China Children's Lit

Professor Wang Quangen,
Beijing Normal University's School of
Chinese Language and Literature and Alida Allison, SDSU, June 14, 2011; China Children's Literature edited by Prof. Wang

Ni Hao! (Hello) from the new director of our SDSU Center for the Study of Children's Literature---- that would be me above, with Professor Wang.

Wang Quangen has done remarkable things for children's literature in China.With Maria Nikolajeva and board members of IBBY (International Board of Books for Youth), I'd met Quangen ten years earlier at BNU, and the fruits of his decades' endeavors are apparent. Several of his former students now teach or work as editors in the thriving Chinese publishing world, for example as editorial staff for China Children's Press Publishing Group (CCPPG) in Beijing. Wang Mei, Dr. Wang's daughter, is now herself a professor of children's literature at Beijing's Capitol Normal University, and his latest journal edition, China Children's Literature 2010, is an eye-catching, substantial volume (above).Thus, it was a double pleasure to see him again and to also see how well his teaching and writing have evolved.
His and Dr. Wang Lei's graduate students were the audience at BNU for my talk on Fantasy and Fantasizing June 14, along with editors/students from CCPPG whom I'd met the day before at their editorial offices and soon-to-be-opened spectacular kids' bookstore in Beijing (next blog...).
I came back from China with a lot to ponder and a lot to read; problem with the latter, though, is I don't read Chinese. If you're a current SDSU student who can translate or know someone who can, get in touch with me.

3 PhD Scholarships for Study in the UK

from June Cummins...

The NCRCL at Roehampton University is delighted to announce a new Jacqueline Wilson PhD scholarship, generously funded by Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Since her appointment as Professorial Fellow at Roehampton two years ago, Jacqueline Wilson has taught a series of highly successful seminars on creative writing at MA level within the Department of English and Creative Writing. The Jacqueline Wilson scholarship will enable a student to join a thriving community of PhD scholars and to benefit from Roehampton’s proven expertise in children’s literature and creative writing for children. The scholarship is advertised alongside two other PhD scholarships within the Department of English and Creative Writing at Roehampton for which children’s literature scholars are also eligible. For further details and an application form please follow this link: http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/jobopportunities/page33933.html

Consider Graduate Study Abroad: Cambridge (U.K.)

If you're thinking about graduate study in Children's Literature (what Europeans call "postgraduate" study), besides places in the U.S., you've got interesting places abroad to do so. There are several in Australia, a new one and an existing one in Ireland (Trinity and St. Pat's in Drumconda/Dublin), and several in the U.K. (including Newcastle and Cambridge). The last is having an Open House in May for the curious:

Open Day for the Cambridge MPhil/MEd in Children's Literature

Thursday, May 12 · 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Location	Cambridge Faculty of Education 184 Hills Road Cambridge, United Kingdom CB2 8PQ
More Info	This Open Day is a unique opportunity, for everyone interested in studying Children's Literature at postgrad level, to get to know the Cambridge/ Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children's Literature. Come along and meet current students, course organisers and lecturers - and learn more about what we do and how to join us! 2.00-2.30: Poster sessions 2.30-3.15: Talks by current students in room GS5 3.15-4.00: Tea, more poster sessions, and meeting the students 4.00-5.00: Talk by poet MICHAEL ROSEN Please invite everyone you know who might be interested in attending this event. We're all looking forward to meeting you at the Faculty and to answer all your questions on the course, on children's literature in general, and on undertaking postgrad study at Cambridge University.

Martin Woodside, Our Man in Romania

Formerly a student in SDSU's graduate program, Martin Woodside is on a Fulbright Fellowship in Romania (2009-2010) before beginning his doctoral studies in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University (Camden). He files this report from abroad:

The vernal equinox draws nearer, but last week’s weather report called for “code yellow,” which meant more snow, which was kind of hard to believe as it had been snowing pretty consistently since my birthday in December. But it did snow again, all through the week, and spring felt far away. After ten years in sunny California, I suppose I was due at little real winter.

At any rate, snow on one’s birthday means good luck in Romania, a country full of such superstitions and omens. Everyday life here is steeped in the otherworldly, whether it’s a bus full of people crossing themselves as they rumble past a church or the ritual of selecting one of the first nine days of March to forecast your fortunes for the coming year—I picked March 2: sunny in the morning before threatening to rain (but never actually raining) in the afternoon. Some friends invited us to their orthodox wedding this summer, an ornate spectacle which will include an elaborate service (with husband and wife wearing crowns), days of partying and the ritual “kidnapping” of the bride.

Romania’s rich folk tradition also includes a wellspring of folk and fairy tales that are sadly fading from prominence. In fact, the Romanian market seems to have no room for domestic children’s authors at all, and I’ve talked to a number of frustrated writers who were told to try publishing their books in French or English, so they could then be published in translation here. Indeed, the children’s sections of the bookstores here are full of this imported literature, either in translation or (if English) in the original. America is well represented (I was shocked to see my own books from Sterling’s Classic Starts series on the shelves of Bucharest’s swankiest bookstore), with everything from Twilight to My Little Pony, the prominence of the latter making me like it’s 1985 all over again. My proposed research here didn’t involve children’s literature, but I’ve been taking more and more of an interest in this phenomenon.

My proposed research does involve poetry, and so I spend most of my time writing, translating, and hanging out with poets—some of my poems have even been translated into Romanian and will be published at the end of this month. My Romanian language skills are slowly improving, and I’m already well versed in the colorful nomenclature for different types of Romanian drinking establishments—the dingiest dive bar is a “bomba—“ along with a few other things.

Lois and Elizabeth are having a great time as well, especially on our forays out of Bucharest and into Romania’s beautiful countryside, which we plan to see more of once code yellow’s gone for good. We’ve already taken a few trips to the Transylvanian mountains which are particularly stunning and rich with history. Highlights include the city of Sighișoara, with its well preserved medieval citadel left by Saxons brought in to defend the region in the 12th Century, and where we stayed in a hotel that was once the birthplace of Vlad Tepeș (known to some as Dracula), and the Bran Castle outside Brașov, called the Dracula castle even though Vlad Tepes never set foot in it.

And that brings me to touchy subject of the fabled impaler. Do your Romanian friends a favor and lay off the Dracula jokes. They’ve heard it all before, and it’s kind of a sore subject. It’s a good yarn, but Bram Stoker never set foot in Romania, and he wasn’t even that meticulous in his research. Besides, Vlad was actually a hero to the people here, and still is to many, fighting off invading Turks and liberating parts of what makes up modern Romanian for the first time. I mean a joke’s a joke, but they almost built a Dracula theme park here to sate all these incessant touristic yearning. You don’t want that kind of blood on your hands, do you?

Summer Abroad Program: British Child Lit

http://www.britishstudiesprogram.org/

Classics of Children’s British Literature 6 semester hours in ENG 497 or 597Dr. Jameela Lares, The University of Southern Mississippi
This course will explore British children’s literature in its rich historical and geographical context. Course activities will combine the reading of literary classics with visits to the actual places which generated them and with presentations on various aspects of literature by noted British specialists. Speakers in former years have included such well-known figures as Brian Alderson, Mary Cadogan, Jenni Calder, Pat Pinsent, Brian Sibley, Gillian Spraggs, Ann Thwaite, and Nigel Wood. We will visit fantasy sites in Oxford associated with Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and more recently with Harry Potter; cross Pooh Bridge in Milne’s Ashdown Forest; find traces of Long John Silver in Stevenson’s Edinburgh; and look for Peter Rabbit in Potter’s Lake District. In London, we will explore the appeal of Dick Whittington to city apprentices four hundred years earlier; walk about the maritime world of Greenwich Village and think of Jim Hawkins sailing to Treasure Island, visit the Old Royal Observatory and experience a child’s wonder of having a foot in each hemisphere at the Greenwich Meridian, and see Kensington Garden to understand how J. M. Barrie could find Peter Pan in the magical park across the street. Throughout, we will look at how various texts are constructed as literature and how they reflect historical, cultural and psychological realities. Although the course will be organized around a literary understanding of the texts, we will also look some to the fields of education, bibliography, and entertainment.

Cambridge Inaugurates Impressive New Child Lit Centre

From Maria Nikolayeva (see also following post)

The Cambridge/Homerton Research and Teaching Centre for Children’s Literature
Officially inaugurated on February 3, 2010
Homerton College and the Cambridge Faculty of Education have a long tradition in children’s literature which has earned both institutions a strong national and international profile for high quality research and teaching. Distinguished scholars have taught the subject to many undergraduate, postgraduate, Advanced Diploma, masters and doctoral students over the years with excellent results. Between them, both institutions have hosted a dozen highly appreciated international conferences, all of which have resulted in well reviewed edited volumes. Members of the research and teaching team have made a name for themselves in influential roles on the national and international stage, as well as publishing excellent books, chapters, articles and literary guides. Homerton College Library boasts a superb collection of twentieth century children’s fiction and some rare books. Homerton also hosts the annual Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture.
The Centre has several distinctive features in comparison to other existing centres in the UK. Its members have unique expertise in poetry, film and multimedial texts, including picturebooks, as well as in teaching and promoting writing for children. The team has a strong international focus and a special interest in historical and sociocultural perspectives on children’s literature. We offer an exemplary balance of literary, aesthetic and educational approaches to the subject, as well as substantial theoretical expertise and wide experience of conducting empirical research in the field. We have strong links with the artistic community of authors, artists and poets (the Poet Laureate is an Honorary Homerton Fellow) and literary and artistic institutions such as the Arts Council, Poetry Society, Poetry Book Society, Book Trust, and British Council.
The key objectives of our centre are:
· running excellent courses for our undergraduate, postgraduate and higher degree students
· developing and consolidating research in children’s literature
· creating and enhancing a favourable scholarly community for advanced research in children’s
literature
· attracting research students
· attracting visiting scholars
· offering recurrent scholarly conferences, symposia, workshops and other events
· promoting Homerton College and the Faculty of Education as an outstanding research community in
children’s literature
· making links with practitioners in schools, libraries, other universities
· supporting practitioners through dissemination of high-quality research
· active networking with other centres and research institutions, nationally and internationally
For further information please visit http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/childrensliterature/
Or contact Maria Nikolajeva, mn351@cam.ac.uk