en es en en en en en en en en en en en en en en it es en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en fr en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en es en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en
We are looking for proposals for papers for arguably the hottest area in popular culture: Youth Literature and Media. Youth Culture is everywhere. From the rise of YA Lit to the fall of Facebook, twenty-five is the new eighteen and The Millennials are here. This area is for the study of Lit and Media for Youth (all three terms broadly conceived), representations of youth in Lit and Media, and youth as consumers and producers of Lit and Media.
We want to know all about the kids these days, in classrooms and parents’ basements, from S.E. Hinton to Luke Herzog, from the crew of really really rich youth who play videogames and apply make-up on YouTube to the many more who mod everything from videogames to movies to Legos into their own Maker-inspired, bricolage cultural productions. Who are “youth”, what are they reading and doing, why, and who cares? Pop Culture Studies is a multi-disciplinary endeavor, so bring us your close readings, your ethnographies, your visual analysis, and even your hard core stats: anything and everything as long as it’s about youth and popular culture!
Want more food for thought? How about…
Expanding definitions and boundaries of youth (and diminished spaces for adults?)
Revisiting youth through nostalgia and Netflix (Wet Hot American Summer!? Fuller House!?)
Lit or media produced by youth (and the youth who produce lit and media)
Adult audiences of YA Lit and other youth culture
Images and discussion of youth in the news
Youth and Social Media: where the kids go when their parents join Facebook
CFP – (Re)Examining Historical Childhoods: Literary, Cultural, Social
An Australasian Society for the History of Children and Youth Symposium
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Representations of the histories children and childhood in the media, film, literature, music and popular culture
The “difficult” histories of children and youth
Histories that consider children’s agency and voice
Children and their relation to space, place, and the built environment
Education and the histories of children and youth
Material culture and the commemoration of children’s heritage
Histories of “girlhood” and “boyhood”
Cross-cultural and Indigenous experiences of childhood across time
Histories of childhood and public policy
Paper and panel proposals are due no later than 15 May 2016. They should include the following information in a single document and should be sent to the conference convener Kristine Moruzi (kmoruzi@deakin.edu.au):
Name of presenter, institutional affiliation, address and email
Title of individual paper
250-word abstract of paper
Brief bio (max 50 words) for presenter
Notifications of acceptance will be made by 15 June.
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Special Issue of Girlhood Studies: The Girl in the Text
Posted on March 17, 2016 by admin
The Girl in the Text
Since the appearance of Stieg Larsson¹s three novels all of which feature “The Girl” in its title, we have seen a plethora of books with similar titles. These range from Heidi Durrow¹s award winning novel, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (2010), whose protagonist’s search for racial identity is complicated by her being a blue-eyed black girl thanks to her African American and white Danish parentage to The Girl With Three Legs: A Memoir (2011 by human rights activist and female genital mutilation survivor, Soraya Miré, in which this third leg is the soon to be amputated clitoris of a 13-year-old Somali girl, and from the controversial 2012 self e-published young adult novel by Kelly Thompson, The Girl Who Would Be King, about two super-powered teenagers, one good and one evil, to the 2015 bestseller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins¹s thriller with its strange mixture of feminist sensibility and (seemingly unrecognized) misogyny in the depiction of its protagonist, Rachel.
For this themed issue of Girlhood Studies we welcome articles that explore how the representations of girls in written or graphic texts invite us to think about girlhood(s) from new and/or different perspectives. We have in mind such exploration in novels, novellas, short stories, and poems (whether canonically approved or not, whether traditional or contemporary, and whether or not subversive and/or experimental) picture books, comics and graphic novels, and so on.
Contributions to this themed issue may address, among others, the following questions:
Are girls and girlhoods necessarily depicted differently in autobiographical or biographical works from how they are depicted in fictional works?
What are the implications of these differences or the lack of them for how we view the girl as subject in the former and as protagonist, or perhaps antagonist, in the latter?
In a comparison of novels on a similar theme in relation to girls and girlhood do authors of Young Adult (YA) and cross-over texts (those apparently directed to young adults but widely read across a range of ages) have anything to offer authors of texts aimed at an older readership, and vice versa?
How do poems and rhymes, and picture books for younger readers represent girls and girlhood and what might be the consequences of such representation in playgroups and pre-school classrooms? How might these depictions affect the decisions of educational policy makers?
How, in the context of reader response theory and memory-work studies might we consider the significance of the question: “Who is the girl (reader) in the text?” How do girls read these texts? How do we remember having read them?
Ann Smith is guest-editing this themed issue. The focus of her interest in literature has long been on literary theory in relation to texts, particularly those of popular culture.
Please direct inquiries to Guest Editor, Ann Smith (smithann1066@gmail.com) and send expressions of interest and/or abstracts to her by 31 July 2016. Full manuscripts are due by 15 January 2017.
Authors should provide a cover page giving brief biographical details (up to 100 words), institutional affiliation(s) and full contact information, including an email address.
Articles may be no longer than 6,500 words including the abstract (up to 150 words), keywords (6 to 8 in alphabetical order), notes, captions and tables, acknowledgements (if any), biographical details (taken from the cover page), and references. Images in a text count for 200 words each. Girlhood Studies, following Berghahn’s preferred house style, uses a modified Chicago Style. Please refer to the Style Guide on the website.
If images are used, authors are expected to secure the copyright themselves.
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Reading the Wall: The Cultural Afterlives of Hadrian’s Wall
Posted on March 4, 2016 by admin
Reading the Wall: The Cultural Afterlives of Hadrian’s Wall
Newcastle University, 15-17 June 2016
Keynote Speakers: Professor Richard Hingley (Durham), Dr Lindsay Allason-Jones, OBE (Newcastle), and authors Christian Cameron and Garth Nix
Constructed in the 2nd century AD as a monumental frontier complex of the Roman Empire, Hadrian’s Wall has enjoyed a long and complex existence. This interdisciplinary and cross-period conference will explore the impact of the Wall since its inception and across multiple media.
Occupied by the Roman army as a border from ca. AD 120 until the early 5th century, the Wall has continued to capture the imagination from the 6th century AD. The Byzantine historian Procopius offers this description of the Wall:
Now in this island of Britain the men of ancient times built a long wall, cutting off a large part of it; and the climate and the soil and everything else is not alike on the two sides of it. For to the east of the wall there is a salubrious air, changing with the seasons, being moderately warm in summer and cool in winter. But on the west side everything is the reverse of this, so that it is actually impossible for a man to survive there even a half-hour, but countless snakes and serpents and every other kind of wild creature occupy this area as their own. And, strangest of all, the inhabitants say that if a man crosses the wall and goes to the other side, he dies straightway. They say, then, that the souls of men who die are always conveyed to this place. (History of the Wars)
In recent years, Hadrian’s Wall has served as the inspiration for Walls in literature, as in George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones and has been referenced in the debate surrounding Scottish independence, to say nothing of the importance of the monument for heritage tourism. This conference asks how the Wall has circulated in the cultural imaginary (locally, nationally and globally) over the past 1500 years.
We invite papers that explore the cultural significance and impact of Hadrian’s Wall. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
The Wall in Literature (incl. Historical, Science, Romance, Historical Romance and Spy Fictions)
Women and the Wall
The Wall in Cyberspace
The Power of Names/Myths
Myth-Making and a Sense of Place
Visual and Plastic Arts
The Wall and Hollywood
Classical Reception and Neo-Mediaevalisms
Children, Children’s Literature and the Wall
Maps and Mapping the Wall
The Wall and Other Walls
We welcome papers that explore these topics from English and Other Literatures, Film and Television Studies, Archaeology, History, Heritage Studies, Cartography, Fine Art, Music, Folklore, Museology, Digital Humanities, Geography, Politics and Sociology.
Titles and abstracts (200-250 words) should be sent to readingthewall@newcastle.ac.uk. Panel proposals (for three-paper panels) should include a title for the panel’s programme. Abstract deadline: 21 March 2016.
For more details, see the conference website: http://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/readingthewall/conferenceinformation/
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Medievalism in Children’s and YA Literature
Posted on March 4, 2016 by admin
CFP for Proposed Panel: Medievalism in Children’s and Young Adult Literature – TEMA September 23-25, 2016 Texas A&M University
Panel co-chairs: Melissa Filbeck and Michaela Baca, Texas A&M University
Something about our medieval past continues to fascinate contemporary readers, including a readership most often associated with all that is shiny and new: children and young adults. For this panel, which will be proposed for the 2016 Texas Medieval Association (TEMA) conference, we seek papers that focus on the medieval in texts for young audiences. Some possible areas for exploration include:
Children’s/YA adaptations of medieval texts (including books, television, and film)
Medieval motifs in contemporary children’s or YA literature or film
The function of medievalism in children’s/YA texts
The impact of medievalism in children’s/YA texts on contemporary understanding of the middle ages
Abstracts of 200 words are due by March 31, 2016. Please be aware that this submission is for a panel that we intend to propose; inclusion in the panel proposal does not guarantee acceptance into the TEMA conference.
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Reading and Writing in a Participative Culture: A Symposium on the Life and Work of Terry Pratchett
Posted on March 2, 2016 by admin
Reading and Writing in a Participative Culture: A Symposium on the Life and Work of Terry Pratchett
Call for papers for a symposium at Dublin City University
Date and Time: 10am-5pm, Saturday, 28 May 2016, followed by a wine reception
Keynote speakers: Professor Farah Mendlesohn (Anglia Ruskin University, UK), Professor (Emeritus) Edward James (University College Dublin), Dr Andrew Butler (Canterbury Christ Church, University, UK)
Terry Pratchett was, without doubt, one of the most remarkable authors ever to refrain from trying to write “literature.” In a career that spanned more than four decades, he secured the affection and admiration of legions of readers, prompting them to consider, among other issues, what it might be like to live on a flat world, perched on the backs of four elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle, swimming endlessly through space.
Although probably most celebrated for his Discworld series of novels (1983-2015), Pratchett also produced highly acclaimed works for children and young adults, as well as science fiction, and his writings collectively demonstrate both his moral acuity and comic genius. They also reveal, though, what can happen when a truly great writer explores the complex nature of literature and genre, and encourages his readers to do so as well.
In the company of Farah Mendlesohn, Edward James and Andrew Butler, editors of Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature (2004), this one day symposium will celebrate Terry Pratchett’s memory by facilitating a critical discussion of his work and putting forward possible reasons for its appeal and significance. The organizers therefore would like to invite proposals for papers of twenty minute duration devoted to any aspect of Pratchett’s work; possible topics might include (but are not limited to):
Issues of genre (novel, comic fantasy, science fiction, detective fiction, crossover fiction, children’s literature, young adult literature, etc.)
The hero/heroine and the heroic
Terry Pratchett, guilty of literature?
The visual (illustration, film adaptations, colour, etc.)
The readers and Pratchett
The critics and Pratchett
Please submit a title and abstract of a maximum of 300 words, along with a short biographical note of up to 50 words, to janeohanlon@poetryireland.ie or aine.mcgillicuddy@dcu.ie by 31 March 2016.
Posted in calls for papers
IRSCL Book Award 2022- Applications open
Open Position: Assistant Professor in Global/Transnational Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies