CFP - Marvellous Imaginations: Extending Thinking through Picturebooks

23rd Annual NCRCL MA/IBBY UK Conference
Saturday, 5 November, 2016
Froebel College, University of Roehampton

Marvellous Imaginations - Extending Thinking through Picturebooks
Deadline Extension – New Date 30 June 2016

This year’s conference explores the ways in which picturebooks contribute to the development of the child (or / and indeed the adult) through critical, imaginative, empathetic, creative or other responses. We will look at the international world of picture books; at trends and developments in publishing; at specific academic research on children’s interaction with picture books; and at some of the wide range of programmes and projects that use picture books as a starting point for their work, including established programmes like the Reader Organisation in Liverpool and new programmes like CLPE’s Power of Pictures and Amnesty’s work with the Greenaway awards. We will hear from eminent illustrators, including Laura Carlin who will be presented with her medal for winning Biennale of Illustration, Bratislava, one of the oldest international honours for children's book illustrators, and about the new Klaus Flugge Prize for the most exciting newcomer to picture book illustration. The conference will include keynote presentations by well-known illustrators, academics, and key figures in the children’s literature world.

Proposals are welcomed for workshop sessions (20 minutes) on different aspects of picturebook production and use, such as, but not only:

• Cognitive approaches to children’s literature and picturebooks
• Emotional intelligence
• Empathy and theory of mind
• Exploring values through picturebooks
• Growth mind set
• Innovative/experimental picturebooks
• Challenging picturebooks
• Illustrators’ experiences
• How illustration works – the brain – influence of neuroscience
• Psychological responses
• Wordless picturebooks
• Crossover picturebooks
• Creative thinking / creative responses to picturebooks

We welcome contributions from interested academics, authors, illustrators, publishers etc. in any of these areas. Please email a 200-word abstract (for a 20-minute paper), along with a short biography and affiliation to: Julia.Noyce@roehampton.ac.uk.