IRSCL News

In April I reported on the campaign conducted by our Japanese colleagues to prevent the closure of the International Institute for Children’s Literature in Osaka. At the time I sent the Governor of Osaka Prefecture a letter on behalf of IRSCL asking him to reconsider his decision. I’ve now received a letter from Mikio Mukogawa, Director of IICLO, who says that while the Governor of Osaka Prefecture still plans to close IICLO, the Institute’s future has not yet been decided, and discussion will continue into 2009. I’ll post more information as I receive it.

The following message comes from John Lyon at University of Bristol:

Colleagues may be interested in alerting appropriate students to the following opportunity at Bristol University in the UK:

I’m looking for an early career children’s literature specialist who might be interested in applying for a 3 year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship with Bristol as her/his nominated institution. We feel that the ‘why Bristol?’ part of such an application could be made very strong.

Bristol holds the Penguin Archive and I am Principal Investigator of the 4 year AHRC funded Penguin Archive Project. The Project aims to produce an on-line catalogue of the Archive. We have a postdoctoral researcher in Penguin and Modern Poetry, and two Ph.D. students, one on Penguin Specials, the other on Penguin and Classical translations. But, as you know, children’s literature is hugely important to the history of Penguin, with Puffin’s 70th birthday falling in 2010. Moreover, any such postdoc would not be wholly lonely since Dr Ika Willis here has a strong interest in children’s literature and teenage fiction. Any such person would also have the opportunity of playing a major role in our large Penguin conference which we plan for summer 2010.

Please contact John Lyon (J.M.Lyon@bristol.ac.uk) for further details.

The Australasian Children’s Literature Association for Research (ACLAR) is affiliated with IRSCL and holds its conferences in alternate years to IRSCL Congresses. Here’s a report by incoming ACLAR President, Liz Parsons:

“Other Worlds in Children’s Literature: Fantasy, Reality and Imagination”
27th -29th June. Wellington, New Zealand.

The 2008 ACLAR conference was hosted by Victoria University in the picturesque seaside city of Wellington.

The opening night included a superb cultural performance from students at Bishop Viard College, Porirua. This induction into local youth culture in the arts set the scene for a wide-ranging and compelling academic discussion of texts for children that delegates engaged in over the following two days. The breadth and depth of scholarship was particularly exciting and included international perspectives from Iran, Taiwan, India, the US, the UK, China and Japan as well as from Australia and our New Zealand hosts. Topics ranged from new approaches to historical texts to the most recent narratives. Presentations expanded the discipline parameters beyond traditional literature with research into computer games, magazines, film and television in ways that demonstrate the flexibility of our field’s intellectual engagement across the most contemporary platforms for storytelling that young people are accessing.

With contributions from highly esteemed scholars in the field through to the fresh perspectives of both postgraduate and undergraduate panels, delegates had access to a diversity of ideas, texts and methodologies. Special thanks to the organising team including Anna Jackson, Rose Lovell-Smith, Geoff Miles, Babette Puetz, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer and Kathryn Walls who collectively ensured the event was a wonderful success in intellectual, interdisciplinary and social terms.

At the Modernism and Global Media Conference which the Modernist Studies Association will run at Vanderbilt University, Karen Westman is leading a seminar on ‘Children and War’. The deadline for seminar registration is July 28, 2008.

Members Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Astrid Surmatz invite papers for their conference Astrid Lindgren: Internationality and Intermediality, to be held at Växjö University, Sweden, 18-20 September 2008. Keynote speakers include Eva-Maria Metcalf, Maria Nikolajeva and Boel Westin. See the conference website for further information.

The Association for Research in Cultures of Young People held its inaugural meetings at the June 2008 Canadian Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The new Association aims to promote research, in Canada and internationally, across a range of disciplines and to create opportunities for collaborative research. Any cultural producer, academic, or professional engaged in the production, research, teaching, or study of cultures and texts of young people is welcome to join the Association. For further information, contact Heather Snell at the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, University of Winnipeg, Canada.

Our member Maria Nikolajeva (IRSCL President 1993-1997) has been elected to a new position as Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education at University of Cambridge, UK. Currently Professor at the Department of Literature and History of Ideas, Stockholm University, Maria will be linked to the PLACE (Pedagogy, Language, Arts & Culture in Education) academic group at Cambridge.

Lillemor Torstensson from the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books (Sbi) announces that two posthumously-published books by Göte Klingberg (1918-2006), the ‘father of Swedish children’s literature research’ are available in pdf format from the Sbi website. The books are part of the series “Studies published by the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books”.

The publications are: Facets of children’s literature research: collected and revised writings, and Pictures in 19th century international children’s books: An introductory study. To read about Göte Klingberg, see this website.

For further information about the books, please contact Lillemor Torstensson, at: lillemor.torstensson@sbi.kb.se

Morag Styles has asked me to give you advance notice of an international conference, Poetry and Childhood, to be held on 20-21 April 2009, at the British Library, London. Confirmed speakers are Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate), Michael Rosen (Children’s Laureate), Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, and Lissa Paul. For more information, please email Hannah Drake at: hvd21@cam.ac.uk

On April 1 I asked for support for the International Institute for Children’s Literature in Osaka, which is in danger of being closed down by the governor of Osaka prefecture. Mikio Mukogawa, the Director of IICLO, reports that 32 organisations (including IRSCL) sent letters asking the governor to reconsider. In addition, many individuals have signed a petition and registered their support for the institute. Mikio Mukogawa says that a decision will be made by the end of July. Watch this space for more news.