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Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood will be held May 5-7, 2011 at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.

Conference Themes and Questions (from the call)

Definitions of Childhood: invented or discovered: Who gets to define childhood? What counts as a good childhood? A “normal” childhood? How have been childhoods defined in various media (art, literature, social science, science)? By what measures? And at what historical junctures?

Indigenous theories of childhood: What alternate models of childhood and development exist? How can they be found? Interpreted? Shared? What is therole of the child and childhood in other societies? What rights, and responsibilities do they have?

Gender: How do the categories of gender and child overlap, extend, elaborate or contradict one another? How do sex, gender and sexuality shape the experience of childhood? What are the policy effects of concerns about boys at risk or girls at play?

Globalization: How do global models of childhood interact with local conceptions? Do global educational standards contradict or support local sovereignty? What are the effects of migration, diaspora, refugee status on childhood? How does globalization affect the commoditization of childhood?

Empowerment: What are the social and policy implications for a child-centred approach to human rights? How can we understand child agency in terms of violence and the law? What can empowerment mean for the very young child?

Keynote Speakers

Patrizia Albanese (Centre for Children, Youth and Families, Ryerson University)

Mona Gleason (University of British Columbia)

Allison James (Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield)

Perry Nodelman (Professor Emeritus, University of Winnipeg)

Mavis Reimer (Canada Research Chair in the Culture of Childhood and Director of the

Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, University of Winnipeg)

Richard Tremblay (Research Unit on Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment, University of Montreal).

Deadline for submissions: Oct 1, 2010. See conference website for more information.

It looks like Ryerson University is working to launch a research institute devoted to immigration and settlement issues. Good luck to them. As part of this initiative, they are calling for proposals for a conference entitled “Migration and the Global City”. The conference, a launch to the proposed research centre, tentatively called the Ryerson Institute on Immigration and Settlement (RISS), will be held on the Ryerson campus from October 29-31, 2010.

A call for papers has been released here. Of particular interest to immigrantchildren.ca, conference themes include; Children and Youth; Citizenship, Migration and Identity; Precarious and Temporary Status; and Settlement Services.

The conference will feature a range of activities, including day-trips to local immigrant/settlement locations, a film-documentary screening and art-show, and a possible “CIHR-funded pre-conference on immigrant and refugee children and youth” (Source: Ryerson website). Ryerson – do let us know at immigrantchildren.ca how we can support this important inclusion!

Deadline for abstract submission is June 15, 2010.

The Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association (CESA) announces a call for papers for their joint annual conference to be held Nov 5-6, 2010  in Toronto (Airport Holiday Inn). The theme of the 2010 conference is “Ethnicity, Governance and Social Justice: Linking Canada to the World”.

From the call: “Conference organizers welcome proposals for papers, sessions, panels, roundtables, and poster presentations that address the topics of ethnicity, immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism in Canada, particularly in relation to social justice and governance. Organizers invite submissions from a variety of perspectives, academic disciplines, and areas of study, including the humanities and the social sciences”.

Selected papers from the 2010 conference will be published in a special issue of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal.

Abstracts should be 250 words or less. Deadline for submissions is Sept 15, 2010. For more information, contact James Ondrick, ACS at: james.ondrick@acs-aec.ca and visit both the ACS and CESA websites.

The theme for the 2010 NAME (National Association for Multicultural Education) conference is “Empowering Children and Youth: Equity, Multiculturally Responsive Teaching and Achievement Gaps”. The international conference runs from Nov 4-6, 2010 in Las Vegas NV.

Deadline is April 17, 2010. For more information and to access the online submission form, see the conference website.

The Society for Research in Child Development journal Child Development Perspectives is seeking papers for a special issue focusing on “positive development of minority children. This special issue will feature emerging trends and new conclusions that have advanced the understanding and knowledge base of positive development with regard to ethnic minority children”.

Deadlines for abstracts is May 15, 2010. For more information, see the SRCD website.

The (US-based) National Association for Multicultural Education will hold its next – and its 20th – conference November 4-6, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. The theme is Empowering Children and Youth: Equity, Multiculturally Responsive Teaching and Achievement Gaps. From the call:

“Since the founding of NAME, it has become clear that empowerment of children and youth, and the urgency of addressing achievement gaps, dropout rates, and the larger equity issues within which they are embedded, includes marginalization on the basis of race, class, language, sexual orientation, gender, disability, and religion. In fact, rather than being separate and distinct communities, they overlap in complex ways, suggesting that teaching should be multiculturally responsive. … Further, these issues transcend concerns within the U.S., inviting international dialog about diversity, equity, multiculturalism, and justice”.

“The vitality of NAME flows from its diverse membership. Thus, it is NAMEs policy to ensure presentations by and about diverse ethnic, racial, gender, language, religious, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, disability, and geographic groups. Presentations by teachers, school administrators, community activists, government and organization officials, higher education faculty, and others interested in the conference theme are encouraged. Students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate) and international scholars, practitioners, and activists are also encouraged to submit proposals”.

For more information, and to submit an online proposal (deadline is April 17th), visit the NAME website.

The IFLA Section Library Services to Multicultural Populations will hold an IFLA Satellite meeting in Copenhagen, August 17-18, 2010. From the call for papers: “We are living in a changing world where populations are moving and local societies are becoming increasingly diverse – socially, economically, ethnically, linguistically and culturally. In the meantime, the physical library as a concept is under increasing pressure in the twenty-first century”.

The Danish Library Centre for Integration and Copenhagen Public Libraries are organising this post conference/satellite meeting held in conjunction with the annual IFLA conference held in Gothenburg (Sweden). Paper are being invited to discuss some of the following possible topics:

Best innovative practice: Library projects that have excelled in creating new and innovative services to multicultural or bicultural populations either using new technology, new partnerships etc.

Critical perspectives on how libraries, as institutions in the twenty first century, meet the ideals: free access to knowledge, accessibility for all and inclusiveness.

Dynamic facilitation of books, music and films in minority or traditional languages and general library services to multilingual communities.
1. Inclusive communication strategies and awareness of the communicative aspects of physical space and presentation.
2. Recruitment strategies – how do we recruit library staff (on all levels) in the future, so that employees reflect the local community?

Submission are due March 1, 2010. For more information, contact Susy Tastesen, Copenhagen Public Libraries: +45 33 66 67 66 or abstract@iflacopenhagen.com.

NB: UPDATE Jan 19th: The call for proposals has been extended to March 10th.

Following on the call for papers for the 4th annual On New Shores conference, co-organizer Dr. Susan Chuang has today announced additions to the conference. First, the conference will be dedicated to Dr. Tom Luster of Michigan State University, who passed away last year. Dr. Luster was an advocate for immigrant children and families and had attended two of the 4 On New Shores conferences.

Dr. Chuang has also arranged for all conference delegates to attend a traditional ten-course Chinese dinner as part of the conference, including transportation. A great opportunity to meet and network!

Reminder: Deadline for the call for papers is February 15th. For more info, contact Dr. Chuang at schuang@uoguelph.ca and see the related post: Call for papers: On New Shores.

From the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) a call for papers on Caribbean mothering to be published Fall, 2012. From the call: “This anthology will examine the diverse and complex experiences of motherhood and mothering from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. We welcome submissions that explore the major cultural, political, historical, and economic factors such as migration and transnationalism that influence the lives of Caribbean mothers. Further, we encourage writings that represent the relationships between Caribbean mothers and their children”.

Abstracts of 250 words and a 50 word bio should be sent by Aug 1/10 to editors D. Smith Silva and S.A. James Alexander at caribbeanmothering@yahoo.com. For more information, see the ARM website.

NB: UPDATE Jan 19th: The call for proposals has been extended to March 10th.

The theme for the 4th annual On New Shores, Understanding Immigrant Children is resilience of immigrants and features keynote speaker Dr. Michael Ungar.

From the call: “The goal of the conference is to bring together various stakeholders (academia, community, and government sectors) to collectively examine and discuss issues of stress as well as resilience of immigrant and refugee children, youth and families.

Researchers from various disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, social work, education) are welcomed.

Dr. Michaal Ungar, Dalhousie University, social worker and family therapist, is a leading scholar on resiliency and will offer a half researchers. Other scholars from various disciplines will be presenting, including: Marc Bornstein, Bob Bradley, Judith Bernhard, Ruth Chao, Xinyin Chen, David Este, Jo Ann Farver, Cynthia Garcia Coll, Uwe Gielen, Hiro Yoshikawa”.

Options for the conference:

Paper Presentation: The presenter will discuss his/her work/program which is empirically-based. The talk will be about 15 – 20 minutes, depending on the number of presenters in each session.

Discussion Hour: Several presenters (preferably well-established) discussing their areas of expertise for 3-5 minutes. The purpose is to engage in in-depth discussions on a theme.

Roundtable/Workshop: This involves a more informal forum to explore and discuss the issues at hand. This would be led by 2-4 individuals/organizations and the number of participants would be limited to about 30-50 people.

Poster Presentation: The presenter will display their work on a free-standing poster board for the delegates to read. Informal discussions will then merge from this process. This forum is primarily for new scholars (graduate students) and others who may prefer this type of engagement.

Deadline for proposals is Feb 15, 2010. NB: Deadline is now March 10th. For more information, contact: Susan S. Chuang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Guelph, 519.824.4120 x 58389 or schuang@uoguelph.ca.

NB: See Dr. Michael Ungar’s blog Nurturing Resilience.

Children and War: Past and Present is the title of an international, multidisciplinary conference to be held Sept 30-Oct 2/10 at the University of Salzburg, Austria.

An edited excerpt from the call:  “In recent years the volume of research on ‘Children and War’, by academics, governmental and non-governmental organisations and institutions as well as the media, has  continually increased. At the same time there has been a growing public interest in how children experience military conflicts and how their lives have been affected by war and its aftermath.

“Proposals which focus on any topic and theme on ‘Children and War’ are welcome, ranging from the experience of war, resettlement, trafficking, trauma and amnesia, the trans-generational impact of persecution, individual and collective memory, educational issues, films and documentaries, artistic and literary approaches, to remembrance and memorials, and questions of theory and methodology”.

Themes anticipated include children as witnesses and victims and child soldiers.

Abstracts of 200-250 words and bios of 50-100 words should be sent to conference co-cordinator Prof Johannes-Dieter Steinert, Modern European History and Migration Studies, University of Wolverhampton: j.d.steinert@wlv.ac.uk, as well as any requests for more information.

From the H-CHILDHOOD@H-NET.MSU.EDU listserv: Proposed panel on changing intra- and inter-generational relationships in migration contexts for CAFRMS 2010:

“I am interested in proposing a panel on intra- and inter-generational relationships in migration contexts for the third annual conference of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS), hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on May 6-8, 2010. The conference theme is Forced Migration: Challenges and Change.

“Within this context, I am soliciting expressions of interest from colleagues working on age, generation and family relations to participate in a proposed panel on dynamic intra- and inter-generational relationships within contexts of migration. I believe that this could be an opportunity for researchers and practitioners working with migrants (interpreted broadly to include asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced people,at different phases of the life cycle from infancy to old age to come together around the common theme of dynamic generational relationships. The panel would seek to address the overarching conference theme of challenges and change. Papers addressing conceptual, theoretical, empirical and/or methodological issues are welcome.

“Please submit a 250 word abstract and short (one paragraph) bibliography by January 5th, 2010 to: cclark-kazak@glendon.yorku.ca. The panel proposal will then be submitted to the conference organizers, who will take the final decision on whether or not the panel will be accepted”.

Christina Clark-Kazak, DPhil
Assistant Professor, International Studies, Glendon College, York University
2275 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M6
Tel: 416.736.2100 ext 88106

Related immigrantchildren.ca post: Call for papers: Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies

For more information on the CARFMS conference, contact Heather Johnson – johnsohl@mcmcaster.ca, or visit the conference website.