CFP - Becoming Latin American: Children, Education and Citizenship

Call for Papers
Becoming Latin American: Children, Education and Citizenship
University of Reading, Thursday, 13 September 2018
www.becominglatinamerican.wordpress.com
Deadline for proposals: 31 July 2018

Organiser: Dr Catriona McAllister (c.mcallister@reading.ac.uk)
Keynote Speaker: Dr Lauren Rea, University of Sheffield

Papers are invited for a one-day symposium exploring how children are educated as members of Latin American nations. Through interdisciplinary conversations, we aim to examine how specific ideas of the nation and citizenship are communicated to children in both formal and informal settings across the region. The term ‘education’ will therefore be understood in a broad sense, encompassing (but not limited to) the school system, cultural institutions, children’s literature and popular/mass cultural forms. Above all, the symposium will explore cultural and political interventions that seek to educate children in the behaviours and values of their nation-states and societies. The symposium will be structured around three principal themes: Children and Nation-building; Culture and Education; and Citizenship and Society.

Papers are welcome from any discipline and both contemporary and historical perspectives on the theme are encouraged. Key questions include (but are not limited to) the following:

• How has the child been constructed as (proto)citizen in Latin America?
• How have evolving national, regional and local identity narratives influenced children’s education?
• What concepts of citizenship are taught to Latin American children, both formally and informally?
• How does children’s literature seek to shape Latin American children as citizens?
• How do mass and popular cultural forms seek to intervene in this landscape?
• How do cultural institutions (such as museums) contribute to the education of children as members of the nation?
• How have children been framed in different state-driven nation-building projects, and how does this relate to political discourse on the family?
• What alternative projects challenge ‘official’ narratives?

Abstracts are invited for papers of 15 minutes (in English or Spanish). To submit a proposal, please email an abstract of up to 250 words to c.mcallister@reading.ac.uk by Tuesday, July 31. Informal enquiries are also welcome.

A limited number of travel/accommodation bursaries for postgraduate students will be offered. These will be awarded to the best proposals from those who have limited or no funding available. If you would like to be considered, please include details of your expected travel costs and your access to other sources of funding with your abstract.

This event is sponsored by the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Institute of Modern Languages Research.