CFP: Red Feather Journal [children's media culture] (Dec. 15)

Because sometimes comics are just for kids! --Gene

CFP: The premier issue of Red Feather Journal, an online, international, interdisciplinary journal of children's media culture. The first issue will be published February 1, 2010.

Red Feather Journal facilitates an international dialogue among scholars and professionals of the intersections between the child image and the conception of childhood, children's material culture, children and politics, the child body, and any other conceptions of the child within local, national, and global contexts. The journal invites critical and/or theoretical examination of the child image to further our understanding of the consumption, circulation, and representation of the child throughout the world's visual mediums.

The journal welcomes submissions that examine a broad range of medias: children's film, Hollywood film, international film, Television, the Internet, print resources, art, or any other visual medium.

Some sample topics include, but are certainly not limited to:

• studies of images of children of color
• child as commodity
• images of children in Africa, Asia, Middle East, South America, etc.
• political uses of the child image
• children in film
• children in advertising
• visual adaptations of children's literary works
• child welfare images
• children and war
• or any other critical examination of the child image in a variety of visual mediums

Red Feather Journal is published twice a year, in February and September, and adheres to the MLA citation system. Authors are welcome to submit articles in other citations systems, with the understanding that, upon acceptance, conversion to MLA is a condition of publication.

Interested contributors, please submit the paper, an abstract, and a brief biography as attachments in Word to debbieo[at]okstate.edu

Deadline for submissions for the premier issue is December 15th, 2009.

CFP: History of Books for Children and Young Adults, Bedford UK: April 17; June 16

Note the specific mention of comics and graphic novels.

The History of Books
for Children and Young Adults
University of Bedfordshire, Polhill Campus, Bedford UK
16th June 2009

The University of Bedfordshire is hosting a forthcoming one-day conference on the history of books for children and young adults to be held on the 16th June 2009 at the Polhill Campus, Bedford. The Hockliffe archive comprises works of fiction and non-fiction for children from the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These include a wide range of literary genres, from fables and fairy tales, through periodicals and instruction books, to poetry and fiction, as well as books on games and pastimes, natural science, history, mathematics, geography and travel (amongst others).

We do not, however, wish to restrict papers to work on books actually in the collection, although papers on these are of course very welcome, but instead we wish to use the conference as an occasion to celebrate the long and vibrant history of publications aimed at children and young adults, and the increasingly multi-disciplinary areas of research with which this has been associated. We therefore welcome contributions that centre on the following very broad topics and themes:

• Academic approaches to children’s, young adult (YA) and crossover literature.
• The history of children's book illustration, including work on picture books, comics and graphic novels.
• The representation of children and childhood in fiction and non-fiction.
• Multi-disciplinary work in the fields of childhood and youth studies.
• The history of instruction books for children, from bible stories and hymns, through books on history, geography and travel, to natural science and mathematics.
• Children's oral culture, including folklore, myths and legends.
• Pedagogic theory and practice, from ABC books, to postgraduate courses on children’s literature and culture and creative writing for young and YA readers.
• The history of children's play and leisure, including research on toys, games, and sports.
• Multi-media childhoods, including work on the history of children's television, film and computer games.

Please note that proposed papers from postgraduate students are welcome.

The day's proceedings will end with readings by one or more contemporary children's writers (please check the conference website for updates on this).

Other related topics and themes will be considered for inclusion in the conference programme. Please submit a 250 word abstract, accompanied by contact details and a brief biography, to be received by 17th April 2009, to the following address:

The Hockliffe Conference
c/o Dr Clare Walsh
Division of Performing Arts & English
University of Bedfordshire
Polhill Avenue
Bedford
MK41 9EA
Or by email to: hockliffe [at] beds.ac.uk