CFP: Children’s Literature and Bildung Processes in the Age of Digitalization and Political Concern

Children’s Literature and Bildung Processes  in the Age of Digitalization and Political Concern

Nordic Journal of Childlit Aesthetics is an international open access journal. The aim of the journal is to develop cross-disciplinary discussions on children’s literature and its interaction with other art forms.

We are currently inviting contributions to a discussion on bildung processes.

This recurring research subject connects to changing views on the complex nature of the functions and aesthetics of literature for children and young adults. A renewed focus on bildung is called for by a multitude of new impulses, mainly the digital media development and recent demands on a political literary agenda.

Digitalization’s immense influence on children’s literature is visible in the increased visual and digital text forms with various demands on reader participation. Examples of the political agenda range from an outspoken critique of the lack of multicultural representation in children’s literature to ecocritical literary theory, which has recently inspired a vast number of literary analyses. The political trend is institutionalized at the governmental level in the white paper The Power of Culture Meld. St. 8 (2018–2019) Report to the Storting (Norwegian Parliament), which states that art and culture for children are expected to provide cultural formation and prepare children for participation in democratic, social and economic processes. Still, the value of children’s literature is measured through its aesthetic quality.

How do these mixed expectations influence the current understanding of what children’s literature should be and do? How are aesthetical, digital, ethical and political issues negotiated within the texts that they are constituted by?

Nordic Journal of Childlit Aesthetics are seeking articles on the following topics:

  • What tools characterize children’s literature in different media, and how do they affect the reader?
  • How and to what degree do bildung processes define children’s literature? What constitutes the bildung processes today? How do literary bildung structures relate to contemporary trends?
  • Whose experiences are presented in children’s literature? How? Who has a voice? How is reader and author identity formed? How do the identity processes relate to bildung processes?
  • (How) is the idea of literature’s bildung processes compatible with aesthetic quality and artistic freedom?

Articles exploring related topics may also be of interest.

Submit your article or your idea for an article as an email attachment to redaksjonblft@gmail.com by 1 May 2020.

Do not include any contact information in the article itself. Please send the title of the article and a brief presentation of the author in a separate file.

Nordic Journal of Childlit Aesthetics accepts articles in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and English. The journal uses double-blind review and publishes articles continuously. The journal is designated scientific level 1 in NSD.

For more information, see https://www.idunn.no/blft?languageId=2#/authors

 

Editorial Assistant International Research in Children’s Literature (IRCL).

Editorial Assistant International Research in Children’s Literature (IRCL).

The International Research Society for Children’s Literature (IRSCL: http://www.irscl.com/) is seeking to appoint an assistant to the Senior Editor of the Society’s journal: (https://www.euppublishing.com/loi/ircl ). The unpaid position provides excellent opportunities to develop knowledge of the field, working alongside established scholars, learning the skills required in journal publishing and developing networks. IRCL is in the process of adopting an online submission system which will handle most of the tasks currently undertaken by the Editorial Assistant creating opportunities for involvement in the editorial process. There will be a period of 2 to 3 months working alongside the current Editorial Assistant, learning the duties and becoming familiar with the new system. While the work is not onerous or time-consuming (it currently takes the equivalent of one hour a day), it is vital to the successful running of the journal.

Primary duties (to be revised with the Senior editor after the online system is in place):

  • Receiving and acknowledging articles submitted to IRCL
  • Keeping track of correspondence from contributors and would-be contributors
  • Assisting the Senior Editor in selecting articles for publication
  • Conveying decisions to authors
  • Contacting peer reviewers and tracking the review process
  • Sending digested readers’ reports to authors
  • Keeping records on the submission-acceptance process.

Other duties:

  • Performing other tasks related to the journal which may come up from time to time
  • Working with the editorial team to ensure that articles and book reviews are published in a timely fashion
  • Helping to enlarge the readership and enhance the journal’s profile

Minimum academic qualification: MA in a relevant subject

Anyone interested in this position is invited to contact IRSCL President Evelyn Arizpe at evelyn.arizpe@glasgow.ac.uk to express interest or seek further information.

Closing date: 16 March, 2020

CFP: Rethinking Childhood

International Scientific and Artistic Conference
Zadar, Croatia
September 24-26, 2020

Conference theme
Guided by modern scientific postulates that justify the scientific dialogue between different scientific fields, whilst striving for a more comprehensive approach to a particular scientific problem, the project is conceived as an interdisciplinary scientific dialogue between the fellow scholar participants, with the goal of merging various scientific, artistic and methodological perspectives in their studies of childhood. Postmodern paradigm shift in the perception of the child and the childhood, based on the change of the childhood image – from the child as a passive to an active member of the social community; from childhood as a developmental stage to the conception of childhood as a social construct – strongly influenced the social sciences and humanities, thus leading to the need for active reflection on the child and childhood. In postmodern scientific polyphony, it is justified to discuss the concept(s) of childhood as something structured upon different scientific discourses, as confirmed by the researchers and scientists from various scientific backgrounds that lately converge around the new paradigm of childhood studies.

Following the established framework, the conference will focus on the following general topics:

  • The institutional context of contemporary childhood
  • the familial context of contemporary childhood
  • the culture of childhood today
  • new literacy – the challenges of today

The presentation themes and abstracts are to be submitted via the official conference site: http://conference.unizd.hr/childhoodzd2020/ .

The abstract, which is to be submitted in both Croatian and English, ought to emphasize the main idea and the goals of the paper, to state the methodology used, present the results, include the most important postulates and conclusion. In addition to abstract (the length of which can range from 250 to 500 words), five keywords in Croatian and English need to be included.

Modes of participation: plenary session, presentations by sections, art exhibition.

Official languages of the conference: Croatian and English.

Important Dates:
April 1, 2020: abstract submission deadline
April 15, 2020: preliminary acceptance notice
June 1, 220: submission deadline
June 1, 2020: application deadline for artworks
June 15: second notice
September 1, 2020: registration fee deadline
September 1, 2020: submission deadline for artwork
September 24-26, 2020: conference duration

For more information on the conference and the CFP, please visit the website.

CFP: Female Creations in Literary and Intercultural Education

Overview
The II CICELI faces the challenge of studying and making visible the creativity of women in formal, non-formal and informal education. Therefore, it focuses on the study of poets, playwrights or narrators whose work is included or can be included in the curricula of schools, high schools and universities, both in literature subjects as in others where the reading is presented transversally. Proposals addressing female filmmakers and artists are also accepted, as well as research on fictional characters through a gender studies approach, all of which should be relevant to either compulsory schooling, higher education or educational experiences outside of regulated models. Within these themes, there is room for comparative studies or research measuring the presence of female authors and artists in literary or intercultural education in any territory, not forgetting the pedagogical impact of didactic materials, textbooks or other creative publications, such as illustrated albums or animation productions, aimed at a growing, heterogeneous audience immersed in a process of constant learning. The meeting is aligned with the principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN), specifically with the Sustainable Development Goals belonging to the ‘people’ axis (SDGs 1-5), making “leave no one behind” our motto. Finally, we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Historia de una maestra (1990) with the opening of a topic dedicated to its author, Josefina Aldecoa (1926-2011), and including a performance, within the framework of the congress, of theatrical adaptation of this novel by Paula Llorens.
Keynotes
CICELI schedules plenary lectures by internationally renowned personalities such as Emmanuel Le Vagueresse (Université de Reims-Champagne Ardenne, France), Juan de Dios Villanueva Roa (Universidad de Granada, Spain), Genoveva Ponce Naranjo (Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo, Ecuador) o Teresa Fernández-Ulloa (University of California, Bakersfield, United States).
Women writers, illustrators, playwrights and actresses will be invited, including Mar Benegas, Rocío Araya or Paula Llorens. Furthermore, the novelist and scholar Inma Chacón has also confirmed her participation.
Suggested Topics
Researchers are invited to send proposals for presentations, posters and panels related to the Sustainable Development Goals 1-5 (‘people’ axis) in research or in teaching and related to the following topics:

  1. Literary genres and the development of literacy, intercultural or ecological competence from children’s to higher education, in formal or non-formal contexts.
  2. The role of the arts and literature in the promotion of educational co-education and equity or inclusion (cinema, TV series, transmedia narrative, comic, painting, sculpture…).
  3. Research on female writers and illustrators of children’s and youth literature.
  4. Equality between men and women in illustrated albums or animation productions.
  5. Studies on female protagonists or fictional characters that promote equality or that represent diversity in all its richness and complexity.
  6. Didactic proposals or experiences based on work created by women or other individuals marginalized because of disability, sexuality, race, religion, etc., from all time periods and areas.
  7. Environmental humanities and educational applications of ecocriticism and ecofeminism.
  8. Education as a literary, artistic or filmic topic from a social justice perspective.
  9. Comparative studies on equality, equity or social justice in the curriculum, in textbooks or other didactic materials.
  10. Female teachers, professors and researchers as creators of educational experiences (for children or young adults and in adult education).
  11. Approaches to the figure and work of Josefina Aldecoa.

Proposal Requirements and Deadline
Please submit the title and abstract of your proposal (around 250 words), and a short biography (one paragraph) through this online platform before March 8th, 2020. Acceptance will be notified two weeks after the deadline.

English, Spanish and Catalan are accepted languages for in-person presentations; in the case of special panels, posters and virtual presentations (*), all official EU languages are accepted. Please find more information on our website. Should you have any doubts, enquiries may be sent to ciceli@uv.es.

(*) The possibility of virtual participation is open: send now the title and summary of your contribution and specify your virtual or face-to-face participation once your proposal is accepted.

For more information about the conference and CFP, please visit www.ciceli.es.

Call for applications: Stan Memorial Travel Grant

The Clark Historical Library is now accepting applications for the Stan Memorial Travel Grant. Dr. Susan M. Stan was a renowned expert in international and multicultural children’s literature. She taught classes as an English professor at Central Michigan University, edited resource books, and spoke at national and international conferences.
The travel grant will fund travel to Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library to conduct research using the international resources found in the library, including an extensive collection of Hans Christian Andersen Award nominee books.
Further information about the grant and the application form can be found here.

CFP: Assembling Common Worlds: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment and Young People’s Literature and Culture

Assembling Common Worlds: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Environment and Young People’s Literature and Culture

Vancouver Island University
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada
June 11-13, 2021

In the past year, we have witnessed continents burning, islands and coastal regions flooding, and increases in extinctions of flora and fauna. While concern over the human impact on the environment has existed for decades, there is a new sense of urgency demanding a cognitive shift to transform our understanding of our place in and impact on the physical world, as well as of our relationships with the other life forms cohabiting the earth. More broadly, Tom Oliver calls for rethinking concepts of identity and the individual (The Self Delusion, 2020). Similarly, Posthumanism provides ways of rethinking the boundaries of the human and nonhuman. Donna Haraway has provided language to understand naturecultures (2003) and emphasized the importance of “staying with the trouble” as we work at making kin with nonhuman others, resisting the Western hierarchical view that values human above other lives (2016). Of especial relevance, then, is openness to multiple ways of knowing the natural world, including Indigenous ways of knowing and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) (see Nelson and Shilling, eds. 2018).

Specifically regarding children’s culture, Affrica Taylor has noted the importance of “common worlds (or common worlding) as dynamic collectives of humans and more-than-humans, full of unexpected partnerships and comings together, which bring differences to bear on the ways our lives are constituted and lived” (2013, p. 78). Too often those studying young people’s literature and culture work in isolation from those working in environmental humanities, childhood studies focused on children in the Anthropocene, and education for sustainability. Much of the most productive scholarship on these concepts and processes has been interdisciplinary. There is much to be gained in both methodology and understanding by communication and collaboration between literary scholars, educators, environmentalists, philosophers, and scholars of childhood and youth experiences and culture.

Conspicuously missing from this list are children and youth themselves. While there has been ongoing discussion in the Social Sciences and Health and Human Service fields on participatory research involving children and youth (Aldridge 2015; Dickens 2017) since Alderson first drew attention to the absence of their voices (1995), this is only recently emerging in literary studies and other humanities fields (Deszcz-Tryhubczak 2016, 2018, 2019). Since some of the leading ecological activists today are youth, such as Greta Thunberg (Sweden) and Autumn Peltier (Anishinabek Nation), and since children and youth will live the longest with the effects of environmental degradation, their voices must be part of the conversation.

Assembling Common Worlds intends not only to explore traditional disciplinary ways of understanding eco-literacy and eco-activism in children’s and youth literature and culture, but also to bring together scholars and practitioners from a range of fields to find productive opportunities for cooperation and collaboration in tackling the challenges of generating intergenerational dialogue on current environmental concerns. In addition to paper sessions, the conference will also feature a methodological workshop and involvement of child and youth participants.

Conference conveners welcome proposals for 20-minute papers or 90-minute panels on any of the following topics:

  • Making kin between human and non-human in children’s or youth’s literature and culture
  • More-than-human worlds in children’s or youth’s literature and culture
  • Eco-literacy in children’s or youth literature and culture
  • Imagining the Post-Anthropocene
  • The evolving capacity of ecocriticism to address environmental change
  • Indigenous knowledge or TEK in children’s or youth’s literature and culture
  • Regeneration of connections between children or youth and nature
  • The role of children or youth in food security
  • Young people’s eco-citizenship and/or eco-activism
  • Interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks for understanding children in and of nature
  • Intergenerational creative and/or cultural projects addressing environmental issues
  • Participatory research with children or youth on literary or cultural expressions of eco-literacy and/or eco-activism
  • Children’s and youth’s creativity in/as response to the current environmental crisis

Proposals of 250 words and brief biographies are due June 29, 2020. This early deadline is to facilitate applications for grant monies.

The conveners hope to offer some travel support for graduate students and under-employed scholars.

The conveners also plan to publish an edited collection of selected papers from the conference.

Please send proposals and brief biographies to Terri Doughty (terri.doughty@viu.ca) and Janet Grafton (janet.grafton@viu.ca).