Youth: Postgraduate Conference April 2011

Following on from the Studies in Youth Culture inaugural conference which took place at the University of Leicester in September 2010, the School of English along with the Centre for American Studies and the Studies in Youth Network are pleased to announce a postgraduate conference on the broad and interdisciplinary subject of ‘youth’. Topics that might be considered are:

    •    What do we mean by the term youth and experiences exclusive to adolescence?
    •    How does the concept of youth manifest itself in culture, literature, poetry, theatre or society at large?
    •    In what ways do the experiences/ depictions of adolescence differ from or reflect those of childhood and/or adulthood?
    •    How do the relationships between these concepts of childhood, adolescence and adulthood change over time, and are they dependent on cultural setting?

Such speculations encourage debate about the nature, experience and depiction of youth – in its broadest definition – across history, culture and disciplines. These questions are a starting point for a topic that will be explored further at the interdisciplinary postgraduate conference at Leicester on either the 4th or 5th of April 2011 (details will be finalised later in March). Papers are welcome from all disciplines on any aspect of youth with particular emphasis on, but not restricted to, theatre, religion, fantasy and popular culture.

The conference will be an invaluable opportunity to learn about other postgraduate students’ research on the subject of youth, as well as to join the Studies in Youth Network, which aims to bring together and encourage academic cooperation between researchers of various disciplines at different stages of their careers. Further details of the network can be found at:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/research/groupings/clusters/adolescence
 

Proposals of 250 words are welcome from all postgraduates for papers of no more than twenty minutes. A liberal approach to the theme is encouraged. Please send abstracts along with the application form to Anjna Chouhan (ac222@le.ac.uk) by the 10th of March 2011.