The Centre for Childhood Cultures based at Queen Mary University of London have just released their 2021/2022 programme of events including NCRCL’s Dr Alison Waller talking about Reading and Covid-19.
Alison Waller, Young People and YA Fiction in the Time of Covid-19
Thursday 28th October 5:00-6:30 pm.
Hybrid: GC203, Graduate Centre, Queen Mary University of London and online.
Image Credit: anne malewski cargocollective.com/marblesatsea
Researchers have argued that reading has provided ‘refuge’ for young people during the Covid-19 pandemic (Clark & Picton 2020), but there are still concerns about adolescent mental health following this period of disruption to ‘normal’ life. There are signs that the crisis is in retreat in the UK, but the future is uncertain. In this talk, I will discuss my British Academy-funded ‘Reading for Normal’ project, which offered enthusiastic teen readers a temporary community for talking about their own lives in relation to YA fiction during a period of lockdown. I will argue that reading contemporary British realist novels offered these young people recognisable versions of their own pre-pandemic worlds, and that exploring moments of ‘ordinariness’ together benefited them in various ways. I will also interrogate the notion of ‘normal’ and suggest ways that reading YA fiction might help enthusiastic teen readers do the same.
Dr Alison Waller is a Reader in Children’s Literature, English and Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton. Her latest monograph, Rereading Childhood Books: a Poetics (Bloomsbury 2019), examined how adults negotiate relationships with books from their pasts and she is now collaborating with schools and young people to create digital YA reading communities for her Covid-19 related project, ‘Reading for Normal’.
This event is free. Please book via Eventbrite and specify whether you are attending online or in person: https://bit.ly/3mIJxjY
11-20th November, Queen Mary is holding a series of events as part of Being Human Festival. These include Reimagining my city, a zine-making workshop for 7-13 year olds drawing inspiration from historical magazines created by East London children on the 13th, and How Queer Everything is Today!, a museum-wide programme of events at the V&A engaging with the world of Lewis Carroll, organised by us (Lucie and Kiera).
Other relevant events reflect on the publication of child poetry anthology Stepney Words in 1971 and subsequent school strikes, and the premier of a new film by young writers from Barking and Dagenham. The full programme of events is available on the Queen Mary and Being Human Festival websites: https://bit.ly/3FvjB45
All events are free but need to be booked via the links above.
9th May 2022 Centre for Childhood Cultures annual lecture:
Professor Erica Burman, Putting ‘Child as Method’ to Work?
Queen Mary University of London venue tbc, 6pm.
In this lecture, Prof Burman will outline the conceptual resources informing ‘Child as method’, an analytical approach she has developed. Drawing on postcolonial and migration studies, ‘Child as method’ explicates the necessary inscriptions of ‘child’ and ‘development’ across economic, sociocultural, and individual trajectories that position children and childhood as a key contributor to, and reflection of, wider geopolitical dynamics. In addition, Prof Burman will offer some examples of the interpretive and methodological possibilities of ‘Child as method’, alongside some further discussion of its other analytical contributions.
Save the date, further details and how to book will be circulated nearer the time.
Finally, two of the Rethinking Childhood Today series, Understanding Experience: Approaches to the Histories of Childhood and Youth and Putting ‘Children First’? Tentative Explorations of Alternative Imaginaries were recorded and are available via our website (under the event listings):
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