Deadline: March 15, 2022
Contact: Nathalie op de Beeck
Email: nathalie.opdebeeck@plu.edu

Environmental Justice in Young People’s Literature
Guaranteed session, MLA Genre Studies/GS Children’s and Young Adult Literature Forum

Moderators:
Nathalie op de Beeck (Pacific Lutheran University)
Clare Echterling (Caldwell University)

Scholarship on young people’s literature has begun to address environmental studies at the same time children’s literature and publishing have seen progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Lion and the Unicorn 45.2 (April 2021) recently published a special issue on “Children’s Literature and Climate Change,” co-edited by Marek Oziewicz and Lara Saguisag, examining decolonial strategies, queer studies, ableism, and diverse heroes. Two years in a row, the Caldecott Medal has recognized a picture book that raises awareness of the connections between land and people. In 2021, the prize went to Carole Lindstrom (Anishinaabe/Métis) and Michaela Goade’s (Tlingit/Haida) We Are Water Protectors, inspired by indigenous sovereignty and water-rights activism; in 2022, Andrea Wang and Jason Chin received a Caldecott Medal, APALA, and Newbery Honor for Watercress, about a Chinese American family’s memories of subsistence farming.

We seek papers on the intersections of environmental justice and social justice in young people’s literature, from historical fiction to cli-fi, from Afrofuturism/Africanfuturism to nonfiction, from picture book to graphic narrative. How do texts for young readers make connections between our climate emergency and outcry against social harms? How does Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence” to people and planet arise in literature written for children, and what resolutions does such literature propose?

We want to explore how youth literature represents environmental, social, and global realities to young audiences. How are grassroots activism, coalition-building, and collective action represented? How does youth literature imagine possible futures for the Earth in related terms of environment and identity? How do texts navigate existential threats like extinction, and what sort of closure do these stories promise?

By March 15, prospective panelists should submit a titled, 300-word proposal for a 10-minute presentation to nathalie.opdebeeck@plu.edu. The panel will be comprised of four short talks and a response from the moderators, intended to generate productive discussion among panelists and audience.

Posted on February 17, 2022