After many months of preparation, the Stranger in a Strange Land Children’s Literature Conference takes place today. As you can see from the program we have an excellent lineup of speakers. We hope to see you down at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC for a jam-packed informative day.

Sarah Park Keynote (Room 182) 4:30 – 5:30 P.M.

Since the early 1950s, more than 200,000 Korean children have been sent from South Korea to North America and Europe to be adopted into previously all-white families. More than 110,000 were adopted into the United States and Canada. Representations of these transnationally and transracially adopted Koreans have [...]

Elizabeth Marshall Keynote (Room 182) 11:00 A.M. – Noon

While the Nancy Drew series is most often associated with North America, the mysteries are also a global phenomenon. Since the inception of the original series in the 1930s, the books have been translated into numerous languages and sold or marketed across the globe. In addition, the [...]

Along with the panels we’ll have some creative presentations throughout the day.

Creative Presentations Session 1 (Room 182) 9:00 – 9:30 A.M. following Opening Remarks

Stacey Matson , Arthur Unknown Laura Ritland , Frummy Bo and Billy Megan Hodge , Lucy’s Tooth

Creative Presentations Session 2 (Room 182) 11:00 A.M. preceding Elizabeth Marshall’s Keynote

Roslyn Muir , Kyra, the Last Murch Matt Beilman , Defence of the Heart

Creative Presentations Session 3 (Room [...]

Panel 12 (Room 158) 3:15 – 4:15 P.M. Chair: Judi Saltman

Katie Kinsley , University of British Columbia Imagining the Future: Advocating with Children’s Literature Viktoriya Yakolyeva , University of Alberta Toreadors in a Strange Land: The Analysis of Ideological Messages in a Book for Children Laura Quintana Crelis , University of British Columbia Mise-en-abyme in the Short Stories of Jorge Luis Borges and [...]

Panel 11 (Room 157) 3:15 – 4:15 P.M. Chair: Rob Bittner

Eleanor Crumblehulme , University of British Columbia Beowulf, the Self-Creating Hero: Robert Nye’s Exploration of Heroism and Identity Kate Conerton , University of British Columbia Bellatrix: Stories of a Villain Kevin Tunnicliffe , University of British Columbia The Shadow and the Other Mother: A Jungian Reading of Coraline [...]

Panel 10 (Room 156) 3:15 – 4:15 Chair: Eric Meyers

Kathie Shoemaker , University of British Columbia Visual and Verbal Cohesive Resources used to Construct Coherent Picturebook Texts for Young Children. Lindsay Bromley and Alexis Birner , University of British Columbia Critical Literacy: Using Picturebooks to Read the World Justin Unrau , University of British Columbia Unreliable Instructions: Book-Failure and Critical Readership in Fantasy for [...]

Panel 9 (Room 158) 2:00 – 3:00 P.M. Chair: Rick Gooding

Leanne Hooper , University of Roehampton Travel, Teens, and Tethering: Exploring Cell Phone Use in Childhood Journeys in Ostrich Boys and Unhooking the Moon Phil Gough , Currently Unaffiliated Ghost in the Machine: Displacement and Embodiment in Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox and The Fox Inheritance Alethia Shih , University [...]

Panel 8 (Room 157) 2:00 – 3:00 P.M Chair: Naomi Hamer

Lindsey Krabbenhoft and Julia McKnight , University of British Columbia Peeling Back the Layers of Intertextual Adaptation of the Tinkerbell Character in Contemporary Children’s Texts and Merchandise Naomi Hamer , University of Winnipeg Growing Up with the Olsens: A Case Study of Global Distribution and Cross-Cultural Consumption Within a Teen Franchise [...]

Panel 7 (Room 156) 2:00 – 3:00 P.M. Chair: Eric Meyers

Cynthia Nugent , University of British Columbia Picturebook Theory and the Touchscreen Picturebook App Teresa Lin , University of British Columbia Multimodal Electronic Books and Mobile Apps as Resources for Supporting Struggling Readers in Secondary Schools Lindsay Zebrowski , Simon Fraser University “Beyond the Book”: Preliminary Observations on Childrens’ Engagement with Digital Texts [...]

Panel 6 (Room 158) 12:45 – 1:45 P.M. Chair: Karen Taylor

Rachel Balko , University of British Columbia Is It Canadian Enough?: Foreign-Born Winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards for Children’s Literature Karen Taylor , University of British Columbia Outsiders in Nature: Green Subjectivity of the Adolescent Protagonist in Two Contemporary Canadian YA Novels Rachel Yaroshuk , University of British Columbia Fiddle & Jig: [...]

Panel 5 (Room 157) 12:45 – 1:45 P.M. Chair: Rick Gooding

Akemi Aoki , Université de Strasbourg, France No Nation: Children in War Megan Sorenson , University of British Columbia Authenticity from Many Voices in Hana’s Suitcase Phoebe Li , University of British Columbia Survival in the Wilderness – Survival of the Fittest [...]

Panel 4 (Room 156) 12:45 – 1:45 P.M. Chair: Rob Bittner

Thaddeus Andracki , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Here’s to Overcoming Our Parents’ Dreams for Us”: Gendered Racializations and “Deviance” in Two Young Adult LGBT Novels Robert Bittner , University of British Columbia “Why Can’t I Wear a Dress?”: Perceived Homosexuality and Non-Normative Gender Performances in Books for Children Hannah Dyer , University [...]

Panel 3 (Room 158) 9:45 – 10:45 A.M. Chair: Rob Bittner

Kat Thomson , University of British Columbia A Close Visual Reading of Intrusion and Displacement in Armin Greder’s The Island Amanda Lastoria , Simon Fraser University Benjamin, Books and Babes: Theorizing the Covers of Radical Children’s Books Nathanael Vass , University of British Columbia Lost Voices: The Jungian Individuation Process in the Anime Films [...]

Panel 2 (Room 157) 9:45 – 10:45 A.M. Chair: Rick Gooding

Elizabeth Kennedy , San Diego State University/University of California – Santa Barbara “Al otro lado”: Transnational Youth Migration through the U.S.-Mexico Border in Film Saeyong Kim , University of British Columbia The Author as Translator: Issues in the Cross-Cultural Retelling of Folktales Jennifer Mah , University of British Columbia Coming to Know Our Ways: [...]

Panel 1 (Room 156) 9:45 – 10:45 A.M. Chair: Judi Saltman

Kay Weisman , University of British Columbia “Why Should James Dobson Get to Have All the Fun?”: Socio-Political Themes in Horn Book Editorials Nora Timmerman and Julia Ostertag , University of British Columbia Too Many Monkeys Jumping in Their Heads: Animal Lessons within Young Children’s Media Barb Dean , University of Northern British Columbia The [...]

The Stranger in a Strange Land Conference Program is now available, so you can check out all the fascinating topics for April 28. Presenters (apart from the keynote speakers) have been arranged onto panels of three so there should be some good discussion going on. If you haven’t registered to attend yet, you [...]

The blog hasn’t been updated very regularly this term what with all of the turmoil around our name and relationship with the former parent organization. In the end we decided that our goals of working with local partners like Carroll Airey and the Carnegie Library were not meshing well with the former parent organization and [...]

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