Call for Chapters - Representations of Children and Youth in Popular Culture
Call for Chapters
Representations of Children and Youth in Popular Culture
Ingrid E. Castro, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, USA
Jessica Clark, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, UK
We are currently seeking chapter submissions for an edited volume that interrogates the representations of children and young people’s agency in popular culture. When considering children and youth, acts of agency are inseparable from the heightened structures they are forced to work within and around. The complexity of these analyses is heightened further when examining the spatial, material, and familial structures and contexts within which agency may be realized and performed. Placed on them by “well-meaning” adults and the institutions they govern, children will find small and large ways to have their intentions known, desires expressed, and voices heard above the din of what adults (and sometimes peers) think is best for their development, safety, and futures.
While the topic of children’s agency has received some attention in sociology, psychology, and childhood studies, this book aims to contribute to such discussions by considering the under-interrogated domain of representations of children’s agency in popular culture. As such, this volume will explore children and youth’s agency as found in the popular cultural forms of film, television, literature, music, comic books, animation, video games, art, sports, toys, etc. Representations of children’s agency in popular culture can be analyzed from a variety of grounding points. For example, chapters might consider the intersection of agency and:
- Friendships/Dating
- Family/Intergenerational Relations
- Pets/Animals/Nature
- Age/Time
- Material Culture: Permanent/Impermanent
- Gender/Race/Ethnicity/Class
- Bodies/Sexuality/Disability
- Religion/Spirituality
- Education/Work
- Innocence/Knowledge
- Space/Place/Location
- Genre/Era
(This list is by no means exhaustive and we are happy to consider any work which places representation of children’s agency at its center).
We hope to include chapters by authors from a variety of disciplines and viewpoints, reflecting the contemporary study of and with children and childhood. Please submit a 500-word chapter abstract and a biography of no more than 250 words by July 31 to: representationsofagency@gmail.com.
All proposed abstracts will be given full consideration, and submission implies a commitment to publish in this volume if your work is selected for inclusion. If selected, completed chapters will be due by November 30.
All questions regarding this volume should be directed to: representationsofagency@gmail.com.