Call for Papers: Children's/YA Literature and Popular Culture

Deadline: 1 November 2003

Call for Papers on Children's and YA Literature and popular culture — Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association Conference

The Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association will be sponsoring a combined session on Children's/Young Adult Literature and Popular Culture at the 25th Annual meeting to be held on April 7-10, 2004 at the San Antonio Marriott River Center in San Antonio, TX. This year we will be co-joined with the National Popular Culture Association Conference. For further details regarding the conference (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.) please visit the developing website: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~swpca.

Note: Although the Conference web site and poster list Children's Literature and YA Literature as separate Areas with separate Area Chairs, the two areas have had to be combined due to the necessity of the YA Chair having to pull out of the conference. Please direct all abstracts for Children's and YA areas to the Children's Literature/Culture Area Chair: Diana Dominguez (gypsy-scholar@worldnet.att.net).

Any aspect of Children's/YA Literature (traditional, fairy tale, or contemporary) and/or Children's/YA popular culture issues — television, comics, films, toys, music, gender role models, fashion — will be reviewed for acceptance. Please provide an abstract of no more than 500 words no later than 1 November 2003 for review. Although I will accept abstracts up until 25 November 2003, I cannot guarantee that you will be placed in this year's conference.

As this is a Popular Culture conference, presentations that go beyond the traditional paper-reading format are HIGHLY encouraged: discussion sessions, performance sessions, "show and tell" presentations, audience participation sessions, and roundtable sessions are some examples. In addition to the sessions put together based on submissions, I will be offering a general discussion session during which all Children's/YA participants (and general public) can gather to discuss and share favorite or inspirational Children's/YA influences: what made the greatest impact on you as a child, and are there any stories, characters, or other Children's/YA cultural icons that still influence you today or have stood the test of time. This became one of the favorite sessions of the Children's/YA area last year, and I would like to repeat the experience.

Presentations will be limited to no more than 20 minutes. Please adhere to this limitation since we are always on a tight time constraint and everyone deserves a chance to be heard. Please also send any Audio/Visual requests with abstracts. The conference can only supply the following: Cassette/CD player, Overhead projector/screen, TV/VCR combo (DVD players are limited to Film Area presentations), and Slide Project/Screen (presenter MUST bring own slide carousel).

Please direct abstracts or any questions to: Diana Dominguez, Area Chair: Children's/YA Literature and Popular Culture. Electronic submissions highly preferred: gypsy-scholar@worldnet.att.net. Physical address: 4968 Las Cruces Court, Brownsville, TX 78526.

(Please DO NOT send correspondence to Texas Tech in Lubbock, as I am no longer there, although I am still officially affiliated with the University)

Please be aware that the e-mail listed on website and on poster is only an alternate e-mail address, which is not as reliable as the preferred e-mail listed above.

This page last updated 5 September 2003.