Events and visitors
Morag Styles, Professor
of Children's Poetry
We are delighted that Morag Styles has been made a professor.
At a party to celebrate the news, she announced that she has decided to be 'Professor of Children's Poetry'.
Centre Open Day – Thursday 12 May
"I enjoyed every minute of it"
"I wouldn't have missed it for the world"
Just a couple of comments from the overwhelming response to our first Centre Open Day on Thursday, 12 May. More than a hundred visitors enjoyed talks from staff and students as well as an entertaining lecture from Michael Rosen. Over tea and children's-literature-themed cupcakes, visitors browsed an extensive exhibition on Children's Literature and the work of Centre, and there were expressions of interest in the Masters, PhD programmes and in the Teaching Caribbean Poetry course.
For more on the Open Day, see the Cambridge Children's Literature Students Blog.
Shakespeare: Sources and Adaptation
An interdisciplinary three-day conference to explore some of the classical and vernacular drama and poetry, and the historical sources that inspired Shakespeare’s work, as well as the work – literary, artistic, musical and filmic – that has in turn been influenced by Shakespeare’s plays.
Philippa Pearce Lecture
A series of annual lectures given in memory of Philippa Pearce. Previous speakers include Julia Eccleshare, Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, Samuel West, Victor Watson and David Wood. This year’s lecture will be given by Philip Pullman at Homerton College on 8 September, 2011.
Open research seminars
In conjunction with the PLACE (Pedagogy, Language, Art and Culture in Education) academic group in the Faculty of Education, the centre hosts a number of open research seminars each term. Visit the PLACE seminar calendar to see the full programme. Recent highlights include:
- Perry Nodelman: ‘The Mirror Staged’, February 2011
- Margaret Mackey: ‘Learning to read in a complex world’, February 2011. Well known for her work on children's literature, literacy, media texts and popular culture, Margaret Mackey, Professor of Education and Librarianship at University of Alberta, visited the centre
30 January–15 February.
Recent events
Conference: The Emergent Adult – adolescent literature and culture
In September 2010, the centre hosted seventy scholars from forty countries as they met to discuss both real adolescents and representations of adolescents in literature and media. The keynote speakers were author Meg Rosoff, who spoke from the writer’s perspective, and Professor Shirley Brice Heath (Brown University, USA) who shared her many years of making connections between brain research and young adult fiction. This proved a fruitful direction for many of the presenters, and, from the evidence of press interest and subsequent discussions in international forums, the conference is likely to mark a turning point in studies of adolescence. A book from the conference is in preparation.
The Jacqueline Wilson Award
Established in 2010 in recognition of the high quality research in children’s literature at the Faculty of Education and Homerton College, this award for an outstanding Master’s thesis has been made possible through a generous donation by Jacqueline Wilson, one of the most popular children's books writers in the UK. The first recipient of the award is Clémentine Beauvais for her Masters thesis, 'Training the philosopher-king: Platonic ideology in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series'. Clémentine is currently doing her PhD in children's literature at the Faculty. Unfortunately, the award ceremony took place in the midst of bad weather so Dame Wilson was unable to attend, but she sent the text of her address.
Inaugural lecture
February 2010, Professor Jack Zipes attended launch of the centre and gave the inaugural lecture: ‘De-Disneyfying Fairy Tales’. The Centre was formally opened by the Head of Faculty, Mike Younger and Principal of Homerton, Kate Pretty.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat
In April 2009, Morag Styles and Michael Rosen co-curated an exhibition at the British Library, celebrating 250 years of poetry for children. Alongside the exhibition an international conference also organised by Morag Styles, attracted Laureates, distinguished critics and poets. A book, Poetry and Childhood, brings together selected essays from the conference. Hear Morag and Michael Rosen talk about the exhibition.
The video is available in more formats as part of the main university video collection