Conference Registration, Panelist List, and Programme Up!

Conference registration for the Place and Space in Children's Literature Conference, organized by the CLYCC, is now open at http://placeandspace.org/. This conference will take place on 27 -28 March, 2009 in Keble College, University of Oxford, and will feature the work of established academics and young scholars from around the world. Panels range from the place of Oxford in children's literature to text/image interplay in picture books to themes of postcolonial identity and cultural displacement in works for young people. There will also be a special session on working in the field of children's literature studies. More information on the panels, panelists, and conference programme can be found at http://placeandspace.org/programme/.

Late registration fees will apply after 15 February, 2009.

*There are a limited number of individual tickets available for the keynote speech, which will take place at 17:30 on Friday, 27 March in Keble College’'s O’Reilly Theatre. For those people that would like to attend Pullman’s talk only, these tickets are £3 each. For more information, go to http://placeandspace.org/registration/pullman-keynote/.

Hilary (Winter) Term 2009 Schedule

Thursdays, 5:00 PM in Room 11 of the English Faculty Building. All are very welcome!

Thursday, 29 January (week 2):
Rogue Heroes in History: Tricksters in William Godwin's
Early-Nineteenth Century Children's Books
Dr. Malini Roy, Keble College Oxford
Recent graduate of Keble College Malini Roy discusses her doctoral work on Romantic-era political theorist William Godwin. Roy considers how underdog figures in Godwin's books for children challenge and undo structures of oppressive authority, reflecting his anti-establishment politics in the post-French Revolutionary context.


Thursday, 12 February (week 4):
Exploratory Play and the Bid for Freedom in Arthur Ransome's
Swallows and Amazons
Hazel Sheeky, Newcastle University and the National Maritime Museum
Responding to concept of play as a rehearsal for later life, AHRC Collaborative PhD student Hazel Sheeky considers how far play in Ransome's series challenges the notion of inevitable progression from child to adult.


Thursday, 26 February (week 6):
Big Book News or Big Bad Wolves?: 21st Century Children’s Publishing
Dr. Claire Squires, Senior Lecturer in Publishing,
Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, Oxford Brookes University
Dr. Squires explores some of the key issues around children’s publishing today, including how publishers harness the powers of social networking, multimedia synergies and character licensing; concerns about literacy and reading enjoyment (particularly among boys); distaste about celebrity ‘authorship’; and anxieties that the sector has been hijacked by big corporate publishers.


Thursday, 12 March (week 8):
Dreaming the World: Mirror worlds in Neil Gaiman's
Coraline and Mirrormask
Iain Emsley, Independent Researcher
Independent researcher Iain Emsley considers how Neil Gaiman reworks and develops Carrollesque looking-glass worlds in the mirrors of Coraline and Mirrormask, focusing on the girl protagonists’ roles in constructing such universes through curiosity and imagination.