Calls for Papers: Conferences, Calls for Papers: Publishing

CFP: Research Initiative on Young Children in Refugee Families

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Call for Papers: Research Initiative on Young Children in Refugee Families

Submission deadline: May 30, 2014

The Migration Policy Institute’s (MPI) National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy is launching an interdisciplinary research initiative to examine the circumstances and well-being of young children in refugee families. While young children account for about one-fifth of U.S. refugee arrivals each year and many U.S.-born children live with refugee parents, research on refugees in the United States has largely focused on adults and their access to employment and social services. Less is known about the children of refugees and the risk and protective factors that promote their healthy development and academic success. The goal of the MPI research initiative is to encourage and support research on young children (birth to age 10) who are themselves refugees or who are the U.S.-born children of resettled refugee parents (i.e., the second generation).

As part of this work, MPI is soliciting papers by both established and young scholars working in forced migration, child development, education, public health, demography, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, economics, public policy, and other relevant fields. Papers documenting how these children are faring in the United States are welcomed, as are those offering comparisons between young children of refugees in the United States and other countries of resettlement, and those that shed light on the pre-resettlement experiences of first-generation refugee children resettled in the United States.

Support for this project has been provided by the Foundation for Child Development (FCD).

Paper Topics

The project’s broad areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, the topics below. Suggestions for other topics are welcomed and encouraged.

  • The living circumstances and well-being of young children of refugees, including family structure, housing conditions, caretaker human capital and employment, family income and poverty, and food security.
  • Geographic patterns of resettlement, including geographic isolation/concentration, residential segregation, secondary migration from initial resettlement locations, quality of early care and education as well as elementary education in receiving communities, and availability of health and social services.
  • Physical, mental, and behavioral health outcomes for young children in refugee families, refugees’ children with disabilities, physical and mental health of parents and other members of the extended family as they relate to caretaking, child health insurance coverage, health-care utilization, and utilization of mental health services.
  • Cognitive and socioemotional development of young children of refugees, their experiences in early care and education, preparation for school, and early experiences as well as achievement in school.
  • Educational progress and, for English Language Learners (ELLs), language acquisition and maintenance of home language.
  • Examination of the capacity, effectiveness, and changing roles of refugee resettlement agencies and other public and private institutions that integrate refugees and their children.
  • Climate of reception for refugee families, including discrimination, perceived discrimination, and their effects on identify formation and child/family well-being.
  • Evaluations of programs and interventions for young children of refugees, including programs specifically for refugees and their children and programs serving children of refugees as well as other children.
  • Studies of children in refugee families in the United States as compared to other countries of resettlement.
  • Predeparture living circumstances and experiences of refugee children later resettled in the United States, including access to formal education, health services, refugee camp experiences, and trauma exposure.

In all topic areas, papers that draw on data obtained through quantitative or qualitative methods with a national, local, or international comparative focus are welcomed.

Research Symposium and Publication

Selected papers will be presented at an interdisciplinary research symposium for scholars of this topic, hosted by MPI and FCD in November or December 2014, and subsequently widely disseminated as MPI publications. Authors will be expected to work with MPI staff both before and after the symposium to edit and finalize papers for publication.

Timeframe for Paper Proposals

All submissions must be made by May 30, 2014, with final drafts of selected papers due in September 2014.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit the following:

  • Preliminary title
  • Abstract up to 500 words
  • Brief description of data sources (qualitative or quantitative)
  • Brief description of population studied (age range, country of origin, and receiving country) and, if applicable, any comparison populations
  • Current CV or brief biography indicating any current affiliations for each author*

*Papers with multiple authors will be considered.

Honorarium: An honorarium of $2,000 will be offered for completed papers presented at the symposium.

Submit paper proposals and any questions electronically to:
Kristen McCabe
Migration Policy Institute
kmccabe@migrationpolicy.org
202-266-1933

New Books

New Book – Tweening the Girl

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Tweening the Girl:  The Crystallization of the Tween Market.  

By Natalie Coulter

Peter Lang:  Mediated Youth Series. 

http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=71179&concordeid=312175

Tweening the Girl, challenges the accepted argument that the tween market began in the mid-1990s.  It was actually during the 1980s that young girls were given the label, “tweens” and were heralded by marketers, and subsequently the news media, as one of “capitalism’s most valuable customers”.  Tweening the Girl, expertly traces the emergence of tween during this era as she slowly became known to the consumer marketplace as a lucrative customer, market and audience. It clearly illustrates how ‘tweenhood’ which is often assumed to be a natural category of childhood is actually a product of the industries of the youth media marketplace that began to position the preteen girl as a separate market niche that is notched out of the transitory spaces between childhood and adolescence. Relying predominantly upon a textual analysis of trade publications in the 1980s and early 1990s the book eloquently maps out the synergistic processes of the marketing, advertising, merchandising and media industries as they slowly began to take interest in the girl and began to define her as a tween; an empowered female consumer who is no longer a child but not quite a teen.
Natalie Coulter is an assistant professor of communication studies at York University.  She is a founding member of ARCYP (Association for Research on the Cultures of Young People) and has published in a number of journals including the Canadian Journal of Communication and Juenesse.
New Books

New Book: Kids on YouTube

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Kids on YouTube: Technical Identities and Digital Literacies

by Patricia G. Lange | Left Coast Press, 2014

https://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=500

The book describes what kids learn (and what they don’t) when they hang out on the ‘Tube.
Henry Jenkins did a multi-part blog interview series with the author:
Table of Contents
Chapter 1  Introduction: Ways With Video | 8
Chapter 2  Video-Mediated Friendships: specialization and Relational expertise | 32
Chapter 3  Girls Geeking out on YouTube | 63
Chapter 4  Mediated Civic engagement | 97
Chapter 5  Video-Mediated Lifestyles | 126
Chapter 6  Representational ideologies | 157
Chapter 7  On being self-Taught | 189
Chapter 8  Conclusion | 216
Appendix: Studying YouTube: An ethnographic Approach | 231
Calls for Papers: Publishing

CFP – The media’s evolving role in sex education – Sex Education Journal

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Sex Education journal — Special Issue

The Media’s Evolving Role in Sex Education

Entertainment media have long been identified as having a key role to play in education about sex and relationships.

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 24th 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 
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