Schedule
Click here for the downloadable PDF version of our official program
At a Glance
Please note that all times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7).
| Time | Friday 2 July | Saturday 3 July | Sunday 4 July |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:00am - 8:00am | Social - Breakfast (Lunch or Dinner) | ||
| 8:00am - 9:00am | 9AM Welcome Message | Panel - Protests and Marches: Activism Around the Globe | Panel - In the Mirror: Monsters and the Posthuman |
| 9:30am - 10:30am | Social - Speed Networking | Panel - Girl Power: Feminism and Female Identity | Panel - “Monsters” from Within |
| 11:00am - 12:00pm | Panel - Where the Tricksters Are: Placing Tricksters in Time and Space | Keynote - Dr. Angel Matos *rescheduled to July 7, 10:30AM PDT* - join us for a social event, instead! Details in Canvas. | Panel - The Writer’s Studio: Creative Readings 2 |
| 12:30pm - 1:30pm | Social - Themed Discussions in Secret Hideouts | Panel - Complicating Gender Stereotypes | Panel - It Consumes Us: Depictions of Mental Health and Eating Disorders |
| 2:00pm - 3:00pm | Panel - “I’m not the bad guy, kid”: Villainous Stereotypes | Panel - The Writer’s Studio: Creative Readings 1 | Panel - Liminal Limelight: Reinventing Heroism |
| 3:30pm - 4:30pm | Panel - Neglected No Longer: Confronting Life, Death, and Trauma” | Keynote - Dr. Stephanie Toliver | Keynote - Richard Van Camp |
| 5:00pm - 6:00pm | Panel - Adapting to the Times: Heroes of (Re)Imagined Futures | Panel - Tricky Tricksters: Disrupting Notions of Tricksters | Panel - Perilous Pride: Embracing Queerness in its Many Forms |
| 6:30pm - 7:30pm | Social - Netflix Swamp Party | Closing Comments/ Social - Becoming Chaotic Artistic Geniuses with Gartic Phone |
Please note that all times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7).
Day 1: Friday, July 2nd
Please note that all times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7).
9:00am - 9:30am: Welcome Message
A welcome message from the conference organizers.
9:30am - 10:30am: Social - Speed Networking
Before rushing into our first panel, we want to give everyone a chance to meet some of their fellow presenters and attendees. In a series of breakout rooms, you’ll have a chance to meet your fellow conference goers and share your research interests. If you’re a presenter, don’t forget to promote your panel!
11:00am - 12:30pm: Panel - Where the Tricksters Are: Placing Tricksters in Time and Place
Moderator - Rhys Delios | IT Support - Minori Kato-Hopkins
Dr. Elizabeth Dulemba - Tricksters and Witches: Hero and Anti-hero Stereotyping of Mythological Archetypes in Children’s Literature
Aleksandra Wieczorkiewicz - Against the Adults. Artful child-tricksters in the novels by Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling and J.M. Barrie
Roya Zendebudie - “Mist and Moonlight”: Navigating Borders of Identity and Space as a Trickster in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
Ekaterina Shatalova - Image of Baba Yaga in Contemporary Children’s and YA Books
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Social - Themed Discussions in Secret Hideouts
“To the Batcave, Robin!”
In this social event, you’ll have the chance to talk to other scholars who explore similar research interests in your own secret hideout (we’re starting a petition to rename “breakout rooms” to “secret hideouts” to better match our aesthetic). We’ll have rooms such as: fantasy, LGBTQAI+ representation, gender, anti-heroes, picture books, and more. If there is a specific theme you’d like to discuss, send us an email in advance and we can make it happen!
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Panel - “I’m not the bad guy, kid”: Villainous Stereotypes
Moderator - Devon Arthur | IT Support - Elizabeth Leung
Jessica Gibson - Hooks, Scars and Madness: Disabling Stereotypes in Disney Villains
Xen Virtue - We Form Our Own: An Examination of the Queer Metaphor of Magneto
Carrie Anne Thomas - From Film to Book Adaptations: Stereotypes and Values in Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet
Ryanne Kap - The Harm of Hitting Back: How Let the Right One In and Stranger Things Exhibit and Exploit the Cycle of Bullying
Noah Mullens - Child-Sized Frank-N-Furters and Sinister Lip Sync Assassins: Rethinking the Queer Villain in Visual Media for Youth
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Panel - Neglected No Longer: Confronting Life, Death, and Trauma
Moderator - Minori Kato-Hopkins | IT Support - Logaine Navascuez
Zheng Yang - An Uncertain Encounter: Resistance and Metamorphosis in World War Two Coming-of-Age Narratives
Julie Veitch - “I Am Not Afraid” Said the Little Girl to the Trembling Cat: An Exploration of the Way Trauma is Sidelined in Coraline and Matilda
Hunter Tuinstra - “The Magic Was Already Here:” Spectrality of Memory and Home in the Tiffany Aching Series
Kimberlee Bartle - ‘The Container, the Reaper, and the Hybrid: Exploring Necromantic Affordances in Contemporary YA Literature’
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Panel - Adapting to the Times: Heroes of (Re)Imagined Futures
Moderator - Yi Luo | IT Support - Rhys Delios
Lizette Arellano - Tracing a ‘New Woman’s’ Journey in Young Adult Literature
Alexandra Lukawski - I am Todd Hewitt:The Noise, Agency, and Surveillance in The Knife of Never Letting Go
Ayu Ratna Ningtyas - Barbie in Film Adaptation Barbie and The Three Musketeers (2009): Hero and Femininity
Sharon Crossett - I am become death: Problematising the hero, in young adult dystopian fiction
Day 2: Saturday, July 3rd
Please note that all times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7).
7:00am - 8:00am: Social - Breakfast (Lunch or Dinner)
It’s time for breakfast in Vancouver, brunch in New York, lunchtime in Sao Paulo, afternoon tea in London, an early supper in Moscow, and a late dessert in Shanghai. Join us from wherever you are in the world with whatever food and drinks are most appropriate to chat with other conference attendees.
8:00am - 9:00am: Panel - Protests and Marches: Activism Around the Globe
Moderator - Sadia Zafrin Lia | IT Support - Minori Kato-Hopkins
Jing Jin & Cathy Yue Wang - Taming the Rebellious Child: The Adaptation of Nezha in Three Chinese Animations in the Socialist and Post-Socialist Eras
Ritwika Roy - From Partition to Parsippany: Revolutionary Re-imaginings of Thakurmar Jhuli in Kiranmala and The Kingdom Beyond
Betül Gaye Dinç - “I am standing like Greta!”: Climate Activism Through Picturebook Engagement in Turkey
Rabia Khokhar - Children’s Literature and Activism
Summeiya Khamissa - Reimagining Queer Muslim Youth: Existing as More Than a Victim
9:30am - 10:30am: Panel - Girl Power: Feminism and Female Identity
Moderator - Sadia Zafrin Lia | IT Support - Rhys Delios
Ciara O'Siorain - ‘Matriarch, may I?: Exploring Female Identity and Feminine Power Relations in the Home-Space in Children’s Literature
Anna Travagliati - Mysterious and Wise, Generous and Feminist: The Witch in Dalla parte delle bambine's Picture Books
Iana Nikitenko - My Little Pony: transformation of the image of girl heroes and girlhood through the development of media franchise
Ariel Little - Wiley Trickster or Feminist Heroine?: Re-evaluating the Power and Personal Agency of Little Women’s Amy March
Rosalyn Borst - Unleashing the Beast Within: The Representation of Female Anger in How to Knit a Monster
*Rescheduled* to Wednesday, July 7th, 10:30-11:30 PDT
Due to unforeseen and unprecedented circumstances, Dr. Matos' keynote presentation will now be taking place live, on Wednesday, July 7th, at 10:30-11:30AM PDT. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please feel welcome to join us for a lunchtime hangout instead (details on Canvas)!
11:00am - 12:30pm: Keynote - Dr. Angel Matos, "Not Your Chosen One: A Queering of the YA Superhero Narrative"
Moderator - Minori Kato-Hopkins | IT Support - Elizabeth Leung
In this keynote, Dr. Matos will examine how queer young adult literature has destabilized normative understandings of superheroes and the chosen one narrative, focusing specifically on the trope of the “powerless teen.” What happens when a queer narrative focuses not on the traditional hero, but on the ordinary and everyday people who witness these heroic acts? And how does this shift in focus push us to envision queerer, more utopian futures?
Learn more about Dr. Matos, here.
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Panel - Complicating Gender Stereotypes
Moderator - Rhys Delios | IT Support - Elizabeth Leung
Myrnalejandra Canales-Gutierrez - Suggestions or Assertions: Themes of Childhood and Gender in Peter and Wendy and El laberinto del fauno
Charlotte Husnjak - Distressed, Demonised or Deconstructed? Presentations of femininity and abject womanhood within the 'Shrek' series.
Caitlin Boyle - Silvertongue’s Daughter: Meggie, Women, and Agency in Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart
Natasha Lomonossoff - Complicating Notions of Gender and Morality in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials
Carla Plieth - The adolescent female sexual perpetrator and her male victim in Cristina Moracho’s Althea & Oliver
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Panel - The Writer’s Studio: Creative Readings 1
Moderator - Elizabeth Leung | IT Support - Rhys Delios
Shuyin Yu - “Posthumorous Processing: A Love Story”
Yukta Bajracharya - “Dhoncholecha: A retelling in verse”
Laetitia Adams - “Wild Flaming Consequences”
Tita Kyrtsakas - “Robin”
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Keynote - Dr. Stephanie Toliver, "Of Monsters and Heroes: Black Girls Saying and Creating Space through Fantasy Worlds"
Moderator - Elizabeth Leung | IT Support - Minori Kato-Hopkins
Here is a brief summary of her keynote lecture in her own words. “The rampant murders of Black women and girls in the United States proves that this place is not safe for us. In fact, it is questionable whether any space currently known can be safe for Black girls when antiblackness and misogynoir is interwoven into the fabric of our world. For this reason, it is imperative that researchers explore the unbound landscapes Black girls create for themselves in fantastic narratives, landscapes where Black girls are situated as the heroes, instead of society’s monsters.”
Learn more about Dr. Toliver, here.
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Panel - Tricky Tricksters: Disrupting Notions of Tricksters
Moderator - Vitor Faustino dos Santos | IT Support - Yi Luo
Alex Henderson - “Socio-political Ragnarök”: The resonance of the Trickster figure in queer YA fiction
Dylan Loring - Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing: The-Not-So-Subversive Subversiveness of Stalky and Co.
Logaine Navascués - The many faces of the trickster: An ecocritical analysis of Pablo Finds a Treasure by Andrée Poulin and Isabelle Malenfant
6:30pm - 7:30pm: Social - Netflix Swamp Party
“This’ll be fun. We’ll stay up late, swapping manly stories, and in the morning… I’m making waffles.” – Donkey
Join us for a late night (or morning, or day) of relaxed socializing! Access Shrek 2 from your streaming service of choice (for Canadian folks, you can rent it on YouTube for a relatively low cost), and set it up to play on your device(s). We’ll all meet in a Zoom call with cameras and audios turned off, and we will all hit “play” at the same time! Enjoy the timeless classic that inspired our conference title, while live-chatting with friendly conference peers - see you there!
Day 3: Sunday, July 4th
Please note that all times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7).
8:00am - 9:00am: Panel - In the Mirror: Monsters and the Posthuman
Moderator - Elizabeth Leung | IT Support - Rhys Delios
Cristina Sánchez - You Won't Believe This: Imaginary Monsters and Incredulous Adults in Children's Picturebooks
Jodie Coates - The Turing Text: Catfishing the Reader in The Illuminae Files
Grace Guy - Liquid Humanism: Agency and Belonging in Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen’s Descender
Marisa Bordonaro - The Transformation of the Monster in Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet
9:30am - 10:30am: Panel - “Monsters” from Within
Moderator - Rhys Delios | IT Support - Logaine Navascuez
Ikram Belaid - "We are all someone's monster": disrupting the fantasy hero narrative in Bardugo's Grishaverse
Charlotte Gross - Gothic Entertainment: "Scooby Doo" and the monster within
Anagha Gopal - 'Heroic' Bodies: Representation, Relatability, and Reading against Fatphobia in Vitor Martins’ Here The Whole Time
11:00am - 12:30pm: Panel - The Writer’s Studio: Creative Readings 2
Moderator - Elizabeth Leung | IT Support - Rhys Delios
Elizabeth Dulemba - “Two Lies and a Truth”
Ciara O'Siorain - “Petrified: The Return of the Medusa”
Wafa Pathan & Julia Cardinale - “Lali’s Two Flavored Ice cream”
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Panel - It Consumes Us: Depictions of Mental Health and Eating Disorders
Moderator - Sonali Kulkarni | IT Support - Elizabeth Leung
Amy Naylor - ‘The girl who leaves a trail of violence in her wake’: Mental Illness and the ‘Haunted Girl’ in Nick Lake’s Whisper to Me
Madeleine DeWelles - Heroes and Villains: Representations of Eating Disorders in Young Adult Literature
2:00pm - 3:00pm: Panel - Liminal Limelight: Reinventing Heroism
Moderator - Juli Yin | IT Support - Minori Kato-Hopkins
Beatriz Lostalé Seijo - Human or hero? Idealisation and admiration in 21st century children’s books biographies
Anna Shapland - History as Magic: Reinventing Heroic Legend as a Coming-of-Age Narrative in BBC’s Merlin
Glorinel Oquendo-Pagan - A Thin-Line Between Good and Evil: Morally Gray Characters in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction
Michael Brodski - “Out of the Mouth of Babes”? – Greta Thunberg’s Heroism vs. Adultist Thinking
Giovanna C. Lucci - From tricksters and villains to heroes: a multimodal analysis of the characterization of Brazilian folkloric creatures in Orlandeli’s Arvorada
3:30pm - 4:30pm: Keynote - Richard Van Camp, "Writing from Revenge to Make Peace"
Moderator - Rhys Delios | IT Support - Minori Kato-Hopkins
In this keynote with best selling author, Richard Van Camp, he will give you insight into how you can use your writing from the spirit of revenge to help you find peace in your own life in a good and gentle way.
Learn more about Richard Van Camp, here.
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Panel - Perilous Pride: Embracing Queerness in its Many Forms
Moderator - Minori Kato-Hopkins | IT Support - Yi Luo
Rhys Delios - Queerness and Sympathetic Villainy in Young People’s Comics
Leila Matte-Kaci - Are You a Monster Too?: Elsa and the Monster in the Closet
Shuyin Yu - Orientalism and Orientations, Silkpunk and Agender Childhoods
Kathleen Forrester - Corrupting Columbus: The Decolonial and Queer Work of Perversion in Thomas King and Kent Monkman’s 'A Coyote Columbus Story'
6:30pm - 7:30pm: Closing Comments/Social - Becoming Chaotic Artistic Geniuses with Gartic Phone
Closing Comments
Closing comments and thank yous from our conference organizers.
Social - Becoming Chaotic Artistic Geniuses with Gartic Phone
Wondering whether you have a future in picture books (or not)? Join us for an entirely unhelpful art exercise! We’re wrapping up the conference with a light-hearted social event, where we invite you to play Gartic Phone with us! (You can also join us as a spectator, if that’s more your vibe after a busy few days of socializing). We will all be connected in a Zoom call, but as always, turning your camera and/or mic on is optional! We plan to play for about an hour, or slightly longer depending on demand.
Gartic Phone is a browser game that combines the “telephone game” and pictionary - basically, participants will submit a prompt, such as “Gorilla walking the streets of Paris.” The prompt will be sent to another participant, who will have to draw this prompt on their device of choice (mobile compatible, no app download needed). This drawing will be sent to the next participant, who will have to guess the prompt they are drawing...and so on, and so forth! Be prepared for a chaotic mess of drawing and guessing - and watch the prompt unravel in the face of artistic genius.
Minori will send out an invite code to the Gartic Phone game lobby once the closing comments have been concluded, so be sure to join us in the Zoom call!