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Call for papers – The Child and the Book Conference
Friday 30 March – Sunday 1 April 2012
University of Cambridge

The staff and students of the Cambridge–Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature invite you to join them for the eighth annual Child and the Book conference.

The conference is an annual event which attracts delegates from all over the world, offering a unique opportunity for postgraduate students to meet, present and discuss their research in company with established scholars.

The Child and the Book 2012 aims to examine the foundations of children’s literature criticism. Taking a philosophical approach, we intend to find some common ground among the increasingly scattered areas of research, to think about definitions, and to work towards a more coherent framework. How can philosophical perspectives benefit our discipline? Conversely, how can children’s literature research contribute to the field of philosophical knowledge?

We suggest the following topics, though papers addressing the theme from other perspectives are also welcome.

  • Metacritical approaches to the discipline
  • The empirical and the theoretical: building bridges between approaches
  • Generational transmission and educational ideals
  • Constructions of childhood and adulthood
  • The big questions: love, life and death, time and space
  • Knowledge, reason and imagination
  • Ethics and morality
  • Aesthetics
  • Identity, the self, and subjectivity
  • The mind and consciousness
  • Political thought
  • Nature and culture
  • Changing notions of humanity

Papers will be made available online to all participants for the month preceding the conference in order to facilitate more fruitful questions and discussion.

Submission guidelines

Please submit your abstract by 3 January 2012 to Erin Spring: ees34@cam.ac.uk.

Abstracts should be 300–500 words and be accompanied by a brief biography. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed, and notification of acceptance will be sent on 14 January.

Full papers should be submitted by 1 March to to Erin Spring: ees34@cam.ac.uk.

All papers will be available online to registered partipants from 3 March.

CFP – Towards Common Ground: Philosophical Approaches to Children’s Literature