CfP: Florida: Past and Present State(s) of Empire in Children’s and Young Adult Literature (A post by Peter Jordens).

The 2017 Children’s Literature Association (ChLA) Conference will be held in Tampa, Florida, June 22-24. The ChLA Diversity Committee is organizing a panel at the ChLA Conference, themed ‘Florida: Past and Present State(s) of Empire in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.’

Description: In many ways, Florida represents both past and present tensions over history, race, displacement, language, and citizenship central to national debates. Florida’s popular image as a vacation spot veils its place as a site of Spanish and American empire. The city of St. Augustine’s claim as “the oldest city in the United States” masks its start as the first Spanish settlement (1565), which includes a history of colonization, displacement, war, violence, and cultural appropriation for Native Americans. Tensions remain today for Native Americans in the state (and throughout the US) with the debate over complex issues such as cultural appropriation, revisionist histories, and undocumented violence against their community. In addition to Native Americans in Florida, generations of Latino/a and Caribbean immigrants call the Sunshine State home, including those from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Jamaica. Tampa’s Ibor City and St. Augustine were among the first places were AfroLatin@s settled in the US (Juan Flores, The Afro-Latin@ Reader, 2012). The state’s legacy of Jim Crow segregation and racial violence has been documented by scholars studying local traumas such as Rosewood and the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

This panel seeks papers that explore topics inspired by Florida’s history, though works do not have to be set in Florida per se. We invite papers examining works by children’s and young adult authors depicting life in the “Old South” and Jim Crow segregation, Latin@ and/or Caribbean documented and undocumented migration, bilingual literature, Native Americans, AfroCaribbean, and AfroLatin@ representations, and travel and tourism.

Questions? Contact Marilisa Jimenez Garcia at marilisajg@gmail.com or Karen Chandler atkmchan01@louisville.edu. Email 500-word abstract and 2-page CV by September 15, 2016, attaching them in .rtf, .doc, or .docks format, and including email and phone number.

For more information about the 2017 ChLA Conference, visit http://www.childlitassn.org/2017