2024 Taiwan Children’s Literature Research Association (TCLRA) International Conference

Kids and Adults Allowed: Children’s Literature for Everyone

Keynote Speaker: Kenneth Kidd, University of Florida

Soochow University, Taipei 

23 November 2024

Deadline for abstracts: 25 February 2024

Call for Papers

Children’s literature and our understanding of it is becoming increasingly complex. The assumption that young people benefit from stories that have characteristics different from those read by adults is not something to be taken for granted. Some have argued, for example, that the ease of access to wide ranging knowledge via television and the internet has erased the division between adult and child. Others contend that children’s literature is a misnomer because they believe the texts labeled as such really only serve adults’ interests. Certainly adults control the creation and dissemination of this literature. Meanwhile, they seem to be increasingly enjoying it, so much so, that adults can now enjoy “children’s books” written exclusively for them, as explored by Michelle Ann Abate in No Kids Allowed: Children’s Literature for Adults (2020). 

Much of the delight that children’s literature offers to readers of all ages comes through creatively experimenting with format and multiple modes of representation. Picturebooks and graphic narratives can make complex ideas easier to understand, and add layers of visual complexity to seemingly simple stories. Such features serve the interests of divergent age groups. Kenneth Kidd, for example, finds that children’s books often do the work of philosophy as well as contribute to the way philosophy is often learned by adults. Some of the most poignant cultural critiques revolve around children’s texts and have been presented through the perceiving eye of child narrators. 

Children’s books tend to be shorter than adult texts and linguistically simpler while still employing rich, poetic language and exploring consequential issues. Such features can stimulate meaningful foreign and second language learning for students of any age. Children’s literature may never have been completely the domain of the child. Still, scholars, educators, publishers, and readers continue to find and reinvent ways in which texts broadly categorized as children’s literature can be used and appropriated by people of all ages. This conference seeks to explore the features and uses of children’s literature for divergent ages, purposes, and people groups.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Crossover literature
  • Children’s & YA literature in language education
  • Changing concepts of childhood in children’s & YA literature
  • Appeal of children’s & YA literature to adults
  • Comics and Graphic narratives (novels, biography, history, manga, etc.)
  • Graphic instructional literature
  • Adaptations of children’s & YA literature to film and videogames
  • Children’s literature meant for adults
  • Inter- and cross- generational relationships in children’s literature
  • Challenging and controversial topics in texts for children
  • Children’s & YA literature in cultural studies
  • Fanfiction
  • Use of children’s & YA literature by scholars
  • Radical children’s & YA literature
  • Teaching literary criticism through children’s & YA literature
  • Folk literature and fairy tales
  • Multicultural and international children’s & YA literature
  • Mainstream literature used with or read by children
  • Literature written by child and young adult writers

Important Dates:

  • 25 February 2024: Abstract submission deadline
  • 18 March 2024: Notice of acceptance
  • 15 October 2024: Revised abstract
  • 23 November 2024: Conference Date

Important Points:

  • Please submit proposals of no more than 350 words (include 5 keywords) for 20-minute panel presentations to the following email address: tclra2024@gmail.com
  • Submissions should be in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format.
  • Include a personal biography of no more than 100 words.
  • It is expected that all presentations will be made in person.
  • Conference Website:  http://english.scu.edu.tw/tclra2024

 

Call for papers: 2023 Fall Symposium with TCLRA & Tunghai University. Please consider submitting your abstracts. Details can be found in the followings.

2023 Fall Symposium CFP

代公告 CFP

MLA 2023: CFPs for the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Forum

MLA 2023: Children’s and LA Literature Forum

Proposed Panels:

Working Towards the Speculative Future
This panel explores how speculative fiction for younger readers works towards creating a future free of racial injustice, gender-based and sexual violence. 250-word abstract and 2-page CV to Marcus Haynes at mhaynes3@ggc.edu.
(non-guaranteed session)

Deadline for submissions: 15 March 2022

Adapting for Children
This roundtable explores questions that emerge when texts are adapted for children, paying particular attention to diverse representations. Please submit a short biography and 250-word abstract to Meghann Meeusen and Allen Redmon at adaptingforchildrenMLA2023@gmail.com.
(non-guaranteed collaborative session)

Deadline for submissions: 7 March 2022

Pandemic Childhoods
How has the Covid-19 pandemic changed or disrupted the contours of childhood both as a cultural concept and a lived experience? Please submit 300-word abstract and 2-page CV to Brie Owen at gowen3@unl.edu.
(guaranteed session)

Deadline for submissions: 10 March 2022

Environmental Justice in Young People’s Literature
What are the intersections of environmental and social justice in young people’s literature? Please submit a 300-word abstract and 2-page CV by March 15 to Nathalie op de Beeck at nathalie.opdebeeck@plu.edu. (guaranteed session)

Deadline for submissions: 15 March 2022