CFP: Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Identities and Imaginations

My colleague Miriam Forman-Brunell and I are co-editing an anthology about princesses. It will be published by Peter Lang, the same academic press that published my previous book. Please let me know if you’d like to contribute an essay; and please spread the word to others who might be interested in writing something for us. Thanks!

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CALL FOR PAPERS:
Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Imaginations and Identities 

BOOK EDITORS:
Miriam Forman-Brunell, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Kansas City
Rebecca Hains, Ph.D., Salem State University

PUBLISHER:
Peter Lang Press
“Mediated Youth” series, edited by Sharon Mazzarella

DESCRIPTION:
Princesses are significant figures in girl culture, and they have been for at least the last two centuries. This anthology brings together international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the meanings of princesses in girls’ lives historically, currently, and comparatively: We consider how and why princess culture continues to play a role in girls’ lives.

Encompassing pop culture princesses (such as the Disney Princesses and Princess Barbie), fairy tales (and their more recent feminist revisions), and contemporary royal figures (such as Princess Diana and Kate Middleton), among others, this book illuminates the many forms that princess culture has taken across time and space—continuously redrawn and recast, but always enjoying a prominent and privileged position in girls’ everyday lives and fantasy worlds and women’s collective memories.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The editors are seeking additional scholarly essays that examine the princess as mediating figure in the imaginations and identities of girls in the US and around the world. We are especially interested in essays by scholars researching:

1) princess cultures outside the US
2) historical or contemporary royal figures

Please send a 300-word proposal, a brief bibliography, CV, and contact information to: Miriam Forman Brunell at forman-brunellm@umkc.edu and Rebecca Hains at rhains@salemstate.edu by July 15, 2012.

DUE DATES:
July 15, 2012: 300-word Proposal deadline

August 1, 2012: Notification of accepted proposals

January 15, 2013: Chapter drafts (7,000-9,000 words)

Save the Childhood Studies program at Rutgers University!

In 2007, Rutgers University launched North America’s first doctoral-level program in Childhood Studies–a multidisciplinary program located at Rutgers’ Camden, NJ campus that also offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

The program’s creation was fantastic news: the program promised to serve as a pipeline for research and social action on issues relevant to children.

The fact that an institution as esteemed Rutgers saw value in a Childhood Studies program was a boost to our growing field (which also saw the creation of the Journal of Children in Media in 2007 and Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal in 2008).

Now, in 2012–a mere 5 years later–New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has endorsed a plan to merge Rutgers University at Camden, hostile-takeover-style, into neighboring Rowan University.

Jettisoning Childhood Studies from Rutgers would sever the program’s faculty and students from the resources available at Rutgers–which could cripple this groundbreaking program. Professor Daniel Cook, director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers, explains:

All of this is threatened by this “merger” which would take the resources and name of Rutgers away and thrust us into incredible uncertainty. We are hoping to make the case to the Rutgers Board of Governors that our program is something unique and valued not only by us but others and an important part of that value comes from our identity as Rutgers.

Indeed, he is correct: Childhood Studies has symbolic value beyond Rutgers’ walls. A blow to the program would be a symbolic blow to our field.

Do you believe in the importance of Childhood Studies–in the value of treating children’s lives as a subject worthy of serious study?

If so, please sign this petition to help keep Childhood Studies part of Rutgers University. Thank you!