Final Deadline for proposals has been extended to – December 15, 2008
Please note there will be no submission date extensions! Get your proposals in now – 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 – 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@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 – 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. 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 – 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 – 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 – 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