Here are all of the 2024 MLA sessions devoted to Children’s Literature, Comics/Graphic Novels, or Childhood Studies. The conference will be held this year in person in Philadelphia — and on-line, as noted below. I’ll be there! I’m chairing one on-line session and one in-person session. If you’ll be there, too, stop by and say hello! And, of course, do let me know if I’ve missed any sessions!
MLA has also created a shorter, curated lists of sessions on Children’s Literature and Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies.
27 – Childhood in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Culture
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Description
Panelists discuss the recurrent figure of children in artistic representations in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Iberian culture. Notions of gender and race, disability and disease, joy and suffering, practices of inclusion and exclusion, and the role of children’s toys as figures of contemporary social issues will be explored, at a time when infancy was approached as an autonomous and cultural category with a powerful role in the formation of the modern state.
Presider: Sara Munoz-Muriana, Dartmouth C
Speakers
- Beatriz Cobeta, Simmons U
- María Luisa Guardiola, Swarthmore C
- Erika Rodriguez, U of Maine
- Elizabeth Rousselle, Xavier U, LA
- Sarah Sierra, Virginia Tech
- Nicholas Wolters, Wake Forest U
Session Information
- Forum: Spanish and Iberian – LLC 18th- and 19th-Century Spanish and Iberian
- Allied Organization: International Association of Galdós Scholars
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Spanish Literature – Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Keywords
34 – Bildung Today
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Join Virtual Session on 4 January, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Description
Panelists consider the contemporary status of Bildung as the focus of debates about education and political and cultural identity.
Presider: David Tse-chien Pan, U of California, Irvine
Speakers
- Xudong Zhang, New York U
- Russell A. Berman, Stanford U
- Jennifer Ham, U of Wisconsin, Green Bay
- Ulrich Kinzel, Christian-Albrechts-U
- David Tse-chien Pan, U of California, Irvine
Session Information
Keywords
98 – Ecstasies of Youth in French and Francophone Media
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
Join Virtual Session on 4 January, 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
Presider: Amber Sweat, U of California, Berkeley
Presentations
- ‘L’iguifou’; or, The Ecstasies of Hunger in Iguifou of Scholastique Mukasonga, Hugo Bujon, Rutgers U, Camden
- Ecstasy and Voyeurism in La graine et le mulet (2007), Miranda Hoegberg, U of California, Los Angeles
- The Dance of Joy and Pain: Indigenous Youth on Screen in Quebec Cinema, Milena Santoro, Georgetown U
Session Information
- Program: Special Sessions
- Subject: Francophone Literature – General
- Session: Ecstasies of Youth in French and Francophone Media
Keywords
124 – Mapping Spanish and Iberian Comics and Graphic Narratives
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Respondent: Joanne Britland, Framingham State U
Presentations
- The “Golden Age” of Spanish Graphic Narrative and Its Contradictions, Xavier Dapena, Iowa State U
- Seeing Elephants: Countering the Colonial Gaze in Hispanophone Comics, Caroline Colquhoun, U of Alaska, Fairbanks
- The Spanish Odalisque in the Works of Ana Miralles, Nadiyah Aamer, U of Miami
- Spain beyond Spain: The Tourist Gaze in Contemporary Spanish Graphic Travelogues, Kathy Korcheck, Central C
Session Information
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Forum: Spanish and Iberian – LLC 20th- and 21st-Century Spanish and Iberian
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Spanish Literature – Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Keywords
145 – No Longer for Kids: Children’s Literature and Higher Education
Thursday, 4 January 2024, 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM
Presider: Noah Mullens, U of Florida
Presentations
- Confronting Slavery’s Gothic Legacy in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Maude Hines, Portland State U
- Circumventing the Genre: The Politics of Art, Readership, and the Representation of Tara Books, Sayanti Mondal, Illinois State U
- Puerto Rican Solidarity: Empire and Colonial Relationship in Hurricane Narratives, Edcel Javier Cintron-Gonzalez, Illinois State U
Session Information
- Allied Organization: Children’s Literature Association
- Forum: TM Libraries and Research
- Program: Allied Organizations
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
Keywords
257 – Challenge, Ban, Censor: Curtailing Comics
Friday, 5 January 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Marriott – Franklin 3 (Level 4)
Presider: Qiana Whitted, U of South Carolina, Columbia
Presentations
- ‘We Don’t Need the Nakedness and All the Other Stuff’: Maus, Graphic History, and School Board Excuse, Chase Gregory, Bucknell U
- Rhetorics of Ideological Neutrality in CRT-Based Challenges to Jerry Craft’s New Kid, Patrick Lawrence, U of South Carolina, Lancaster
- Seduction by the ImageText: Implicit Theories of Comics Censorship, Aaron Kashtan, U of North Carolina, Charlotte
- ‘Nobody Knows Exactly How Many People Were Killed’: Censorship, Death, and Resistance in Puerto Rican Graphic Narratives, Fernanda Diaz-Basteris, Ohio State U, Columbus
Session Information
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Cultural Studies, Folklore, and Popular Culture
- Session: Challenge, Ban, Censor: Curtailing Comics
Keywords
293 – Children’s Literature under the Long Shadow of US Imperialism
Friday, 5 January 2024, 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Marriott – Franklin 9 (Level 4)
Description
Scholars such as Marilisa Jiménez García and Brian Rouleau have made crucial contributions to children’s literature studies by examining children’s literature and youth literature through the lens of US imperialism, yet this lens remains underutilized in the field. Participants consider how centering US imperialism can reshape the ways we define, theorize, and historicize children’s literature.
For related material, visit mla.hcommons.org/groups/childrens-and-young-adult-literature/
Presider: Lara Saguisag, New York U
- Edcel Javier Cintron-Gonzalez, Illinois State U
- Marilisa Jimenez, Simmons U
- Gabriela Lee, U of Pittsburgh
- Ayantika Mukherjee, U of Alberta
Session Information
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Children’s Literature under the Long Shadow of US Imperialism
Keywords
365 – Tomorrow’s Joy: Death, Hope, and Futurity in Latinx Children’s and Young Adult Fiction
Friday, 5 January 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Presider: Alberto Varon, Indiana U, Bloomington
Presentations
- Hegemonic Imagined Citizenships in YA Speculative Fiction, Renee Hudson, Chapman U
- On Closets and Other Planets in Cristy C. Road’s Spit and Passion, Maite Urcaregui, San José State U
- Necropolitics Narrated: Death, Deportation, and Power in the Latinx YA Novel Sanctuary, Vanessa de Veritch Woodside, U of Washington, Tacoma
- From Paratexts and Contexts, to Languages and Generations: Bilingual Mexican American Literature, Anna Maria Nogar, U of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Session Information
- Forum: American – LLC Latina and Latino
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Tomorrow’s Joy: Death, Hope, and Futurity in Latinx Children’s and Young Adult Fiction
Keywords
427 – Nostalgia in and for Children’s Literature
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM
Join Virtual Session on 6 January, 8:30 AM – 9:45 AM
For related material, visit mla.hcommons.org/groups/childrens-and-young-adult-literature/
Presider: Philip Nel, Kansas State U
Presentations
- Nostalgia and the Imperial Game from Peter Pan to Jumanji, Rosetta Young, Dartmouth C
- Muslim Abjections, Transtemporal Identifications: Postimperial Nostalgia in Islamist Dramatic Liter, Rustem Ertug Altinay, U of Milan
- Reclaiming Rurality, Heritage, and Nationalism: The Rhetoric of Nostalgia in Chinese Coming-of-Age Novels, Chengcheng You, U of Macau
- The Poetics of Reverie in Jostein Gaarder’s The Orange Girl, Maryam Khorasani, U of Florida
Session Information
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Nostalgia in and for Children’s Literature
Keywords
460 – Drag Queens, Stories about Black People, and Other Dangers
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 10:15 AM – 11:30 AM
For related material, visit this page.
Description
This session brings together experts in literary and cultural studies and equity pedagogy, inside and outside academia, to address book banning and multicultural children’s literature.
Presider: Philip Nel, Kansas State U
- Francesca López, Penn State U, University Park
- Ian Morrison, Philly Drag Queen Mafia
- Torrey Maldonado, children’s literature author and New York City public school teacher
Session Information
- Committee: MLA Office of the Executive Director
- Program: MLA Committees
- Subject: The Profession – General
- Session: Drag Queens, Stories about Black People, and Other Dangers
494 – Twentieth-Century BIPOC Writers for Young Adults: Recasting the History of the Genre
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Marriott – Franklin 9 (Level 4)
Presiders
- Amanda M. Greenwell, Central Connecticut State U
- Kiedra B. Taylor, U of Connecticut, Storrs
Presentations
- Making Chicanx Teens: The Impact of the Chicano Movement on Chicanx Young Adult Literature, Cristina Rhodes, Shippensburg U
- My Name Is Seepeetza, by Shirley Sterling, Edited by Patsy Aldana: Residential School Storytelling, Andrea Davidson, U of Antwerp
- Black Teens on the Rise in the 1990s: Consciousness in Young Adult Literature of the Decade, Katherine Sciurba, San Diego State U
- Stories about War and Violence: Historicizing the Publishing of Kiśor Literature in India, Titas Bose, U of Chicago
Session Information
- Allied Organization: Children’s Literature Association
- Program: Allied Organizations
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Twentieth-Century BIPOC Writers for Young Adults: Recasting the History of the Genre
Keywords
590 – Coming of Age at the Margins (of Society and Literature)
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
For related material, write to rquintanavallejo@ric.edu
Presider: Ricardo Quintana-Vallejo, Rhode Island C
Presentations
- Gaming the Bildungsroman: Participatory Richness and Player-Character Intimacy in Persona V, Evan Chaloupka, Franklin U
- Childhood Queered: Reimagining Futurity and YA Literature for Children of Color, Kevin Blanks, George Washington U
- A Sliver of Gray: Adolescent Immigration and the Civil Rights Movement in Lila Quintero Weaver, Joshua Murray, Fayetteville State U
- Desi Refusal: Novels and Growing Up Brown in the Age of Terror, Jay Shelat, Ursinus C
Session Information
- Program: Special Sessions
- Subject: Comparative Literature – Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Session: Coming of Age at the Margins (of Society and Literature)
- Session: Coming of Age at the Margins (of Society and Literature)
Keywords
596 – The Biopolitics of Comics
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Presider: Katherine Kelp-Stebbins, U of Oregon
Respondent: William Orchard, Queens C, City U of New York
Presentations
- Plastic Bodies and Chronic Conditions: Productivity and Wellness across Kabi’s Diaristic Comics, Js Wu, U of Pennsylvania
- Diseased Pariahs, Infected Faggots, and Truvada Whores: HIV Zines and the Making of Biological Citizens, Nicholas Derda, U of Southern California
- Eugenic Fantasies, Failed Utopias, and the Biopolitics of Disability in Sci-Fi Comics, Andrew Lucchesi, Western Washington U
- Vitality and Visualization: Thinking Comics Value from Laylah Ali and Miné Okubo, Tony Wei Ling, U of California, Los Angeles
Session Information
- Forum: GS Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Cultural Studies, Folklore, and Popular Culture
- Session: The Biopolitics of Comics
Keywords
604 – Drag Story Hour: Children’s Literature, Right-Wing Hate, and Queer Celebration
Saturday, 6 January 2024, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM
For related material, visit mla.hcommons.org/groups/childrens-and-young-adult-literature/
Presider: Gabrielle (Brie) Owen, U of Nebraska, Lincoln
Presentations
- Rewinding the History of Drag Performance for Children: A Nineteenth-Century Perspective, Ian M. Clark, Queen’s U
- Censorship and Book Bans against Queer-of-Color Children’s Literature since the 1990s, Isabel Millan, U of Oregon
- Drag Queen Story Hour for Today’s Queer Children, Mary Zaborskis, Penn State U, Harrisburg
- Gender and Sexuality Ethics for Children at Drag Story Hour, Gabrielle (Brie) Owen, U of Nebraska, Lincoln
Session Information
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Forum: TC Sexuality Studies
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
Keywords
720 – Sentimental (Mis)Educations: Joys and Sorrows of Childhood
Sunday, 7 January 2024, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Join Virtual Session on 7 January, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Description
Panelists explore narratives about childhood, education, play, nostalgia, growing up, growing sideways, and trickster characters in francophone literature and cinema. Its geographic scope extending across West Africa, the Maghreb, and France highlights the entanglement of notions of childhood and coming of age with the political realities of empire, decolonization, and migration.
Presider: Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Duke U
Speakers
- Hugo Bujon, Rutgers U, New Brunswick
- Andrew Hopper, U of California, Davis
- Molly O’Brien, Princeton U
- Kimberly Rooney, U of Wisconsin, Madison
- Amber Sweat, U of California, Berkeley
- Lena Udall, Pepperdine U
Session Information
Keywords
737 – Grief and Loss in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Sunday, 7 January 2024, 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Marriott – Franklin 3 (Level 4)
For related material, visit mla.hcommons.org/groups/childrens-and-young-adult-literature/
Presider: Karin E. Westman, Kansas State U
Presentations
- Technologies of Grieving in the Eighteenth-Century School Story, Shawn Lisa Maurer, C of the Holy Cross
- The Gothic Working-Through of Loss and Trauma in A Series of Unfortunate Events, Julie Veitch, U of Waterloo
- ‘After All This Time’: Prolonged Grief and the Harry Potter Series, Gina Mingoia, Stony Brook U, State U of New York
- Growth over Grief: Teenage Sexual Debuts and Narratives of Loss, Tita Kyrtsakas, York U
Session Information
- Forum: GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature
- Program: Forum Sessions
- Subject: Genre, Theory, Method – Children’s Literature
- Session: Grief and Loss in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Keywords
Children’s and YA Literature Forum Executive Committee Meeting
Wednesday, January 10, 1:00pm ET / 12:00pm CT
Our committee will be meeting online this year directly following the MLA Convention (Jan 4-7).
At the meeting, we will be considering nominations for the Executive Committee as well as session proposals for MLA 2025 in New Orleans (Jan 9-12).
So we can ensure representation from across our field of children’s and YA literature, we encourage you to self-nominate for service on the Forum’s Executive Committee and/or to propose a session for MLA 2025.
Self-Nomination Form for Exec Committee: https://tinyurl.com/mlachildlitexecnom
MLA Session Proposal Form: https://tinyurl.com/mlachildlitpropose
Guidelines and restrictions for both opportunities are included at the links above. However, if you have questions after reviewing that information, you’re welcome to email Karin Westman as the Committee’s outgoing Chair at westmank@ksu.edu.
Note: Self-nominations and proposals are due by **Monday Jan 8 at 11:59pm ET ** using the links provided above.
Finally, our MLA Forum has typically opened a part of our Forum meeting to colleagues not currently serving on the Executive Committee. For those who would like to join us, we are scheduled to meet on Weds Jan 10, 2:00pm ET / 1:00pm CT: register for the Zoom link at https://tinyurl.com/mlachildlitexec2024