childrens literature

“A Sudden Swift Impression”:

Re-Examining the Victorian Short Story

A Victorian Popular Fiction Association – Short Story Network Study Day

Hosted by the University of Brighton

Saturday 27th January 2018

Keynote speaker:

Dr Emma Liggins (Manchester Metropolitan University)

on ‘Victorian Women’s Ghost Stories and the Haunted Space: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Margaret Oliphant’

A Study in Sidekicks: The detective’s assistant in crime fiction

Editors: Dr Lucy Andrew (University of Chester), Samuel Saunders (Liverpool John Moores University)

‘I am lost without my Boswell’, Sherlock Holmes says of his trusty sidekick Dr John Watson in ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ (1891). Biographer, narrator, observer, assistant, companion, conscience, foil, fool, audience surrogate – the role of the detective’s sidekick is multifaceted, complex and continually evolving.

Childhood and MaterialityWelcome to Childhood and Materiality, the VIII Conference on Childhood Studies in Finland! The Conference will be held on May 7- 9, 2018 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Confirmed keynote speakers:  - Leena Alanen (University of Jyväskylä) - Ivar Frønes (University of Oslo) - Nick Lee (Warwick University) - Ida Wentzel Winther (University of Aarhus) The theme of the 2018 conference, Childhood and Materiality, is deliberately wide-ranging and designed to invite scholars to explore materiality and childhood across a broad spectrum. We hope to inspire lively debates from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives about many aspects of childhood and materiality.

New Directions: the 26th Annual 18th- and 19th-Century British Women Writers Conference

April 11-15, 2018

The University of Texas at Austin

The twenty-sixth annual BWWC invites papers and panel proposals interpreting the theme of “New Directions.” Since the landmark “Generations” conference of 2017 invites a retrospective look back, “New Directions” will encourage turning to the future to ask crucial methodological, theoretical, and content-based questions about our fields’ key concepts and literatures.

**CFP for the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) 2018 Conference in Toronto**

In an academic setting, weighty or dramatic “adult” films are generally met with intellectual curiosity by students, or at least an acknowledgement that they are “worthy” of consideration. Genre films like horror or action are met with more resistance, but generally students are willing to admit they have some sort of ideological investments. Films aimed at children, however, are often dismissed as just entertainment. Surely we may analyze Bicycle Thieves, but Home Alone? Yes to Goodfellas, no to Goonies.