IRSCL News

IRSCL Board meeting and symposium in India

dale — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:58:51 +0000

Members of the IRSCL Board held their 2008 meeting in India, in conjunction with an International Symposium, ‘Bind us Together: Global Perspectives on Multicultural Children’s Literature’ held by the Children’s Literature Association of India (CLAI) in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, September 8-10, 2008. Scholars from all over India and from Iran attended this symposium, which was ably organised by Hyacinth Pink of Nirmala College for Women. The festival season was in full swing while we were in Coimbatore, and below the symposium poster you can see a floral ‘welcome’ carpet.

Research and teaching in children’s literature are growing rapidly in universities and colleges throughout India, where courses are gradually being introduced and increasing numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students show a keen interest in studying children’s literature. Board members thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn about Indian children’s literature and about the scholarly projects of their Indian colleagues. The symposium ‘Bind us together’ incorporated around 45 papers in addition to plenary presentations and a lively session on courses and teaching strategies. Here is a photograph of the audience at the Inaugural Ceremony of the symposium.

On the first night of the symposium we were invited to a cultural programme at Nirmala College, where we were enchanted by displays of dancing reflecting various cultural traditions. In the photograph below you can see (l to r) Hans-Heino Ewers (IRSCL Vice-President), Professor Alida Allison (San Diego State University), me (Clare Bradford, IRSCL President) and Helene Ehriander (IRSCL Board member) wearing the beautiful garlands we were given.

Here you can see a small sample of the dancing we enjoyed, performed by the gifted students of Nirmala College for Women.

IRSCL member Anto Thomas assisted Hyacinth in hosting our visit. Below is Anto with Hans-Heino Ewers.

More photographs of IRSCL Board members with Indian colleagues:

After the symposium Anto and the Board took the train to Cochin in Kerala, where we held further Board meetings, completing our work on September 11. The national newspaper The Hindu published two articles during our stay in Coimbatore, one on the symposium and the other on the importance of children’s literature for child readers and as an area of research

After we completed our meetings I travelled with Anto Thomas to five cities (Trichur, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi), in a lecture programme funded by the Australia-India Council. Everywhere I went I met enthusiastic scholars and students eager to engage in discussions of children’s literature.

Hans-Heino Ewers, convenor of the 19th Biennial IRSCL Congress in Frankfurt, August 2009, reported to the Board on plans for this Congress, at which we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of IRSCL. Hans-Heino and his Conference Committee are well advanced in their preparation, and delegates are assured of a warm welcome to Frankfurt. Please visit the Congress website for information about this important IRSCL event.

Upcoming conferences

clare — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:00:04 +0000

1. Green Gables to Globalization: Crossover, Canada and Children’s Books
One-day conference to be held on October 18 2008 in The Church of Ireland College of Education, Upper Rathmines, Dublin 6. Queries to: secretary@ibbyireland.ie

2. Childhood in its Time: The Child in British Literature
A two-day international conference to be held at Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, UK, Saturday-Sunday 28-29 March 2009.
For Paper Call and information about the conference, see the conference website.

New publications

clare — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:26:40 +0000

Member Sandra Beckett has published not one but two books in the last two months:
Sandra Beckett, Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives (Routledge)
and
Sandra Beckett, Red Riding Hood for All Ages: A Fairy-Tale Icon in Cross-Cultural Contexts (Wayne State University Press).
Congratulations, Sandra!

Position in Childhood Studies

clare — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:24:56 +0000

The Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey invites applications for up to three faculty positions. One position will be for an Associate or Full Professor and the other two will be for Assistant Professors.

See the Department’s website for more information.

IRSCL Award submissions

clare — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:12:41 +0000

Members are invited to nominate books published by IRSCL members from 2007-2009, for consideration for the IRSCL Award which will be announced at our Congress in Frankfurt in 2009. Katrien Vloeberghs is the contact person for nominations and copies of books. Her email address is: katrien.vloeberghs@ua.ac.be

Update on IICLO

clare — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:09:11 +0000

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.

Early career researcher opportunity

clare — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:01:47 +0000

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.

ACLAR conference in Wellington, New Zealand

dale — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:56:21 +0000

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.

Modernism and Global Media Conference

clare — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:02:34 +0000

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.

Astrid Lindgren conference

clare — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:01:45 +0000

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.