Evil Children: Children and Evil
Monday, 15 July 2019 – Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Verona, Italy

The idea of the child as innocent, as pure, the “little angel” in need of protection from the harsh realities of life and the corrupting influences of the world around us has come to dominate our thinking, language, values, social policies and educational philosophies in the past few decades. Children are seen as “little people,” “blank slates,” works in progress who are loved, nurtured and guided as they grow to become mature, rational and responsible adults.

Yet we are also aware of the mischievous “little monsters,” the “little devils” who run exasperated parents ragged. The toddlers who chase pigeons; kick cats; pull the wings off flies and the legs off spiders. Children of whom we become afraid; who abuse other children; who assault each other, strangers, parents, the elderly. Children who “roam” and “own” the streets, individually or “in packs”; who are put “into care”; who commit crimes; who smoke, drink, and take drugs. Feral children. Children who rape. Children who torture. Children who kill. Children who are “possessed”: demonic children, evil children who do evil things.

This research stream will juggle with three competing approaches to children and evil. The first concerns itself with how (certain) children have been presented as evil and considers the nature of evil children as a social and cultural construct. The second concerns what is meant by “innocence” – in all contexts – and then particularly the “innocence of a child.” The third approach considers the question of whether and, if so, in what ways children can be evil. Are children wicked? Are children malicious? What does it mean to be personally, socially, legally and morally responsible? And, if responsibility exists, at what point does one assume responsibility for one’s acts? What is it about the special status of “childhood” that somehow makes it different?

The inaugural launch of this inclusive interdisciplinary conference will begin to examine, explore and undermine issues surrounding the general idea of the child as innocent and explore all aspects of evil children and the relationship between children and evil with a view to forming a publication to engender further collaboration and discussion. It will probe the dichotomies and ambiguities of our understanding and constructs of children, childhood, the passage through childhood to adulthood and the relationship with personal and social values, morals and responsibilities. It will map the ways in which children could or should be held accountable for the things they do and the contexts in which they are subject to influencing factors and conditions. And it will assess the use of “evil” in relation to children and childhood in historical and contemporary cultures.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Innocence and evil; innocent evil
• Evil and age; does age matter?
• Children: mad, bad or something else?
• Children, evil and empathy
• The child as perpetrator
• Normal children; aberrant children
• The vilification of children
• Evil, children and/in Fairy Tales: Folk Lore and evil children
• Evil, children and the supernatural
• Evil and the end of childhood
• Legal perspectives
• Forensic and Clinical/Biological perspectives
• Child murderers; children who kill
• Evil, children and the military. Children and war. Child soldiers
• Infanticide
• Evil in the playground
• Evil, children and/in literature (e.g., Jack Merridew, Lord of the Flies; Frank Cauldhame, The Wasp Factory)
• Evil, children and/in films (e.g., “Chuckie,” “Ben,” Damien Torne, Henry Evans, Isaac Chroner, Regan MacNeill)
• Evil, children and tv (e.g., Joffrey Baratheon, Kevin Katchadourian, Stewie Griffin)
• Children in Horror Literature (“Carrie”)
• “Protecting” children from evil (film ratings, etc.)
• “Original Sin” and evil children
• Children in Victorian drama or literature: victims and perpetrators
• Children, disability and evil
• Bastard children (e.g., Shakespeare)
• The psychology and psychopathology of evil children
• Economics of children and evil
• Cross-cultural perspectives of children and evil
• Children, evil and social policies
• Children, education and evil
• Inherited evils: the sins of the parents; children, evil and family
• Children who become evil adults

We invite people from all disciplines, professions and vocations to come together in dialogue, to provide a space and a level of legitimacy for a subject, or subjects that is traditionally seen as unimaginable, a socially taboo and even associated with pathology, by providing a forum for ideas and arguments that might otherwise not receive adequate attention and discussion. The ultimate goal is in a sense to expose the current topic to the light of day for examination of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal.

Currently, the significant areas of interest include literature, sociology, communications, art, psychology, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and other social sciences and humanities. Yet the scope of the conference is not limited to these fields or studies as it does not strike to narrowly define, or define at all, what areas constitute the significant not to eliminate the spirit of interdisciplinary efforts. The meeting is also open to other fields such as biology, biochemistry, political sciences, economics, etc. This kind of interdisciplinary engagement is always enjoyable and fruitful and makes for good networking and collaborative possibilities. Activists, anthropologists, archaeologies, archivists, artists and other creative professionals, civil servants, members of the clergy, clinicians, correctional authorities, historians, journalists, jurists and other legal professionals, military personnel, researchers, writers and others with an interest in the project are encouraged to submit proposals.

What to Send
The aim of this interdisciplinary conference and collaborative networking event is to bring people together and encourage creative conversations in the context of a variety of formats: papers, seminars, workshops, storytelling, performances, poster presentations, panels, q&a’s, roundtables etc.

300 word proposals, presentations, abstracts and other forms of contribution and participation should be submitted by Friday, 22 February 2019. Other forms of participation should be discussed in advance with the Organising Chair.

All submissions will be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Development Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.

You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday, 8 March 2019.

If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday, 31 May 2019.

Abstracts and proposals may be in Word, PDF, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in the programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Evil Children Submission.

Early Bird Submission and Discount
Submissions received on or before Friday 18th January 2019 will be eligible for a 10% registration fee discount.

Where to Send
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chair and the Project Administrator:
Dr Robert Fisher: robevilchild@progressiveconnexions.net
Project Administrator: veronaevilchild@progressiveconnexions.net

PLAY2018: Playing at the Boundaries: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Play in Children’s Literature, Media and Culture
Cambridge University
Cambridge, UK, September 12-14, 2019

Confirmed Keynotes:

Marah Gubar – Associate Professor, MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Paul Ramchandani – LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning, The University of Cambridge Faculty of Education

Metamorphosis and multiplicity have increasingly come to characterise the media landscape of the twenty-first century. Emerging technologies of production, distribution, and consumption not only allow texts to travel new and often unpredictable circuits, but also lower the thresholds of participation in cultural life, producing a new generation of “produsers” (Bruns 2008). In this environment, children’s literature, media and culture have gone mainstream, as stories overspill the edges of their texts and dissolve the boundaries that have conventionally separated different media forms and disciplines. At this juncture, we would like to invite scholars to join us in experimenting with the forms and shapes of our own discipline; to play, if you will.

The current cultural moment demands that scholars welcome approaches that are themselves nimble, dynamic, responsive and experimental, particularly from those of us who study childhood and its ephemera. Taking inspiration from play theorists such as Thomas Henricks, this conference proposes play as a metaphor through which to look anew at our field in this new era of border crossings. Play is not only action, but a mode of interaction and activity; a disposition, an experience and ultimately a context (Henricks ‘Theme and Variation’, 136). Such understandings of play open up new ways of thinking about the ways cultural products are engaged in everyday life – as a potential form of imaginative play, or an act through which texts becomes animated. Additionally, through their connotations of interaction and motion, they allow scholars to inhabit the intersections and overlaps between fields that are an increasingly common feature of the current cultural moment.

We therefore invite papers that explore the place of play in children’s literature, media and culture in experimental, transgressive, and creative ways. We encourage scholars from the fields of children’s literature, screen studies, games studies, media and communication, material culture and, of course, scholars studying play from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, to join us in considering the latent metacritical potentials of play and its diverse modes and forms in bridging disciplinary divides.

PSpecific topics include but are not limited to:

• Text as plaything, playmate, playspace: the book as material object – as toy, as media, as technology, as haptic text etc.
• Power Play: Play as criticism; the infantilisation of play; the role of play in demarcating high and low culture, adult and child culture, or traditional and experimental art
• Play as aesthetic: What makes a text playful? What is the look and feel of a playful text?
• History of Play: Play and material culture; evolution of play; cultural construction of play
• Playing with texts: adaptation and transmediation in children’s literature, media and culture; the place of the child in relation to participatory cultures, fan studies etc.
• Interplay: Analysing other media forms (comics, films, animation, comics, video games) from a children’s literature perspective; interdisciplinary approaches to the study of children’s literature media and culture and playing with theory
• Performative Play: theater, animation, apps, games as playful forms; interactivity and embodiment in children’s media consumption
• Play as subversion: play and agency; play and creativity
• Wordplay: interpretation, meaning-making as form of creative play

Proposals of 250 words for a 20-minute paper should be sent, together with a 100-word bio, to playingattheboundaries@gmail.com by January 7, 2019. We also encourage panel and round table proposals, especially those that that seek to employ unconventional modes of presentation.

CFP: Being Human in Young Adult Literatures Symposium
Friday 17th May 2019
University of Roehampton, London
National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature (NCRCL)

What does it mean to be human? Identity categories such as race, religion, gender, ability, size, and age intersect in definitions of the self, shaping how we construct ourselves and are perceived by others. Humanity is also under scrutiny, as other forms of consciousness help define what we are and what we are not. A growing corpus of young adult narratives across a range of genres and media attempt to engage with the plurality of the human experience.

The NCRCL’s symposium will consider how “being human” is explored through YA narratives, beginning with a keynote paper from renowned YA literature critic Dr. Alison Waller.

Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Sex and sexuality
• Gender identity and/or expression
• Religion
• Race
• Ability and/or disability
• Mental health
• A.I./cyborgs/post-human
• Animal/human
• Aging
• Body image
• Mortality and death
• Genre and the construction of human experience
• Performativity

This symposium invites papers from a range of disciplines addressing young adult narratives. It welcomes papers from postgraduate students, early career researchers, and academics.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words and a short bio should be sent to Emily Corbett at corbette@roehampton.ac.uk by 31 January 2019.