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 appeared in over fifty American children’s books since 1955. What kinds of stories do they tell? How are librarians and educators to evaluate these books? And what do Korean adoptees think of these depictions? In this keynote, Dr. Park will share her analyses regarding the content and context of children’s literature depicting transracially adopted Koreans.
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 character Nancy Drew regularly travels across national borders to solve mysteries. The Nancy Drew materials demonstrate how fictional representations of “strange” places and contact with “strangers” remain central to texts produced for and marketed to young readers within contemporary North American children’s culture.
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 182) 4:15 – 5:30 P.M.
preceding Sarah Park’s Keynote
Allison Mills, Ghost Boy
Nathanael Vass, Halcyon Days
Sam Markham, Lynx
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 Arabian Nights
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 Young
Readers
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 of California, Los Angeles
Lands Beyond Home: The Distance Between Child Protagonist and Reader in The
Phantom Tollbooth
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
Devon Greyson, University of British Columbia
Navigating Teen Parenthood Online: Grrrl Mom Texts for Support and Resistance
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