Job Postings

Assistant Professor in Children’s Literature position

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The School of English (Trinity College Dublin) seek to appoint an Ussher Assistant Professor in Children’s Literature. The candidate will have a demonstrable track record of experience and expertise in archival research and working with collections. The successful candidate will join an established team serving exceptionally high demand for teaching at undergraduate level, a well-established full-time one year Masters course, and, eventually, extending the School’s capacity for supervision at PhD level. The candidate will work with Prof Pádraic Whyte on continuing to develop graduate research culture in the field generally. The candidate will dedicate one day per week to working directly with the Library, developing research opportunities in relation to the Pollard Collection of Children’s Books. The candidate will particularly engage in developing the School’s outreach concerning Children’s Literature.

Appointment will be made at a maximum of the 8th point of the New Assistant Professor Merged Salary Scale.

Candidates wishing to discuss the post informally should contact:
Ms. Ruth Archbold, School Administrative Manager, School of English by email: ARCHBOLR@tcd.ie

Applications will only be accepted through e-recruitment

Further information and application details can be found at: https://jobs.tcd.ie

Closing date for receipt of completed applications is:
no later than 12 Noon GMT on Thursday 14th January, 2016

Calls for Papers: Conferences

CFP – Childhood and Youth Network SSHA 2016

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We invite you to participate in the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association by submitting a paper or session proposal to the Childhood and Youth Network of the SSHA. The conference will take place November 17-20, 2016 in Chicago, IL. For more information on the conference as well as the general call for proposals, please refer to the SSHA website: http://www.ssha.org. The deadline for full panel or individual paper proposals is February 20, 2016.

The association particularly emphasizes interdisciplinary and transnational research, and the annual meeting provides a very supportive environment in which to present new work. The theme of the 2016 conference is “Beyond Social Science History: Knowledge in an Interdisciplinary World,” though papers on any other aspects of the history of childhood and youth are also certainly welcome. Complete panels must include at least 4 papers and presenters from more than one academic institution. Other formats, including roundtable discussions and book sessions, are also possible. Please do get in touch with the network chairs if you have an idea for a session but need help gathering presenters.

Proposals can be submitted by means of a web conference management system at http://ssha.org. If you haven’t used the system previously you will need to create an account, which is a very simple process. Graduate students presenting at the conference may apply for a travel grant from the SSHA (http://www.ssha.org/grants).

Let us know if you need any help making a submission or advice about a proposal. If you have any questions, please contact the Childhood and Youth network co-chairs:

Emily Bruce: bruce088@umn.edu
Anna Kuxhausen: kux@stolaf.edu
Ataçan Atakan: atacanatakan88@gmail.com

Possible themes suggested at the 2015 Childhood and Youth network meeting include:

  • child refugees
  • girlhood in comparative perspective
  • postcolonial theory in childhood studies
  • childhood illness in graphic memoirs
  • adoption
  • childhood and the history of emotions
  • parenting and experts in an interdisciplinary world
  • children in revolutions; childhood and war
  • youth and disability
  • queer childhoods
  • performativity and childhood
  • children’s literature
  • state-child relations
  • childhood and religion
  • race, class and childhood
Events

Seminar – Childhood and the Postcolonial: An Ethnographic Exploration

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Please join us for a lunchtime seminar hosted by the Childhood and Gender Stream, Social Science Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education:

Childhood and the Postcolonial: An Ethnographic Exploration

Sarada Balagopalan (Rutgers University)

Discussant: Kirrily Pells (UCL Institute of Education)

Monday, 18th January 2016, 12.30-14.00
Room 736, UCL IOE, 20 Bedford Way, London

Normative constructions of ‘childhood’ often tend to rehash well-known debates on modernity – a majority of childhoods in the global South are usually found to be ‘lacking’/lagging and all solutions/transformations are a re-enactment of shifts that have already taken place in children’s lives in the modern west.  In contrast to this reading, my book Inhabiting ‘Childhood’: Children, Labour and Schooling in Postcolonial India employed a ‘postcolonial’ lens to critically rethink the ‘difference’ that laboring children signify.  In my talk I will draw upon this ethnography with street children in Kolkata, India to discuss two separate, though interconnected, ways in which a postcolonial lens opens up our current understandings of marginal children’s lives.  The first is by locating these contemporary lives within a longer history of colonial modernity and postcolonial development, and thereby re-reading the ‘child’ as a critical and productive site in the working out of a different modernity.  The second is through using postcolonial theory to critically discuss the circulation of liberal categories – like rights, protection, agency – which are increasingly deployed around these categories of children.  By focusing on the postcolony as a conceptual, rather than a descriptive, lens through which to read the lives of children, I hope to discuss the potential in theorizing childhoods ethnographically.

Sarada Balagopalan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, USA. Her book Inhabiting ‘Childhood’: Children, Labour and Schooling in Postcolonial India was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.

Kirrily Pells is a Lecturer in Childhood at UCL Institute of Education. Her research focuses on the social study of childhoods globally especially in relation to poverty, rights and violence.

For further information about the seminar, contact r.rosen@ioe.ac.uk.

Calls for Papers: Publishing

CFP Research methodologies with migrant families, children & youth in diverse contexts

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Extended deadline for the submission of papers: 20th January 2016

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of REVISTA MIGRACIONES (University Institute of Studies on Migrations, UPCO)

Rationale

Research on the processes and experiences of incorporation of migrant families and their children (the so called 1.5 and/or 2nd generation) has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and from countries in the Global South and North. Undertaking this type of research may require departing from traditional methodologies employed to study group dynamics of integration or (segmented) assimilation, and adopt instead approaches that can capture the everyday life experiences of migrant families (and different generation participants) and their processes of social, cultural and psychological adaptation in increasingly diverse societies. These approaches may entail, for example, using person-centred techniques such as visual, creative or narrative methods or participatory approaches which can bring to the fore young and adult participants’ own perspectives, or tools which can assist in understanding the psychological dimensions of processes of acculturation across dominant and non-dominant population groups.

Although literatures considering these methodologies (from a range of disciplines) are well developed, there is a need for further insights into the practical and ethical challenges and benefits of using these types of approaches when working with later generation children and young people and their families in diverse contexts. This special issue aims to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on these types of research practices and therefore invites contributions that consider both theoretical and ethical aspects of everyday life methodologies, but also practical issues of access, recruitment of participant families and later generation children and the types of barriers or challenges found ‘in the field’.  Some areas of interest are (but are not limited to):

·         Methodological challenges of designing and devising person-centred tools for research, comparison or evaluation with later generation young people and their families

·         Issues encountered when trying to gain access to families and young people who have not commonly participated in studies and for which they may be primary and exploratory sources

·         Practical issues that arise from accessing ‘hard-to-reach’ families and children (e.g. migrant populations that may appear ‘invisible’ due to their socio-economic characteristics, status or ‘statistical  invisibility’)

·         Theoretical/ethical issues that arise from working with and across family groups when using participatory and/or innovative methods (e.g. drawings, vignettes, children’s role plays, etc.)

·         Ethical and reflective practices of working with the families of later generation young people

·         Cross-cultural issues, experiences and reflections from the interaction between researchers and young and adult participants.

Submission Procedure

Articles should be submitted in full and have a maximum length of 8,000 words including references, tables and graphs (Microsoft Word document, Times New Roman font 12pt, 1.5 line space). Articles have to be original and not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

They must be written in English and must meet the editorial requirements of the journal Migraciones – please see Authors’ Guidelines at:

http://revistas.upcomillas.es/index.php/revistamigraciones/pages/view/revista-migraciones-call-for-papers 

The academic coordinators of the special issue will pre-select the articles to be put forward for full peer review. Articles will be selected according to their compatibility with the special issue’s focus and concordance with its thematic coverage and its diversity of perspectives/disciplines. The Academic coordinators are the last responsible for final acceptance of manuscripts.

New deadline:  Please submit your paper to: monografico2G@comillas.edu  by 20th January 2016.

Please also use this email to send any questions you may have with copy to: R.MasGiralt@hud.ac.uk and M.Montero@uva.nl

Calls for Papers: Conferences

CFP – Exploring Diversity in Children’s Literature, Librarianship, and Education

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Many Worlds to Walk In:
Exploring Diversity in Children’s Literature, Librarianship, and Education
Call for Paper Proposals
Deadline for submission: February 15, 2016
A peer-reviewed graduate student conference on children’s literature, media, and culture
University of British Columbia – Saturday, April 30, 2016
Many Worlds to Walk In: Exploring Diversity in Children’s Literature, Librarianship, and Education is a one-day conference on April 30, 2016 showcasing graduate student research in children’s literature. You are invited to submit an academic paper proposal that contributes to research in the area of children’s and young adult literature, librarianship, education, media, or cultural studies. Submissions of creative writing for children and young adults are also welcome. We are particularly interested in research and creative pieces that draw on the broadly interpreted theme of diversity–including research on narratives that depict diversity and the diverse formats we use to create and share narratives.
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• Diverse theoretical perspectives on children’s and young adult literature (e.g. postcolonial, feminist, queer, eco-critical approaches)
• Multiculturalism and stories of underrepresented, marginalized, or disabled populations
• Underrepresented formats of stories for children and young adults (graphic novel, picture book app, etc.)
• Inclusive programming and services in children’s librarianship and education
• Indigenous and aboriginal narratives
• Oral storytelling and sign language storytelling
• Newcomer, refugee, and immigrant narratives
• Otherness and trans-national identities
• Problematic interpretations and definitions of diversity
• Diversity within genres: boundary-pushing books, films, etc.
• Cross-media adaptations of children’s and young adult texts
• Translated and multilingual texts for children and young adults
• Resources and services for multilingual readers and families
• Empathy-building through story
• Imagined identities: diversity in fantasy, created worlds
• Multiple perspectives on historical events (Holocaust narratives, etc.)
The topics above are a guideline for the proposals we would like to see, but we are eager to receive paper proposals on any facet of diversity in children’s and young adult texts.
Academic Paper Proposals
Please send a 250 word abstract that includes the title of your paper, a list of references in MLA format, a 50 word biography, your name, your university affiliation, email address, and phone number to the review committee at submit.ubc.conference@gmail.com. Please include “Conference Proposal Submission” in the subject line of your email.
Creative Writing Proposals
Submissions of creative writing for children and young adults in any genre are welcome, including novel chapters, poetry, picture books, graphic novels, scripts, etc.  Please send a piece of work no longer than 12 pages double spaced. (Anything shorter is welcome– poetry, for example, might only be a page). The submission should include the title of your piece, a 150 word overview of your piece (describe age group, genre, and links to the conference theme), a list of references in MLA format (if you have any), a 50 word biography, your name, your university affiliation, email address, and phone number. Please send to the review committee at submit.ubc.conference@gmail.com. Please put “Creative Conference Proposal Submission” in the subject line of your email.
For more info, please contact ubc.conference.2016@gmail.com. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you this spring!
Calls for Papers: Conferences

CFP – Youngsters: On the Cultures of Children and Youth

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20-22 October 2016
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
Unceded Coast Salish Territory–Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations
Confirmed Keynotes
  • Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Professor, Chair of Modern Media and Culture, Brown University)
  • Steven Bruhm (Robert and Ruth Lumsden Professor of English, Western University)
  • Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Author, Activist, and member of the Alderville First Nation)

The Association for Research in the Cultures of Young People invites proposals for an inaugural conference in the field of children’s and youth cultural studies.  While scholars have been producing exciting work in the field for decades, that work has found itself positioned most often under the umbrella of other fields, including children’s literature, education studies, sociology, media studies, or cultural studies itself.  This conference seeks to establish itself as a biannual event to draw together scholars from these diverse fields to showcase and discuss the astonishing breadth of interdisciplinary scholarship in children’s and youth cultural studies.

We therefore welcome approaches to the study of childhood and children’s and youth cultures from an array of disciplines, fields, and historical periods, including work deploying a wide range of methodologies and theoretical approaches. Themes and topics may include:

  • The Racialization of Childhood Media Darlings
  • The Spoils of Childhood Child’s Play
  • Children’s and Youth Spaces Tender Travellers
  • The International Child Theory’s Children
  • Youth Labours Youth Subcultures and Scenes
  • Methodologies of Child and Youth Reproduction and/as Ideology
  • Archiving Young People The Problems and Futures of Sex-Ed
  • Criminal Youth and Child Perpetrators Animated Childhoods
  • Indigenous Youth Cultures Out of the Mouths of Babes
  • Pedagogy and Its Discontents Sonic Youth: Where Sound Meets Subculture
  • Cultures of Risk Baby Cultures
  • Queer and Trans Childhoods Kinder Gardens: The Child in Ecocriticism

Submission Guidelines
Individual Submissions:

All individual proposals must be submitted by email to admin@arcyp.ca by 11:59pm PST on January 15, 2016. Please use the following format for the subject line of your email: “Proposal Last Name First Name” (eg. Proposal Woodson Jacqueline). Please assist us by attaching a single document in .DOC, or .DOCX format only with the following information in exactly the order listed below:

  • Paper Title.
  • Name; institutional affiliation; position or title; degrees and granting institutions; email address; and phone number.
  • Abstract of the content and rationale of the paper: up to 300 words. (Presentation time for papers is 20 minutes maximum)
  • Brief (2-3 sentence) scholarly biography of presenter.
  • Indicate any audiovisual needs or special accommodations.

Panel Proposals:
Final panel proposals, including proposals for no more than three individual presenters (formatted as above) are due by no later than 11:59pm MST on January 15, 2016. Papers not accepted by panel organizers may be resubmitted to the general call for consideration provided they meet the above deadline. Please respond to all submissions in a prompt and courteous manner. Please use the following format for the subject line of your email: “Panel Last Name First Name” (eg. Panel Rowling J.K.). Please assist us by attaching a single document in .DOC, or .DOCX format only with the following information in exactly the order listed below:

  • Panel Title.
  • Name; institutional affiliation; position or title; degrees and granting institutions; email address; and phone number
  • Copy of the panel proposal (up to 150 words).
  • Brief (2-3 sentence) scholarly biography of organizer.
  • Indicate any audiovisual needs or special accommodations.
  • Three proposed papers & related information formatted as above under “Individual Submissions”

The Conference Review Committee is open to considering creative panel submissions, and would ask that those interested in submitting such a proposal contact the Committee directly at admin@arcyp.ca prior to submission.