SHCY 2021 Panel CFP: Mapping the Colonial Routes of Children’s Literature Circulation and Reception in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

This call is for scholars who would be interested in joining a proposed panel for the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth Conference 2021 that will document and discuss the circulation and reception of children’s books in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Global South. We envision a panel that will track circulation and reception using a variety of methods, including digital mapping, bibliography/book history, periodical studies, adaptation, and reader response. Some aims of the panel are to understand how colonization contributed to the globalization of children’s literature and to contextualize the spread of children’s books within an anti-colonial framework by emphasizing how children’s books impacted colonized people and how they responded. Panelists might consider patterns of circulation, as well as specific cases of books traveling along colonial routes.

A long-term goal might ultimately be to collaborate on a global circulation digital map project, for which we could seek funding and organizational partners.

SHCY is scheduled to be held in Galway, Ireland in June 23-26, 2021, with the possibility for remote presentation depending on circumstances at the time.

If you’re interested in being a part of such a panel, please contact Courtney Weikle-Mills, Gabriela Lee, and Sreemoyee Dasgupta at cweikle@yahoo.com, as soon as possible, but no later than October 15. We plan to submit a complete panel proposal to SHCY for consideration on October 30.