All too often in studies of sexual learning the media have been assessed for their potentially negative effects on young people. For example, studies have correlated consumption of particular media forms with early sexual intercourse or teenage pregnancy, while parents and schools have been seen as providing a positive corrective.

However empirical research shows that this simple binary is not always accurate: in some instances entertainment media may offer positive information and representations while school or parents often offer more moralizing or conservative perspectives. For example, a young person growing up in a homophobic family may see happy queer characters in a sitcom; or young people attending a school thatemphasizes young women’s role as gatekeepers and controllers of men’s sexuality may find helpful TV dramas that explore women’s active sexual agency.

This special issue of the journal Sex Education will engage with these and related concerns, pausing to take stock of where we are now, especially with respect to the positive role that old and newer forms of media can play in learning about sex.

Papers may focus on any aspect of the entertainment media, and on any aspect of healthy sexual development – including, but not limited to, open communication about sex, assertiveness, sexual agency, sexual identity, or an acceptance that sex can be pleasurable.

If you are not sure whether your article is appropriate for this special issue, please feel free to send an abstract in the first instance toa.mckee@qut.edu.au

Peer review:

Articles for the special issue will be subject to normal peer review in line with the procedures of the journal.

Timeline:

You should submit yourarticle for review by the 24^th October 2014. You can find the journal’s instructions for authors at:

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=csed20&page=instructions#.Utent_27yf0

When you submit your article will be asked whether you are submitting for a special issue. Please use the pull-down menu to note that you are submitting your paper for the special issue The Media’s Evolving Role in Sex Education.Please also note in the manuscript of your article that you are submitting it for this special issue.

If you have any questions about the mechanics of submitting a paper for Sex Education you should find the answers in the guidelines for authors mentioned above.

More on the guest editors

Alan McKee is a Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, and leads the ‘Promoting Healthy Sexual Development’ research group at QUT. He is particularlyinterested in the relationship between media consumption and healthy sexualdevelopment. He has published in the Journal of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior,International Journal of Sexual Health and Sex Education.

Sara Bragg is a Senior Research Fellow in the Education Research Centre at the University of Brighton. She is co-author of many books, reports and articles on young people’s cultures including Young People, Sex and the Media (with David Buckingham, 2004); co-editor of Children and Young People’s Cultural Worlds (with Mary Jane Kehily, 2013) and of Rethinking Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media (with Buckingham and Kehily, 2014) .

Tristan Taormino is an award-winning writer, sex educator, speaker, filmmaker, and radio host. She is the editor of 25 anthologies, author of seven books, and co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure. As the head of Smart Ass Productions, she has directed and produced sixteen sex-ed films. Tristan’s work, writing and films are routinely used in college courses to explore the complex issues of relationship and sexual diversity, politics, and media.

Calls for Papers: Publishing

CFP: Children and Young People in Times of Conflict and Change: child rights in the Middle East and North Africa, 5/15/14

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Special issue of Global Studies of Childhood

(www.wwwords.co.uk/GSCH)

Children and Young People in Times of Conflict and Change: child rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Guest Editors: Debbie Watson (University of Bristol), Kristen Cheney (International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam) and Heba Raouf Ezzat (University of Cairo)

The aim of this special issue of the journal Global Studies of Childhood (Volume 5 Number 2 2015) is to bring together papers from established and emergent academics and practitioners who have direct experience and empirical data on the lives of children in the Middle East and North African (MENA) regions, particularly since the Arab Spring revolutions. A critical focus will be on the role of children and young people in influencing political and cultural change in the region and the impacts upon them of conflict and political change.

There is an emergent academic literature and debates on the Arab Spring, children are largely absent from this literature. Although examples can be found in the works of Campante and Chor (2012); Gibbons, (2012); Joffe (2011); Nada and El Daw, (2010); Elkoussi and Bakheet, (2011); Ezbawy (2012); Ammar, (2009); Kotb et al, (2011), most of this literature focuses on either reporting the atrocities and poor quality of life of children in the region, or has a specific focus on the role of social media in the revolutions (Hassan, 2012, Stepanova, 2011, Herrera, 2011) and in particular the role of youth in political action (Youniss et al., 2013, Ezbawy, 2012, Wardany, 2012).

There is a need to tell the multiple unheard children’s and young people’s stories that have emerged in respect of their rights, their participation, and their diverse and varied childhoods within the contexts of political changes and conflicts in the region. This proposed special issue aims to provide a forum for these issues to be reported.

We are seeking abstract submissions that address the following objectives:

• Detail unheard research stories of children and young people’s lives in the MENA region;

• Recognise the diversities of childhood experiences in the region related to dimensions of difference and intersectionality;

• Challenge pathologising and stereotyped understandings of children and young people living in MENA countries;

• Problematise media representations of young people’s involvement in political struggles in the region;

• Identify and understand challenges in respect of children and young people’s rights and universal rights-based approaches based on the UNCRC in the MENA countries;

• Consider ways in which professional education can enhance rights-based practices with and for children and young people;

• Explore ways in which it is possible to effect policy changes for children and young people in the MENA region.

Please submit proposed titles and abstracts of no more than 500 words to Debbie Watson (corresponding editor) who will also be happy to discuss abstract ideas with potential authors.

Schedule

Abstracts submitted (500 words) May 15th 2014

Decision on papers to be included and notification to authors June 2014

Submission of first draft of paper Sept 30th 2014

Decision on papers and feedback to authors Nov 2014

Authors to submit final papers to editors Jan 30th 2015

Review all papers and finalize March 2015

To the publisher by April 15th 2015

References

AMMAR, N. H. (2009) The Relationship Between Street Children and the Justice System in Egypt. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 53, 556-573.

CAMPANTE, F. R. & CHOR, D. (2012) Why was the Arab world poised for revolution? Schooling, economic opportunities, and the Arab spring. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26, 167-187. ELKOUSSI, A. & BAKHEET, S. (2011) Volatile substance misuse among street children in Upper Egypt. Substance Use & Misuse, 46, 35-39.

EZBAWY, Y. A. (2012) The Role of the Youth’s New Protest Movements in the January 25th Revolution. IDS Bulletin, 43, 26-36.

GIBBONS, J. (2012) Roadmaps for social transformation: Arab spring. The Second ISA Forum of Sociology (August 1-4, 2012). Isaconf.

HASSAN, K. (2012) Making Sense of the Arab Spring: Listening to the voices of Middle Eastern activists. Development, 55, 232-238.

HERRERA, L. (2011) Egypt’s Revolution 2.0: The Facebook Factor, Jadaliyya

JOFFE, G. (2011) The Arab spring in North Africa: origins and prospects. The Journal of North African Studies, 16, 507-532.

KOTB, A. M., MOHAMED, A. G., ABDEL KHALEK, E. M. & YONES, D. A. (2011) Agricultural Labor among School Children in Rural Assiut, Egypt. Life Science Journal, 8, 332-339.

NADA, K. H. & EL DAW, A. S. (2010) Violence, abuse, alcohol and drug use, and sexual behaviors in street children of Greater Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt. Aids, 24, S39-S44.

STEPANOVA, E. (2011) The role of information communication technologies in the Arab Spring. PONARS Eurasia, 1-6.

WARDANY, Y. (2012) The Mubarak Regime’s Failed Youth Policies and the January Uprising, IDS Bulletin, 43, 37-46.

YOUNISS, J., BARBER, B. K. & BILLEN, R. M. (2013) Children in the garden of democracy: The meaning of civic engagement in today’s Egypt. JSSE-Journal of Social Science Education, 12.

New Books

New Book: Children’s Literature and New York City

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Children’s Literature and New York City
(Routledge, 2014), edited by Pádraic Whyte and Keith O’Sullivan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Childrens-Literature-York-City-Culture/dp/0415823021/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399037682&sr=1-2

This collection explores the significance of New York City in children’s literature, stressing literary, political, and societal influences on writing for young people from the twentieth century to the present day. Contextualized in light of contemporary critical and cultural theory, the chapters examine the varying ways in which children’s literature has engaged with New York City as a city space, both in terms of (urban) realism and as an ‘idea’, such as the fantasy of the city as a place of opportunity, or other associations. The collection visits not only dominant themes, motifs, and tropes, but also the different narrative methods employed to tell readers about the history, function, physical structure, and conceptualization of New York City, acknowledging the shared or symbiotic relationship between literature and the city: just as literature can give imaginative ‘reality’ to the city, the city has the potential to shape the literary text. This book critically engages with most of the major forms and genres for children/young adults that dialogue with New York City, and considers such authors as Margaret Wise Brown, Felice Holman, E. L. Konigsburg, Maurice Sendak, J. D. Salinger, John Donovan, Shaun Tan, Elizabeth Enright, and Patti Smith.

New Books

New Book – Childhood Deployed, by Susan Shepler

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Childhood Deployed: Remaking Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone
by Susan Shepler
NYU Press, 2014

“Essential reading for everyone who cares about the reintegration of young people who have associated with armed forces or groups. With the eye of a skilled anthropologist, Susan Shepler illuminates the enormity of the gap between Western understandings of childhood, recruitment, and reintegration and the lived experiences, beliefs, and values of young people as they navigate the complexities of post-conflict Sierra Leone.”
—Mike Wessells, Columbia University

E-book also available.

Childhood Deployed examines the reintegration of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone. Based on eighteen months of participant-observer ethnographic fieldwork and ten years of follow-up research, the book argues that there is a fundamental disconnect between the Western idea of the child soldier and the individual lived experiences of the child soldiers of Sierra Leone. Susan Shepler contends that the reintegration of former child soldiers is a political process having to do with changing notions of childhood as one of the central structures of society.

For most Westerners the tragedy of the idea of “child soldier” centers around perceptions of lost and violated innocence. In contrast, Shepler finds that for most Sierra Leoneans, the problem is not lost innocence but the horror of being separated from one’s family and the resulting generational break in youth education. Further, Shepler argues that Sierra Leonean former child soldiers find themselves forced to strategically perform (or refuse to perform) as the“child soldier” Western human rights initiatives expect in order to most effectively gain access to the resources available for their social reintegration. The strategies don’t always work—in some cases, Shepler finds, Western human rights initiatives do more harm than good.

While this volume focuses on the well-known case of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, it speaks to the larger concerns of childhood studies with a detailed ethnography of people struggling over the situated meaning of the categories of childhood. It offers an example of the cultural politics of childhood in action, in which the very definition of childhood is at stake and an important site of political contestation.

Susan Shepler is Associate Professor of International Peace and Conflict Resolution in the School of International Service at American University in Washington D.C.

Events

Should we teach parenting?

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Faculti Live

Charlotte Faircloth will be chairing a Faculti LIVE event ‘Should we teach parenting?’ at the House of Commons in London on 14th May. Panellists include Professor Rosalind Edwards (Southampton), Professor Val Gillies (LSBU), John Hemming MP, Jennifer Howze (Britmums) and Naomi Eisenstadt (Oxford/Surestart). This event is free to attend, but booking is required.

Further information and tickets here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1QF93Cf1GzA

Dr Charlotte Faircloth
Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, University of Kent
Families and Social Capital Research Group, Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, LSBU

Publications, Resources

New Issue of ‘Play and Folklore’

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Dear Folklore enthusiasts,

We are delighted to advised that the April 2014 issue of ‘Play and Folklore’ is now up on line. We do hope that you enjoy our latest publication.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/pages/53398/play_and_folklore_no.61_april_2014.pdf

Kindest Regards,

Play and Folklore Team
Museum Victoria

Events

Can children contribute to decisions that affect their lives?

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Wednesday 4 June

4-5.30pm, Greenbank Building, room 201

Can children contribute to decisions that affect their lives? A sharing of the experience of using Action Research approaches with children, parents / guardians and community leaders in two communities in Uganda

Presenter: Hilda Nankunda, PhD student, School of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire

For more information, download the poster here: 4 June Hilda Nankunda POSTER

Seminar is free. Refreshments provided.

To reserve a place go to EventBrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/school-seminar-can-children-contribute-to-decisions-that-affect-their-live-tickets-11221145749