invites proposals for panels, roundtables, workshops or papers that explore histories of children and youth from any place and in any era. We particularly encourage proposals for complete sessions, rather than individual papers, and we are particularly interested in proposals which explore a theme or idea across diverse chronological or geographical settings. We also strongly encourage panels, workshops and roundtables which propose innovative presentation styles, particularly those which show that they will promote discussion and interactive exchanges of ideas.

We also invite all proposals to consider how their work might build on the 2019 conference theme: “Encounters and Exchanges.” The theme invites reflection on the many ways in which relational interactions shape the experience and understandings of childhood and youth. Given the conference’s location, proposals might consider the significance of geography, nation, culture or place, but they could also conceptualise the theme more broadly. How do we understand personal relationships with parents, siblings and friends? How do states, schools and religious institutions interact with children and young people? How do larger forces like colonialism and empire shape the opportunities for encounters and exchanges between children across time and place? How do we encounter our own memories of childhood? How do particular theoretical frameworks or interdisciplinary studies invite deeper exploration of the conference theme?

Proposals which consider the potential of scholars of children and youth to make impactful exchanges beyond academia are also encouraged. What role can history play in developing government policy? How have/do historical experts approach the court room? What is the future of digital history, and other innovations which seek to present history in new ways and make it accessible to wider audiences? How can academic studies impact the school classroom—and vice versa? How do we write children and youth into national histories? How does history place itself in conversation with art, film and literature? What are the other exchanges and encounters you see as critical for the future of the history of children and youth?

The SHCY 2019 biannual international conference is especially focused on enabling the participation of people from across the globe, and is therefore mindful of keeping the conference costs very modest. Australian Catholic University is supporting the conference by funding some travel bursaries to assist students undertaking research degrees to attend the conference. These will be awarded based on merit and need. Please see the submission guidelines for further details.

Submission Guidelines

We will give priority to submissions of complete sessions (panels, workshops, roundtables etc.), and we encourage sessions with diverse national representation. Individual papers will also be considered, but we urge you to recruit members for complete sessions and to make use of the many networks in the history of childhood and youth, for example, H-Childhood.

Sessions will last approximately 90 minutes and, in line with the conference theme, “Encounters and Exchanges”, we particularly encourage ample discussion time. As a minimum, fifteen minutes should be reserved for audience discussion. In lieu of formal discussants, the Program Committee suggests that complete panel session organizers identify Chairs who can facilitate engagement with the session audience.

Complete Session Proposals:

In order to be considered for the program, proposals must be received no later than Wednesday, 30 May, 2018. They should include the following information:

1. Session title and 100-word session summary
2. The session organizer’s name, department, institution, address, and e-mail address
3. The following information for all participants:
–Names and roles (eg. paper-presenter and/or Chair)
–department and institution
–address and e-mail address
4. 250-word abstract for each paper (or summary of each presenter’s contribution where the session is not structured around formal individual papers)
5. 1 page CV for each participant
6. Clearly identify any participants who wish to be considered for a student travel bursary, and for those people also supply:
–The title the degree you are completing
–The institution where you are enrolled
–Any other funds available to support your conference attendance (e.g. from your institution or other travel scholarships)
–An estimate of the cost of airfares between your home city and Sydney.
7. Please state what, if any, audio-visual technology will be required for your session.

Individual Paper Proposals:

In order to be considered for the program, individual paper proposals must be received no later than Wednesday, 30 May, 2018. They should include the following information:

1. Name of presenter, institutional affiliation, address and email.
2. Title of individual paper
3. 250-word abstract of paper
4. 1 page CV for presenter
5. Clearly identify if you wish to be considered for a student travel bursary, and if so supply:
–The title the degree you are completing
–The institution where you are enrolled
–Any other funds available to support your conference attendance (e.g. from your institution or other travel scholarships)
–An estimate of the cost of airfares between your home city and Sydney.
5. Please state what, if any, audio-visual technology will be required for your paper.

Proposals should be gathered into one MS Word document and sent as an email attachment to SHCYconference@acu.edu.au.

The Program Committee will finalize decisions no later than Wednesday, 15 August 2018 – at which time we will notify the delegates. The program schedule will be available in early 2019.

Direct queries to the Co-chairs of the program committee:
Shurlee Swain shurlee.swain@acu.edu.au
Nell Musgrove nell.musgrove@acu.edu.au
Tamara Myers tam410@lehigh.edu
Kristine Moruzi kristine.moruzi@deakin.edu.au

Cologne Summer School: Virtual Children’s Media in a Global Perspective

Cologne Summer School
Virtual Children’s Media in a Global Perspective | Globale virtuelle Kindermedienwelten
3 – 16 September 2018 in Köln
Universität zu Köln | ALEKI | Seminarräume 12 und 13

Organisation: Prof. Dr. Gabriele von Glasenapp, Dr. Felix Giesa, Dr. Andre Kagelmann

Research perspective
As literary channels of communication are increasingly digitalised and virtualised, the study of children’s and young adult literatue should be recalibrated towards a more encompassing concept of children’s and young adult culture and media studies. So far, however, this has been limited to isolated endeavours often limited in scope, lacking a more systematic approach. Further complications arise from the fact that many relevant products on the German market are translated from other languages.

While this “transnational flow” has well been recognised, its processual logics have yet to be charted in detail. Both aspects – a transnational flow and a transmedia expansion of narrative worlds – fundamentally alter the experiential worlds of children and young adults, including new practices of appropriation and consumption such as booktubes, online collections of solutions for computer games, or the integration of narrative computer games and social media. Existing academic work based on comparative transmedia and/or transnational paradigms provides first steps towards a more fundamental shift of perspective, paving the way for children’s and young adult culture and media studies.

These approaches form the bedrock of our summer school. Tracing the transdimensional quality of changing mediascapes, we propose a research design which combines perspectives from traditional philology, studies in children’s and young adult fiction and transmedia narratology as well as transnational and visual culture studies. The summer school thus aims to foster a deeper understanding of globalised virtual media worlds as targeted at children and young adults, and simultaneously, to sharpen the theoretical profile of studies in children’s and young adult literature research in an age of transnational media convergence. In this vein, it will bring together accomplished experts, excellent junior researchers and students.

We intend to synthesise and present our results in a basic handbook, to be published in both digital open access and print-on-demand mode. Compiled by means of a collaborative book sprint, six longer essays based on the keynotes will be complemented by around twenty shorter articles.

Confirmed keynote speakers so far include Prof.Dr.med. Benjamin Beil (Games Studies, UzK) and Prof.Dr. Michael Staiger (Visual Children’s and Young Adult Media, UzK). In addition, we are planning a full-day workshop with a transmedia artist.

Call for Applications
We invite applications from graduate and PhD students as well as excellent BA students doing (or planning) transmedia or transnational work on children’s and young adult media. While the general focus is within the humanities, the summer school aspires to a cover as broad a range of topics as possible, including aspects which have previously been neglected. We are thus not including a predefined list of possible topics.

Applicants are expected to provide proof of their academic excellence, and will have to submit a letter of motivation (one page), a CV and a detailed proposal (three pages) outlining their ongoing or planned project as relevant to the summer school. In accordance with the general profile of Cologne Summer Schools, there should be an equal number of national and international students. Participation is limited to twenty places. Conference languages will be English and German.

We might be able to cover travel expenses, contingent on funding. While accommodation will be organised privately by the participants, we will try to arrange couch-surfing options with Cologne students.

Please submit your application (Transcript of Records, Letter of Motivation, Curriculum Vitae and project proposal) by 30 April, 2018: Imke Pitro-Riedel (imke.pitro-riedel@uni-koeln.de). Successful applicants will by notified by the end of May.

The conference fee is 150,00€ (100,00 € for students of the University of Cologne).

Call for Chapters – Kids, Inc. to Andi Mack: The Disney Channel’s Tween Programming

Call for Chapter Proposals

“Kids, Inc. to Andi Mack: The Disney Channel’s Tween Programming” is a proposed interdisciplinary, multi-contributer volume examining the nature, history, and legacy of The Disney Channel’s programming for tweens from 1984 to present.

While The Walt Disney Company and its media texts (particularly its films) have been the subject of countless books and journal articles, little if any attention has been paid specifically to the Disney Channel, and particularly to its shows aimed at the tween market. When focus has been turned to the relationship between tweens and Disney, it has been almost exclusively production and distribution-based: how Disney markets to tweens, what tweens want to consume, and so on. This volume aims to build a picture of the “Disney Tween Universe” that is constructed on the Disney channel by examining, deconstructing, and interpreting the shows themselves.

What type of people make up the Disney tween universe – who is considered important within that universe? Does it exhibit racial and gender diversity? What types of stories are being told? How has that universe shifted over time? What, if any, changes have been made in the way Disney presents to tweens? Most importantly, what has this meant and continues to mean for tween audiences over the past 30+ years?

Submissions are welcomed that contribute directly to media studies, women’s and ethnic studies, feminist studies, sociology, psychology, history or related fields. Chapters should be both historical and deconstructive/interpretive in nature.

Please note that only live-action fictional programming is being considered, not animated programming or game shows.

Recommended topics/programs include, but are not limited to:

  • Disney Channel development timeline/history (moving from premium to basic cable)
  • Early Disney Channel tween programming (Kids Incorporated, Good Morning Miss Bliss, etc.)
  • The “Timberlake Era” (All-New Mickey Mouse Club, Flash Forward, etc.)
  • Late 90s Era (The Famous Jett Jackson, So Weird, etc.)
  • The “Raven Era” (Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, etc.)
  • The “Miley Era” (Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc.)
  • Early 2000s Era (Good Luck Charlie, Jessie, Austin & Ally, etc.)
  • The “Revival” (Liv and Maddie, Girl Meets World, Bunk’d, etc.)
  • The “Zendeya Era” (K.C. Undercover, Stuck in the Middle, Bizaardvark, Andi Mack, etc.)

Topics could cover programs individually, or deal with an Era as a whole construct.

You are invited to submit a Word document with a brief bio of the author(s) (no more than 250 words, including titles and affiliations), the title of the proposed chapter, and an abstract (500-800 words). Proposals should be submitted via email attachment to Dr. Christopher Bell (cbell3@uccs.edu) by May 1, 2018. Invited authors will need to submit full text by October 1, 2018. Final chapter length will be 5000-6000 words, and submitted chapters should not have been previously published, as the book will be peer reviewed.

CFP – Sociocultural Dimensions of Childhood

International Conference
Sociocultural Dimensions of Childhood
October 26-28, 2018, Sofia, Bulgaria
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum
https://childhoodconference2018.wordpress.com/

The researches in the field of childhood recently attracted the attention of a wide range of specialists in the sphere of history, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, literature, legal studies, etc., resulting in the creation of an innovative interdisciplinary research cooperation. With the advancement of scholarly achievements, topics like age and life cycle, gender and family, social development and culture, human rights and children at risk, policies and social practices, become a central focus of interest. Crossing the methodological limits, scientists explore the historical, political, social and cultural development of children in the structures and contexts characteristic of different historical periods and geographical areas.

Guided by the belief that the study on childhood is one of the most important problems of the present day, the organizers aim to initiate a scientific dialogue within the framework of an international conference on the subject and to outline new perspectives for the analysis of historical and contemporary pictures of childhood at local, national, global, and intercultural level. The expectation is that such forum will accommodate research cases which will allow scholars to highlight this field and create conditions for its conceptualization in the new political, social and scientific contexts of our time. While discussions remain open to other topics, the conference intends to give rise to debates in several main thematic fields:

  • Childhood and Adolescence in European History, Politics and Culture;
  • Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Childhood. Theoretical and Methodological Aspects;
  • In the World of Children;
  • Children Within and Outside the Family: Parents, Relatives, Coevals, Friends;
  • Children and Migration. Socialization and Acculturation of Immigrant, Emigrant and Refugee Children;
  • Experiences and Memory of Childhood. War, Violence, Trauma;
  • Childhood and Folklore;
  • Children’s and Teenage Subculture: Past and Present;
  • Representation of Children and Childhood in European Cinema, Art, Music, Photography, and Literature;
  • Good Practices and Educational Policies in Raising and Upbringing of Children;
  • Disadvantaged Children and Children at Risk;
  • Children and the Museum.

In a special panel dedicated to the role and functions of the museum for the education and upbringing of children, for the first time an ‘on-line’ dialogue with representatives of the museums in the country will be carried out; by means of interactive presentations the local and regional museums will present their ideas and accomplishments in the field of museum work.

The broad international and interdisciplinary academic dialogue within the conference will provide an opportunity for presentation of theses, exchange of thoughts and discussion on current issues of the European societies. This dialogue among established and highly qualified and motivated young and senior researchers will contribute to enhance knowledge transfer and scientific ideas. The hosting of the conference by the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum in Sofia – one of the leading Bulgarian research institutions, will support international cooperation in the field of humanities and social sciences. We hope to inspire and produce an interdisciplinary scientific discussion and a broad public debate on issues related to the rearing, upbringing and growing-up of the contemporary younger generation.

We encourage submissions by both established scholars and young scientists/advanced postgraduate students.

Please submit a proposal in English that contains your full name, e-mail address, institutional and disciplinary affiliation, the title of your paper and an abstract of not more than 300 words. The language of the conference is English.

Please send your proposals to the Secretary of the Organizing Committee Assist. Prof. Violeta Periklieva, PhD (childhoodconference2018@gmail.com).

The deadline for the submission of proposals is March 31, 2018.

Participants will be informed about the acceptance/rejection of their proposals by April 15, 2018.

Further information on the programme, the terms of the conference, the paper requirements as well as the accommodation in Sofia will be sent by the end of June 2018.

The organizers intend to publish a collection of selected papers after the conference.

Note: There is no participation fee. Due to financial restrictions, we are strongly encouraging the future participants to search for potential financial support from their sending institutions as well as to take advantage of the programmes for inter-academic exchange. Participants are expected to cover their travel and accommodation expenses.

CFP – Special Issue of Social Sciences: Childhood and Society

Special Issue of Social Sciences: “Childhood and Society”
Guest Editor: Prof. Michael Wyness
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2018

The “social” turn in childhood studies in the late 20th century has challenged a powerful orthodoxy within the social science, moving our understanding of childhood away from narrowed schooled and developmental models towards more diverse and globalised conceptions. Moreover, the rights agenda, the international focus on the exploitation of children and the recurring concerns of global child poverty have generated a more globalised frame within which we can make sense of children’s lives. This is a multi-faceted often contradictory field of study. Issues of protection elide with a global agenda of entitlements. At the same time, political concerns for children’s wellbeing have to compete with conceptions of childhood and practices with children that highlight their social agency. The structure/agency antinomy is a recurring theme within the social studies of childhood.

A second and associated theme within the field is the shift from a modernist 20th century version of childhood towards a post-modern 21st conception of childhood. Research identifies important continuities between the two conceptions. There is also a developing body of work that explores more nuanced differences between the two: the subtle move from a dependent and “becoming” status towards an emphasis on social agency and legal and institutional independence. Arguably, now there is greater recognition children’s important and sometimes vital social and economic contributions.

A third cluster of ideas on the social nature of childhood is the heightened significance of generational relations. Generation has a greater theoretical importance now in studies of children and childhood. While it does not compete with grand narratives on social class and gender, analyses of social differentiation and inequality have been refined by work that explores the contemporary nature of relations between adults and children. At the same time, the contemporary importance of generational relations is also a reflection of greater adult fears and anxieties over children’s welfare. Social studies of childhood have responded to these claims through analyses of the ways that children in concert with adults refine as well as challenge generational relations.

In this Special Issue, we invite empirical and theoretical papers that engage with these contemporary research themes. Childhood is fundamentally a multi-disciplinary field of study. We welcome submissions from sociology, anthropology, politics, policy studies, criminology and technology. More specifically, these broad themes may be articulated through the following focal points and questions:

  • Continuity and change between 20th and 21st century conceptions of childhood
  • Contemporary conceptions of childhood innocence
  • Is there a global childhood?
  • Family structures and inter-generational relations: theoretical and empirical work on children’s changing social relations
  • Marginalised children: when does deviance become agency?
  • Generational relations and inequalities
  • Childhood and digital peer relations
  • Are children’s voices currently being heard?

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging into this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI’s English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.