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The Cambridge/Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature is hosting an international conference on 3-5 September 2010. The conference will focus on one of today’s most dynamic social and literary phenomena. It will make connections between the recent research within neuroscience concerning the teenage cognitive, psychological, and emotional behaviour and the representation of adolescence in literature and media.

To ensure a genuine scholarly discourse, the format of the conference will be as follows,

  • all papers will be circulated prior to the conference
  • a number of discussants will be asked to read and respond to one or more papers
  • at the sessions, presenters will have 5-10 minutes to focus on the main aspects of the paper, followed by the discussant’s comments and general discussion

All papers will be considered for subsequent publication.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Shirley Brice Heath, Brown University, USA
Meg Rosoff, author, UK
Round table Chair: Jo-Anne Dillabough, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Paper topics may include, but are not restricted to:

  • representations of young people in literature, art and media
  • representations of young people in texts marketed for teenage readers
  • gender and ethnicity
  • emerging sexuality
  • realism, magical realism, fantasy
  • crossover texts: children’s – young adult – adult (especially texts marketed differently in different countries)
  • popular culture for young adults (e.g. “cult books” such as Twilight)

Papers are also welcome on any topics relevant to representations and realities of young adults, for example:

  • biological, psychological and emotional development of young people
  • histories of adolescence
  • young people’s place-based identities
  • young people’s reading and writing

Please send an abstract of 250 words and a 2-3 sentences bio to Ewa Illakowicz ei219@cam.ac.uk by February 1, 2010. Full papers will be required by July 1, 2010.

Conference fee of £320 includes college accommodation (single en-suite rooms, see http://www.homertonconference.com/ for details), 2 breakfasts, morning and afternoon refreshments, 2 buffet lunches, and 2 three-course waiter served dinners.

Non-residential fee of £120 includes 2 lunches and refreshments.

For further inquiries please contact Maria Nikolajeva mn351@cam.ac.uk

CFP – The Emergent Adult