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Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics and Seven Stories, National Centre for Children’s Books are pleased to announce that the application process for 2015-6 David Almond Fellowships is now open.
The awards recognise both David Almond’s contribution to children’s literature and his connections with these partner institutions: he is a patron of Seven Stories and an honorary graduate of Newcastle University.
Fellowships must be taken up before the end of April 2016. Recipients are expected to spend at least three days in Newcastle and are encouraged to time their visits to enable them to participate in events organised jointly or separately by the Children’s Literature Unit and Seven Stories. (Please note: successful applicants must contact Seven Stories and agree a date for the visit prior to making travel arrangements; normally a minimum of two weeks’ notice is required before any research visit.) Acknowledgement of the Fellowships must accompany all dissemination activities arising from the research.
Seven Stories is the only accredited museum in the UK to specialise in children’s books and holds the most substantial collection of British children’s literature archives anywhere in the world. The Collection is made up of over 140 individual archive collections and features original material by over 250 different practitioners: approximately 135 authors, 123 illustrators, 5 critics, 4 editors, and 2 playwrights. There is also material on some key publishers and editors and a substantial book collection, numbering around 40,000 volumes.
Applicants are asked to submit the following items by 1 November, 2015.
a brief proposal (of 1,000 words maximum)
one confidential letter of recommendation (sealed and signed; confidential letters may be included in your application packet or recommenders may send them directly)
Applications may be submitted by email or post.
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
2015 IRSCL Congress in University of Worcester News
The 2015 IRSCL Congress has been featured in the University of Worcester’s news listings: World’s Top Children’s Literature Scholars Come Together in Worcester.
CFP – Special Issue of Women’s Writing: Children’s Literature
Posted on August 24, 2015 by admin
Women’s Writing: Call for Papers
Special Issue: Children’s Literature
Editors: Ann Alston (University of the West of England) and Catherine Butler (Cardiff University)
This special issue of Women’s Writing seeks to publish a selection of articles concerning children’s literature by women in the long nineteenth century (1780-1920). Topics may include but are not limited to:
Fiction for young children
Conduct books and cautionary and moral tales
Ghost stories and the supernatural
Please submit an abstract of 300 words (max) to ann.alston@uwe.ac.uk and ButlerC6@cardiff.ac.uk by 30 October 2015.
Final papers would be expected to be between 4000-7000 words.
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – L.M. Montgomery and Gender
Posted on August 20, 2015 by admin
L.M. Montgomery and Gender
From Anne’s initial iconic and heartrending cry in Anne of Green Gables—“You don’t want me because I’m not a boy”—to the pressure on young men to join the war effort in Rilla of Ingleside, and from the houseful of supportive co-eds in Anne of the Island to the tyrannical grandmother in Jane of Lantern Hill, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s work highlights gender roles: how formative and deterministic they seem, and yet mutable they may be. Much Montgomery criticism of the past several decades has regarded her work from a feminist and gender studies perspective. Given that Canada is fast approaching the centenary of women’s suffrage in the province of Manitoba (1916) and nationally (1918), the twelfth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, which will take place 23-26 June 2016, invites proposals for papers that re-consider the role of gender in L.M. Montgomery’s work, broadly defined: her fiction, poetry, life writing, letters, photographs, and scrapbooks, as well as the myriad adaptations and spinoffs in film, television, theatre, tourism, and social media. To what degree do Montgomery’s works, or works inspired by her, challenge or re-entrench normative gender roles? Do her works envision new possibilities for girls and women, boys and men? Or, is our contemporary fascination with her world, in part, nostalgia for what people imagine to be the more clearly-defined gender roles of a bygone era?
Engaging the rich scholarship of the past, possible topics might examine the intersection of gender with:
Sexual identity, queerness, bachelor- and spinsterhood, and/or heterosexual romance;
Friendship of all kinds; relationships with personal and professional acquaintances;
Geographic, cultural, linguistic, racial, or ethnic identities, such as Scottishness;
Voting and politics; careers and/or education for women (or men); domesticity;
Levels of ability and mobility;
Mental and/or physical illness, addiction, and/or failing health
Please submit a proposal of 250-300 words, a CV that includes education, position, publications, and presentations, and a list of A/V requirements by 31 August 2015 by using our online form at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website at http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/. Abstracts should not only clearly articulate a strong argument but they should also situate that argument in the context of previous Montgomery scholarship. All proposals are blind reviewed. Any questions or requests for further information can be directed to the conference co-chairs: Dr. Andrea McKenzie (acmcken@gmail.com) and/or Dr. Laura Robinson (Laura.Robinson@rmc.ca).
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – The Picturebook as an Art Object
Posted on August 20, 2015 by admin
Kent State University School of Library and Information Science, Reinberger Children’s Library Center and the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art present the Inaugural Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Keynote: Will Hillenbrand, Children’s Book Author and Illustrator
(Additional keynote speakers to be announced)
“The Picturebook as an Art Object”: Honoring the life and work of Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz
According to Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz, professor of art education at the Ohio State University from 1971 to 1991, picturebooks (spelled as one word by Dr. Marantz) are “such rich repositories of visual art, so readily available compared with the resources housed in galleries and museums, that I believe we must take the fullest advantage of them.”
For many young children, picturebooks represent their first exposure to culture — to art, and to literature — in one perfect package. For older children, picturebooks are a useful tool for addressing controversial or difficult subject matter. For all, the aesthetic relationship with picturebooks can create life-long connections.
Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz and his wife, Sylvia Marantz, have graciously funded a biannual scholarly picturebook research symposium to be organized and hosted by the Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science. In this Inaugural Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium, to be held July 24-26, 2016, we honor Ken Marantz’s lifelong dedication to the art of the picturebook.
This call for proposals seeks original, interdisciplinary research in areas related to picturebooks, especially centered on Dr. Marantz’s concept of the picturebook as an art object.
Children’s book author and illustrator Will Hillenbrand will deliver a keynote address. Hillenbrand, who studied under Ken Marantz, received the 2012 Parents’ Choice Silver Honor award for his illustrations in Bear in Love. Other accolades include a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators; Notable Book Award from the American Library Association for the first picture book he illustrated, Traveling to Tondo; and Children’s Choice Awards from the International Reading Association for Sam Sunday and the Mystery at the Ocean Beach Hotel and The House That Drac Built. (Additional keynote speakers will be confirmed shortly.)
The Committee especially encourages presentations and research in the following formats:
Twenty-minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of discussion
Panel submissions comprised of three 20-minute presentations followed by 20 minutes of discussion (or four 15-minute presentations followed by 15 minutes of discussion)
Submissions must be submitted on the appropriate form (http://bit.ly/MarantzSymposiumSubmission). Submissions must include the following in order to be considered:
Title and three to five keywords
Description of type of proposal you are submitting (poster/paper/panel)
Names and contact information of all contributors
An abstract of no more than 350 words of your proposed poster or presentation.
In the case of a panel submission, one abstract should be submitted to summarize the panel presentations.
Information about any special equipment requirements (beyond a laptop and projector, which will be provided)
Prospective participants should submit abstracts that report on recent research and scholarship. Contributions to this call for papers may not have been previously published, and all research methodologies from all disciplines are welcomed. Students are encouraged to participate. Once selected, presenters are responsible for their own expenses related to the conference, including but not limited to registration fees, lodging, transportation and meals.
Link to proposal form: http://bit.ly/MarantzSymposiumSubmission.
Some possible topics, as related to the conference theme, include (but are not limited to):
“Reading” picturebooks: The influence of art and text on early literacy
Picturebooks, aesthetics, and the imagination
Cultural constructions of picturebooks
Picturebooks and digital formats
Reaching diverse readers via picturebooks
Historical perspectives on picturebooks
Nov. 1, 2015: Deadline to submit abstracts
Dec. 1, 2015: Notification of acceptance
There will not be proceedings for this conference; however, selected papers may be included in a special issue of a journal or an edited collection. Details will be provided as they become available.
If you have questions that are not addressed here, please contact Dr. Marianne Martens (mmarten3@kent.edu) or Michelle Baldini (mbaldini@kent.edu).
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Embodied Readings: Child Readers and Children in Literature
Posted on August 19, 2015 by admin
Embodied Readings: Child Readers and Children in Literature
Roxanne Harde and Lydia Kokkola (Eds.)
Submissions are invited for chapters on the theme of the embodied child in relation to children’s literature and other media. The collection will reflect the growing interest in the embodied nature of child both as the reader or consumer of various media and as represented within those media.
Contributions are welcomed from a range of fields, such as literature, postcolonial studies, literacy education, historical and cultural studies, film and media studies, and education.
Possible areas of investigation:
The Sexualised child (as reader or within the text)
The Racialized child (as reader or within the text)
The Reading Child (including publishing practices and the kinaesthetic aspects of digital reading)
Visual Images of Children (in advertising, in war reporting, in painting etc.)
The Able Bodied or Differently Abled Bodied Child
An abstract of the proposal, maximum 200 words, with a brief CV of the author(s), maximum 40 words, should be submitted to Roxanne Harde (rharde@ualberta.ca) and Lydia Kokkola (lydia.kokkola@ltu.se) by 9 November 2015.
We will aim to reply to authors by 30 November 2015.
Abstracts accepted by the contributors will be used to produce a publishing proposal. Full manuscripts should be prepared by 14 February 2016 with the aim of completing revisions etc. for July 2016 and publication Dec 2016/Jan 2017.
Posted in calls for papers
IRSCL Book Award 2022- Applications open
Open Position: Assistant Professor in Global/Transnational Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies