CFP: Health Care in Children’s Literature

Edited Collection Call for Papers

Health Care in Children’s Literature

Edited by Naomi Lesley, Sarah Hardstaff, and Abbye E. Meyer

Recently, issues of health insurance access and cost have been a dominant
political issue in the United States. However, questions about health care
(beyond insurance) have surfaced in children’s literature from many
nations, for many decades. This edited collection will consider how
children’s literature and media can enrich our understanding about health
care from many perspectives, through consideration of international
comparisons; historical change; disparities based on gender, race,
disability, class, and age; and attention to informal as well as formal
systems of care.

Essays for this volume might address a variety of topics. The following is
a partial list of pertinent topics, but proposals are welcomed on other
issues of health care not mentioned below:

-How children’s literature addresses (or does not address) the cost of
care
-Barriers to health care in children’s books, including barriers based on
race, sexuality, class, gender, or disability
-Differences in care based on visible vs. invisible disabilities
-Questions of who gets sick and who stays healthy in literature
-Health care broadly defined as access to food, shelter, and security, as
well as care for acute sickness, chronic illness, mental health, and
disability
-How issues of health access are addressed in books pre-WWII (before
health insurance in many nations), as well as in historical fiction written
since
-How children’s literature portrays children growing into caring
professions (aspiring to be nurses, doctors, etc)
-Child characters as caretakers and healers for family and community
members

Scholars interested in contributing to this volume should submit a 300-500
word proposal by January 30, 2019. Please email proposals, and any
questions, to Naomi Lesley (nlesley@hcc.edu ), Sarah Hardstaff (sflh2@cam.ac.uk) , or Abbye Meyer (abbyemeyer@gmail.com).