Online Conference hosted by the University of Münster
12th-14th November 2025
In their introduction to Mothers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Postfeminism (2016), Karen Coats and Lisa Rowe Fraustino observe that “[w]hether living or dead, present or absent, sadly dysfunctional or happily good enough, the figure of the mother carries an enormous amount of freight across the emotional and intellectual life of a child” (3). Building on the work begun in the 2015 Special Issue of Children’s Literature in Education dedicated to representations of motherhood in children’s and young adult literature, Coats and Fraustino’s book intended to provide space for a range of critical approaches to mothers in children’s and young adult literature, thus beginning the process of filling a notable gap in the field; at the time, while work addressing mothers in children’s and young adult literature was slowly growing, it was also “scattered and lack[ed] cohesion” (11) and did not have the same “volume and quality of attention paid to mothers in other disciplines [such as] psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, women’s studies, and … literature for adults” (4).
12th-14th November 2025
In their introduction to Mothers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Postfeminism (2016), Karen Coats and Lisa Rowe Fraustino observe that “[w]hether living or dead, present or absent, sadly dysfunctional or happily good enough, the figure of the mother carries an enormous amount of freight across the emotional and intellectual life of a child” (3). Building on the work begun in the 2015 Special Issue of Children’s Literature in Education dedicated to representations of motherhood in children’s and young adult literature, Coats and Fraustino’s book intended to provide space for a range of critical approaches to mothers in children’s and young adult literature, thus beginning the process of filling a notable gap in the field; at the time, while work addressing mothers in children’s and young adult literature was slowly growing, it was also “scattered and lack[ed] cohesion” (11) and did not have the same “volume and quality of attention paid to mothers in other disciplines [such as] psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, women’s studies, and … literature for adults” (4).
Nearly a decade on from this ground-breaking edited volume, the amount of scholarship addressing mothers and motherhood in children’s and young adult literature has steadily continued to increase. Significantly, there has been a noticeable flurry of new work in 2024, including two chapters in Family in Children’s and Young Adult Literature edited by Eleanor Spencer and Jade Dillon Craig; a chapter in Eating Cultures in Children’s Literature: National, International and Transnational Perspectives edited by Anna Gasperini et al.; and multiple journal articles. Research in this area, it appears, is reaching a crescendo.
In a political landscape that is swinging ever-further to the Right, as currently seen in the West, and in an already-patriarchal world that is becoming increasingly hostile to women, it is more important than ever that we investigate and interrogate the narratives surrounding mothers, motherhood, and mothering in books for children and young people. This online conference, organised as part of Dr Jennifer Gouck’s Women in Research (WiRe) Fellowship, seeks to facilitate scholarly conversations about how mothers, motherhood, and mothering are represented, mediated, and negotiated within children’s and young adult literature. In addition to three days of papers from scholars from around the world, a joint keynote will be delivered by Prof. Karen Coats, Prof. Lisa Rowe Fraustino, and Dr. Carrie Spencer.
Registration is free. Zoom links to access the conference will be provided via email upon registration.
Works Cited
Works Cited
- Fraustino, Lisa Rowe and Karen Coats, eds. Mothers in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. University Press of Mississippi, 2016.
- Spencer, Eleanor and Jade Dillon Craig, eds. Family in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Routledge, 2024.
- Gasperini, Anna, Björn Sundmark, and Laura Tosi, eds. Eating Cultures in Children’s Literature: National, International and Transnational Perspectives. Malmö University Press, 2024.