Special Announcement: Priority Registration Rate has been extended to
December 1, 2008. Send in your submissions now to get accepted before
the December 1 deadline for the lower priority registration rate.
Registration rate goes up after December 1.

Final Deadline for proposals has been extended to â€" December 15, 2008
Please note there will be no submission date extensions! Get your
proposals in now â€" space filling up fast at the conference hotel.

We're turning 30 this year! Come join us in Albuquerque to celebrate.

Call for Papers/Proposals for the Children's and Young Adult Literature
and Culture Area of the 30th Annual Meeting of the SW/TX PCA/ACA â€" Theme:
Bridges, Crossroads, and Ruptures

February 25-28, 2009
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

E-mail submissions preferred:
Dr. Diana Dominguez
Area Chair
gypsyscholar_at_rgv.rr.com

Please put SWPCA Submission in e-mail subject line.

This year's area theme is Bridges, Crossroads, and Ruptures in Children's
and Young Adult culture, interpreted as narrowly or broadly as
preferred. These concepts can be examined in a variety of ways: content,
characters, genre, gender, context, mode of transmission â€" the list is
quite expansive. How do the literature and culture productions aimed at
the children's and young adult audience represent, reflect, aid in
understanding, and influence these concepts? There is a multitude of
ways these concepts can be interpreted; additionally, there is a
multitude of "forms" that encompass Children's/YA culture, including, but
not limited to traditional literature, graphic novels, comic books,
periodicals, television, film, music (songs and videos), toys, fashion,
web sites, blogs, and advertisement.

Topics might include (but not limited to):
How does young adult literature serve as a "bridge" for adolescents into
adult reading material as well as a bridge into the realities of the
adult world?
How do Children and Young Adult literature present stories that aid in
negotiating the various crossroads children and adolescents face as they
grow up?
What innovations are happening in publishing of children's and young
adult literature that "rupture" our traditional sense of story-telling
but that reflect the technological world today's children and adolescents
live in?
How do children's and young adult literature play with gender or
culture "categories" that serve both as a bridge to tolerance and
inclusion and rupture traditional or stereotypical understandings of
gender and culture?
How do these concepts appear in literary and cultural productions for
children and young adults in both literal and figurative/symbolic ways?
How do the cultural productions aimed at children and young adults
encompass these concepts â€" how do popular culture productions especially
reflect or generate aspects of these terms/concepts?

These and more are ways that children's and young adult cultural products
(books, comics, graphic novels, films, television) might address the Area
theme in both direct and indirect/metaphoric ways. From books, to toys,
to films and television, to web sites, blogs, and chat rooms aimed at
dealing with some of these issues â€" how does today's popular culture
address these important children's and young adults' issues?

Please send 250 word paper proposals, or 500 word panel proposals,
including full contact info for all participants for review to area chair
by new priority deadline of December 1, 2008. New Final deadline
extended to December 15 â€" conference registration rate goes up after
December 1. Please include a short (100 word) bio listing previous and
current research activities, but no full CVs needed.

Interdisciplinary approaches and all scholarly fields are welcome. Also,
as this is a popular culture conference, presentations that depart from
traditional reading of papers are highly encouraged and welcomed.
Presenters also need not have a university affiliation; we embrace all
forms of experiential knowledge potential presenters might offer.
Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit proposals.

Please see the Conference web site for information on Graduate Student
Paper Awards, as well as Graduate Student Travel Fellowships.

For further details regarding the conference, including Graduate Student
Paper Awards (listing of all areas, hotel, registration, tours, etc.)
please visit the conference website:

http://www.swtxpca.org/documents/elements.html

Full contact details:
Dr. Diana Dominguez
Dept. of English & Communication
U. of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College
80 Fort Brown
Brownsville, TX 78520

Phone: 956.882.8853

See you in Albuquerque!

===================================
 From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
            cfp_at_english.upenn.edu
             more information at
         http://cfp.english.upenn.edu
===================================
Received on Sun Nov 23 2008 - 17:01:44 EST