DCU researchers feature in ISSCL Conversation Series

Dr Jennifer Mooney chaired Conversations One, ‘Family in Children’s and Young adult Literature’, 23 April, and Three:  ‘Controversy in in Children’s and YA Literature’ on 23rd April and 7th May. In the context of the recent referendum concerning the concept of family in the Irish Constitution, the first session discussed children’s and YA literature’s significant role in shaping ideas about family and “exploding the nuclear family”.

The third session brought together the editors of a recently published essay collection, Navigating Children’s Literature through Controversy: Global and Transnational Perspectives, along with some of the contributors. The discussion broached controversial issues related to children’s and YA literature in local or national as well as international of transnational contexts.

The School of English's Mairead Jordan also featured on the second conversation in the series, 'ECOLOGIES IN CHILDREN’S AND YA LITERATURE.'

DCU School of English PhD students, Mairéad Jordan and Allison McBain Hudson, are on the ISSCL executive committee and Dr Jennifer Mooney is the current ISSCL President.

The ISSCL is a membership organisation which promotes academic research into children's literature. The membership is open to academics and researchers at all career stages, and includes researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines.

In related news, School of English PhD student and ISSCL executive committee member, Allison McBain Hudson, has published a chapter in L.M. Montgomery’s “Emily of New Moon”: A Children’s Classic at 100 (forthcoming May 2024) – a collection of essays edited by Yan Du and Joe Sutliff Suanders for the Children’s Literature Association Series.