CfP: Herbsttagung der ÖG-KJLF 2025

Geschichtserzählende Kinder- und Jugendliteratur seit 1933

Ort: IWK, Berggasse 17, A-1090 Wien
Zeitraum: 24. und 25. Oktober 2025

CfP

Eggert bezeichnet den historischen Roman als eine Form, in der „geschichtliche Personen, Ereignisse und Lebensverhältnisse narrativ in fiktionalen Konstruktionen dargestellt werden.“ (Eggert 2000, 55). Innerhalb der Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung unterscheidet man zwischen dem historischen und dem zeitgeschichtlichen Roman, einem Genre, das erst seit den 1960er Jahren besteht und „als zentrales Kriterium die fiktionale Thematisierung von Zeitgeschichte oder zumindest den „konkrete[n] zeitgeschichtlichen Hintergrund“ benennt (Dahrendorf 1997, 205). Beide Formen setzen sich mit historischen Ereignissen auseinander. Dabei blickt der historische Roman für jugendliche Leser*innen auf eine längere Gattungsgeschichte zurück, ist seit dem ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert auf dem kinder- und jugendliterarischen Markt präsent und wurde zu Beginn des „19. Jahrhunderts zu einem der populärsten und zugleich auflagenstärksten Genres innerhalb der sich mehr und mehr ausdifferenzierenden Jugendliteratur“ (Glasenapp 2011, 271). In der Zeit der Weimarer Republik nahm die Produktion ab, dennoch existieren sowohl in diesem Jahrzehnt als auch in der Zeit nach 1933 historische Romane für jüngere Leser*innen. Im Exil entfachte eine Debatte um den historischen Roman, die auch die Jugendliteratur betraf. Nach 1945 entstanden historische Romane in der DDR, in der BRD und in Österreich.

Innerhalb der aktuellen Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung wird der historische Kinder- und Jugendroman des 20. Jahrhunderts seltener beachtet. Die Forschung fokussiert auf den zeitgeschichtlichen Roman, jüngere Publikationen setzen sich mit historischem Erzählen in der Gegenwartsliteratur auseinander (Bernhardt/Standke) oder diskutieren das historische Wissen im Rahmen einer Literatur- und Geschichtsdidaktik (Massanek/Kumschlies).

Die geplante Tagung rückt den historischen Roman für jüngere Leser*innen seit 1933 in den Fokus. Dabei können folgende Aspekte behandelt werden:

• Wie beeinflussen die Debatten um den historischen Roman die Kinder- und Jugendliteratur des Exils und Nachexils?
• Welche Themen und Motive werden in der geschichtserzählenden Kinder- und Jugendliteratur behandelt?
• Welche Funktionen hatte und hat die geschichtserzählende Kinder- und Jugendliteratur?
• Wie entwickelt sich der historische Roman in Ost und West?
• Welche Darstellungen von gender finden sich in den Texten?

Wir bitten um Beitragsvorschläge im Umfang von max. 1 Seite zu historischen Romanen und Erzählungen bis 15. April 2025 an oegkjlf@univie.ac.at mit dem Betreff „Tagungsvorschlag“. Bitte fügen Sie auch eine kurze Biografie bei. Rückmeldungen erfolgen bis 1. Mai 2025.

in Kooperation mit der Universität Siegen 
Organisation: Dr. Susanne Blumesberger, Dr. Jana Mikota

Literatur:

• Dahrendorf, Malte: Das zeitgeschichtliche Kinder- und Jugendbuch zum Thema Faschismus/Nationalsozialismus. Überlegungen zum gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert, zur Eigenart und zur Didaktik. In: Kinderliteratur, literarische Sozialisation und Schule. Hrsg. von Bernhard Rank und Cornelia Rosebrock. Weinheim: Deutschen Studien Verl. 1997. 201–226.
• Glasenapp, Gabriele: Geschichtliche und zeitgeschichtliche Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. In: Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Gegenwart. Grundlagen, Gattungen, Medien, Lesesozialisation und Didaktik. Hrsg. von Günter Lage. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Hohengehren 2011, 269-289.
• Eggert, Hartmut: Historischer Roman. In: Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Neubearbeitung des Reallexikons der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. Bd. 2, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter 2000, 55.

CfP: Strenae N°28, 2026

"The fabrics of childhood: interaction, imagination and learning"

The socialisation of the child aims to imbue them with the principles that underpin our social identities and conventions (Quentel, 1997). At birth the child is wrapped in clothes and experiences their first sensory contact with the world and culture. Textiles are introduced into the child’s environment in multiple forms, as useful materials that are easy to access, manipulate and are polymorphous. Exploring the textures of textiles forms part of children’s sensory education, through touch, sounds and unexpected tastes, and the development of their fine motor skills. Playing with the forms of textiles encourages children to invent, create and innovate as part of their acculturation. 

Thus, textiles occupy a central place in the processes of socialising the child (Winnicott, 1971). Textiles made by adults, such as clothes and linen, toys and books are all objects that share a socializing function, be it educational or playful. As the child makes sense of the world, invoking their capacities to act and interact (Qvortrup, 2005), they use these materials to transform their environment in often spontaneous and novel ways: sheets are used for dress-up, for den-making, they can become toys, inspire stories or be used in pretend games. Understanding these interactions gives us direct access to the mechanisms of acculturation, and offers a perspective on children’s interpretation of the society In history, as well as today around the globe, sparse but significant occurrences demonstrate how adults can be inspired by this child-led approach to the world to create a nurturing, as well as educational environment for the child (Le Guennec, 2020). 

This special issue seeks to explore the diversity of uses and the rich socialising as well as creative potential of textiles in childhood, and to draw connections between the different components of the material culture of childhood in which textiles are omnipresent (Arleo & Delelande, 2004). We are looking for articles that use inter- and trans-disciplinary research methods, and practice-led research based on direct engagement with children, in order to shed new light on children’s interactions with the material culture created for them by adults, such as clothes, household linen, toys and books. Analysing the ways children appropriate and reinvent these objects will reveal the benefits that using textiles can bring to a material environment, guided by specific educational and sociological principals. Finally, building on the reflections begun in issue number 4 of Strenae, this special issue will consider different periods in history and contribute to the writing of a history of children's material culture which, since the mid-18th century, has intersected with that of the textile industry. It will take into account and enrich the pre-existing scholarly methods for analysing and reading cultural artefacts (Roche, 1989 and 1997).

This call is open to all specialists in the field of the material culture of childhood (scholars of childhood studies, children’s literature and media, designers, artists, early childhood specialists, educators), museum and cultural heritage professionals, and scholars from any discipline or research area, where their research or practice looks at textiles and takes into consideration the child’s point of view - their desires and their questions. We are particularly interested in research which analyses children’s direct interactions with their material culture, whether clothing or objects made out of textiles. 

Articles may focus on current practices and objects, as well as their history, and cover (without being limited to) the following themes:

• Textiles and clothes in childhood and children’s material culture
• Children’s spontaneous interactions with their clothes, at school or in the home (eg. experimenting with ways of wearing clothes, or with dressing up)
• Creative and educational practices at school and in the home using textiles and garments
• Making clothes: crafts and DIY in childhood
• Children, their clothes and their imaginary
• Textiles in children’s books
• The creative practices of textile designers working with children
• The place and role of children in collecting and interpreting textile and clothing heritage collections. 

Proposals (up to 500 words) in French or English should be submitted by 15 April 2025, to the Strenæ journal at strenae@afreloce.fr, accompanied by a brief biography and bibliography.

The editorial board of the journal will review these proposals. Authors will be promptly notified of the acceptance or rejection of their submissions. Complete articles (up to 30,000 characters, including spaces) must be submitted by 15 October 2025, and can be written in English or French. Publication is scheduled for the first half of 2026.

Bibliografie

• Arléo, Andy, et Delalande, Julie, Culture enfantine, Rennes, P.U.R., 2004.
• Join-Diéterle, Catherine, Tétart-Vittu, Françoise, La mode et l’enfant, 1780-2000, Paris, éditions Paris-musées, 2001.
• Lange, Alexandra, The design of Childhood, New-York, Bloomsbury, 2018.
• Le Guennec, Aude, Rose, Clare, « Children’s clothing collections, problems and perspectives », in Le vêtement et la mode : un patrimoine incarné, In Situ, 52, 2024, https://doi.org/10.4000/insitu.40164
• Le Guennec, Aude, and Coutant, Nicolas, Dressed for School / S’habiller pour l’école, Rouen, Canopé, 2023.
• Le Guennec, Aude, Rose, Clare, Barbu, Laetitia, Hartmann-Bragard, Anne-Charlotte, Nygren, Maija and Sekhon Dhilon, Yasmin, « Towards an Informed, Participative and Sustainable Approach of Children's Fashion and Clothing: IN2FROCC in Action », in Frankel, S. (ed.), Establishing Child Centred Practice in a Changing World, Emerald, 2022.
• Le Guennec, Aude, “Children Fashion - socialisation and education through clothing”, in Manlow, V. et al. (ed.), The Companion to Fashion Studies, Routledge, 2021.
• Le Guennec, Aude, “Guise et déguisement. L’enfant acteur vestimentaire dans la France moderne et contemporaine”, in Vinel, Virginie et Zaltron, Francesca (dir.). Modèles d’enfance joués et déjoués, Revue des Sciences Sociales, 64, 2020. 
• Le Guennec, Aude, « Du musée à la thèse : vers un modèle d’étude du vêtement de l’enfant », in Tétralogiques, n°23, 2018, Le modèle médiationniste de la technique, URL : https://www.tetralogiques.fr/spip.php?article90
• Quentel, Jean-Claude, L’enfant : Problèmes de genèse et d’histoire, Paris-Bruxelles, De Boek Université, 1997.
• Qvortrup, Jens (ed.), Studies in modern childhood: society, agency, culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
• Renonciat, Annie et Manson, Michel, dossier « La Culture matérielle de l’enfance, un nouvel horizon de recherche », Strenae, n°4, 2012, https://journals.openedition.org/strenae/600
• Roche, Daniel, La culture des apparences. Une histoire du vêtement XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 1989.
• Roche, Daniel, Histoire des choses banales. Naissance de la consommation XVIIe-XIXe siècle, Paris, Fayard, 1997.
• Rubessi, Chiara, « Bruno Munari, la polysensorialité des livres pour la jeunesse », Appareil [Online], n°28, 2024, Online since 05 December 2024, connection on 10 February 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/appareil/8011; DOI:https://doi.org/10.4000/130v6https://doi.org/10.4000/130v6
• Vaclavik, Kiera and FIELD, Hannah (ed.), “Childhood and clothing”, Jeunesse,Toronto University Press, vol.15, issue 2., December 2023.
• Winnicot, Donald, Playing and Reality, London, Tavistock, 1971.

(Quelle: Aussendung)

CfP: Waste and Children’s Culture

Thematics, Aesthetics, Ethics

International hybrid workshop

Time: 23–24 October, 2025
Venue: Stockholm University, Sweden

CfP

Traditionally, children’s culture has been associated with pastoral and rural settings unaffected by urbanization and environmental degradation. Today, however, there is no place on Earth left untouched by the unwanted leftovers of human activity. We live in what Marco Armiero calls the Wasteocene, referring to a socio-economic system increasingly defined by its production of wasted things, people, and places. In line with this development, contemporary children’s culture is obsessed with waste, rubbish, and polluted environments. Like Oscar the Grouch in Sesame Street, it loves trash!

This international and interdisciplinary workshop wants to examine and trace the history of this change. It wants to disrupt traditional, nature centered perceptions of environmental children’s culture by turning its attention to waste – as theme, aesthetic attitude, and ethical tool. The workshop takes inspiration from Waste Studies, a growing interdisciplinary field of cultural analysis that expands traditional approaches of ecocriticism by focusing on decay, built environments, and toxic sites. Building on insights from writings on rubbish, garbage, and excrement – such as Purity and Danger (1966) by Mary Douglas, Wasted Lives (2004) by Zygmunt Bauman, On Garbage (2005) by John Scanlan, The Ethics of Waste (2005) by Gay Hawkins, The Literature of Waste (2015) by Susan S. Morrison, Waste and Re-Use in Twentieth-Century Fiction (2016) by Rachel Dini – it wants to destabilise expectations of what waste is and does to children’s culture. How is waste, trash, and pollution used as theme, metaphor, and/or environmental message? How is waste used as an aesthetical mode of artistic creation? What are the ethical implications and eco-pedagogical potential of waste? How could a waste-oriented approach to children’s culture provide valuable insights for the broader field of waste studies?

The purpose of the workshop is to bring together scholars of children’s culture, (e.g. children’s and YA literature, picture books, graphic novels, film and television, theater, play, education, history) from different countries who are in particular interested in the topic of waste. You can choose to participate in-person or join via livestream. The workshop is intended as a space for the development of projects and the proceedings will have a hybrid round-table format, with a 15-minute in-person or virtual presentation followed by a 15- minute round of comments and discussion. There will be an opportunity to develop papers into full articles as we are planning to submit a proposal for a collection to an international publisher. The Organizers invite international and historically diverse approaches which might consider topics such as:

• Representations of waste in children’s culture
• Waste motifs, metaphors, narratives, and forms
• Waste in children’s and YA literature, picturebooks, graphic novels, and poetry
• Waste in different genres such as climate fiction, dystopia, fantasy, and science fiction
• Wastelands, toxic sites, landfills, garbage dumps, ruins, and trashcans
• Hoarders and rubbish collectors
• Waste aesthetics in children’s culture
• Waste and avant-garde children’s culture
• Waste and pop art children’s culture
• Waste and children’s theater scenography
• Waste and children’s film and television
• Collage, assemblage, bricolage, objets trouvés
• Waste ethics in children’s culture
• The junk playground/adventure playground
• Children’s culture, waste, and eco-pedagogy
• Children’s culture, waste, and ecoliteracy
• Children’s culture and re-cycling
• Children’s culture and consumerism
• Children’s culture, environmental devastation, and pollution
• Waste and childhood discourses

The Organizers welcome submissions from established scholars, early-career researchers, and PhD- candidates. Participants should submit a title, an abstract of maximum 300 words, and a short bio.

Deadline for submissions: 28 May, 2025

Submit abstract to: Lydia Wistisen, lydia.wistisen@littvet.su.se  

Organizers:
Associate Professor Lydia Wistisen, Stockholm University
Professor Nina Goga, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Professor Lykke Guanio-Uluru, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

(Quelle: Aussendung)

CfP and Conference

"Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Children’s and Young Adult Literature"

Date: 12th – 14th November 2025
Venue: online 

CfP

In their introduction to Mothers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Postfeminism (2016), Karen Coats and Lisa Rowe Fraustino observe that “[w]hether living or dead, present or absent, sadly dysfunctional or happily good enough, the figure of the mother carries an enormous amount of freight across the emotional and intellectual life of a child” (3). Building on the work begun in the 2015 Special Issue of Children’s Literature in Education dedicated to representations of motherhood in children’s and young adult literature, Coats and Fraustino’s book intended to provide space for a range of critical approaches to mothers in children’s and young adult literature, thus beginning the process of filling a notable gap in the field; at the time, while work addressing mothers in children’s and young adult literature was slowly growing, it was also “scattered and lack[ed] cohesion” (11) and did not have the same “volume and quality of attention paid to mothers in other disciplines [such as] psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, women’s studies, and … literature for adults” (4). 

Nearly a decade on from this ground-breaking edited volume, the amount of scholarship addressing mothers and motherhood in children’s and young adult literature has steadily continued to increase. Significantly, there has been a noticeable flurry of new work in 2024, including two chapters in Family in Children’s and Young Adult Literature edited by Eleanor Spencer and Jade Dillon Craig; a chapter in Eating Cultures in Children’s Literature: National, International and Transnational Perspectives edited by Anna Gasperini et al.; and multiple journal articles. Research in this area, it appears, is reaching a crescendo. 

This online conference, hosted by the University of Münster, seeks to engage with this exciting moment in the field by facilitating scholarly conversations about how mothers, motherhood, and mothering are represented, mediated, and negotiated within children’s and young adult literature. While these conversations should be situated primarily within the fields of Children’s Literature Studies and Young Adult Studies, we are also interested in the intersections between these two fields and Motherhood Studies; in particular, as the title of the conference indicates, we are keen to explore the nuances of ‘motherhood’ and ‘mothering’ as defined by Adrienne Rich in her seminal work Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institution (1976).  As Andrea O’Reilly, the founder of Motherhood Studies, neatly summarises, “the term ‘motherhood’ refers to the patriarchal institution of motherhood that is male-defined and controlled and is deeply oppressive to women, while the word ‘mothering’ refers to women’s experiences of mothering that are female-defined and centred and potentially empowering to women” (From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born, 2). In a political landscape that is swinging ever-further to the Right, as currently seen in the West, and in an already-patriarchal world that is becoming increasingly hostile to women, it is more important than ever that we investigate and interrogate the narratives surrounding mothers, motherhood, and mothering in books for children and young people.

Submissions

Submissions on any topic pertaining to mothers, motherhood, and mothering within children’s and young adult literature are welcomed, including (but not limited to):

• The role of children’s and young adult literature in (re)producing cultural schemas and scripts for mothers
• Mothers, motherhood, and family, including mother figures and ‘found family’
• Queer or transgender mothers, or mothers who otherwise resist the heteropatriarchal institution of motherhood
• Motherhood and community, including ‘other-mothering’, particularly in non-Western cultures
• Mothers across genres (for example: romance, realism, dystopia, sci-fi, fantasy) and cultures
• Representations of adoption and fostering
• Sex, sexuality, and motherhood, including depictions of young and/or potential mothers and of pregnancy or motherhood as a negative consequence of teen sex
• Politics, the body, and (teen) motherhood, particularly regarding access to reproductive healthcare like contraception or abortion in countries such as the United States, Northern Ireland, India, Poland, and Brazil
• The role of religion in texts depicting mothers, motherhood, or mothering
• Rejecting or resisting motherhood
• Absent or aberrant mothers
• Ecocritical and/or ecofeminist approaches (mothers in/and nature; Mother Nature)
• Motherhood, patriarchy, and power
• Scholarly approaches to children’s and young adult literature at the intersection of Children’s Literature Studies, YA Studies, and Motherhood Studies, as well as other inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches.

To be considered, please send a proposal of no more than 250 words, a short biography of no more than 100 words, 3-5 keywords, and the time zone you will be in during the conference to jennifer.gouck@uni-muenster.de by Friday 2nd May 2025.  

Publication Opportunity

A number of the participants from this conference will be invited to submit a revised, book-chapter-length version of their paper to be published as part of the edited volume provisionally titled Mediating Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The collection will be submitted for inclusion in the series Palgrave Studies in Mediating Kinship, Representation, and Difference. Please indicate in your proposal if you are interested in this publication opportunity. 

More information on the series is available here: https://link.springer.com/series/15789 

Timeline

2nd May 2025 CFP Closes
June 2025 Notification of Outcome
Aug 2025 Speakers Confirm Attendance
Sept 2025 Conference Registration Opens
12th Nov – 14th Nov 2025 Online Conference

(Quelle: Aussendung)

CFP: Digital Childhoods – New Online Magazine From the Society for the History of Children and Youth

The Society for the History of Children and Youth is excited to introduce its new online magazine Digital Childhoods. A companion to the society’s peer-reviewed Journal for the History of Childhood and Youth (JHCY), Digital Childhoods offers a more informal and free-form space for sharing ideas and discoveries in the field. They hope this online space will grow to be a lively and accessible place that you will return to regularly.

There are currently three sections to the magazine:

Childish Things is an online gallery of objects that tell us something about childhood and youth around the world, from all periods of history. Each object or image has been chosen by a historian, curator or artist – sometimes from public museums and archives, and sometimes from their own lives and personal collections.

The Interview feature is an opportunity to hear more about the people and process behind articles in the JHCY. They discuss how authors discovered their topics, their frustrations and joys in writing, and hear their tips for researchers.

The Reviews section casts a considered eye onto works of contemporary public history, art, literature, podcasts, and more that deal with themes of youth and childhood.

Please do share the link to Digital Childhoods with others and consider contributing.

The Society for the History of Children and Youth cannot wait to hear your ideas!

Contact Information: Alice Sage and Hannah Stamler (<joomla-hidden-mail is-link="1" is-email="1" first="ZGlnaXRhbGNoaWxkaG9vZHM=" last="c2hjeS5vcmc=" text="ZGlnaXRhbGNoaWxkaG9vZHNAc2hjeS5vcmc=" base="">digitalchildhoods@shcy.org)</joomla-hidden-mail> 
https://shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/

(Quelle: Homepage kinderundjugendmedien)

CfP: Encyclopedia Entries – Canonical Children's Texts and Authors

The Children’s Literature Group is currently interested in proposals for entries on texts, authors, illustrators, editors, and librarians often considered canonical, crucial to historical study of children’s literature, and taught in college courses.

Possible Topics:

• Beverly Cleary
• Arnold Lobel
• Augusta Baker
• Beatrix Potter
• Dr. Seuss
• Eric Carle
• Mildred D. Taylor
• Eric Kimmel
• Robert Munsch
• Margaret Wise Brown
• Ezra Jack Keats
• Jon Scieszka
• Jane Yolen

For more information or to propose an entry, email Dainy Bernstein at dainybernstein@gmail.com.
Include: person or text of proposed entry, your CV a writing sample.

The Literary Encyclopedia publishes biographies of writers, illustrators, editors, librarians, etc.; scholarly descriptions of significant texts; and essays on literary, cultural, historical, and social contexts in which this writing was produced.

(Quelle: kinderundjugendmedien.de)