The Children and Youth Studies Caucus joins scholars who engage in interdisciplinary perspectives on the individual experiences, social conditions, and rights of children and youth in both historical and contemporary contexts. Children and Youth Studies aims to understand the complex experiences and conditions of young people in global, national, and local settings.
TWO CALLS FOR PAPERS, ASA 2025 (Puerto Rico, Nov. 20-23)
Proposed Panel: Puerto Rico, Empire, and Children’s Literature
Proposals due: Jan. 17, 2025
The ASA Children and Youth Studies Caucus invites you to submit for our caucus-sponsored panel titled “Puerto Rico, Empire, and Children’s Literature.” This panel will highlight the fraught history between the U.S. and Puerto Rico by considering the role of U.S. empire, colonization, and decolonization in children’s literature. Building on relevant scholarship, such as Marilisa Jiménez García’s Side by Side: U.S. Empire, Puerto Rico, and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture (2021), prospective panelists should consider how cultural texts for children and youth grapple with these geopolitical locations, politics, and communities across Puerto Rico and its diaspora. We especially encourage junior scholars and graduate students to apply.
Possible Areas or Themes:
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Imperialism, colonization, and decolonization
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Children’s picture books, middle grade chapter books, and YA novels
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Puerto Rico and race/ethnicity and Indigeneity in children’s literature
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Gender and sexuality in Puerto Rican or diasporic children’s literature
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Migration, xenophobia, and citizenship in children’s literature
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Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican or Boricua diaspora in children’s literature
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Puerto Rican or diasporic authors, illustrators, publishers, or readers
Submissions:
By Jan. 17 2025, please submit your proposed title, abstract (approx. 350 words), keywords, and short biography to our panel co-organizers Isabel Millán (imillan@uoregon.edu) and Philip Nel (philnel@ksu.edu).
Proposed Panel: Children, Making/Destroying Empire
Proposals due: Jan. 17, 2025
The ASA Children and Youth Studies Caucus invites you to submit for our caucus-sponsored panel titled “Children, Making/Destroying Empire.” Children have been central to and subjects in the development of empire. From taking children as enslaved labor to taking children to destroy nations, children have been a tool wielded by empire — or, as Historian Laura Briggs writes, “Child taking is… a counterinsurgency tactic [that] has been used to respond to demands for rights, refuge, and respect by communities of color and impoverished communities, an effort to induce hopelessness, despair, grief, and shame.” At the same time, children and youth have been crucial to fights against empire and efforts of decolonization. Participants in this panel will engage with how children, across various forms, are a crucial aspect of both building and dismantling empire. Prospective panelists should consider the role of children, both as agents and subjects, in the development, subversion, or destruction of empire. We especially encourage junior scholars and graduate students to apply.
Possible Areas or Themes:
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Imperialism, colonization, and decolonization
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The role of children and youth in the decolonization (or colonization) of Puerto Rico
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Histories of children and the development of empire
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Literature regarding children and the development of empire
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Youth movements towards decolonization
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The intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, class, and youth
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Conceptions of children, labor, and citizenship
Submissions:
By January 17, 2025, please submit your proposed title, abstract (approx. 350 words), keywords, and short biography to panel organizer Ayami Hatanaka (aah9012@nyu.edu) and caucus co-chair Mary Zaborskis (mzz5335@psu.edu).
Stay tuned for more CFPs and events!
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