The next LECI Research Seminar: "Do we need a post-colonial literature for children?"

The Learning, Culture and Interventions (LECI) research community will host its next seminar on Thursday October 14, 2021. Please feel free to join!  For doctoral students to note, these seminars are part of the SEDUCE doctoral courses (SED-916) and you’ll gain study credits by attending. 

Thursday 14.10. 2021 at 10:15-12:00 (NOTE CHANGE IN TIME)

Dr. Kemal Ahson from the Faculty of Educational Sciences, UH will lead a seminar that asks "Do we need a post-colonial literature for children?"

(Meeting ID: 667 5188 1611, Passcode: 684142)

Abstract:

Based on the experience of writing stories for children, Kemal will open up a discussion on the need to explore how the legacy of colonialism and imperialism needs to be both considered and challenged in literature for (and of) children. Drawing on the ideas of Franz Fanon, Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak, he will highlight some of the practical challenges in writing about the consequences of the control and exploitation of people and land in stories for children.  

Author bio

Kemal gained his PhD from University College London (UCL). Currently, he is working on two externally funded research projects with Prof. Kumpulainen that focus on examining the engagement of citizens in science as part of a Horizon 2020 project () and assessing digital health literacies and technologies supported by the UNA Europa Partner Universities. As an aside, Kemal has co-created and published a couple of children’s books - the first (The Magic Necklace) is a novel which links the life of a young girl in India with the history of the Mughals; the second (an adaptation of the Twelve Labours of Hercules), is a comic book which aims at engaging and encouraging young children's interest in mathematics through (in?) stories. He has also recently (out 2022) written a novel (The Hakim) which tells the story of the tensions within and between modern (western) and unani medicine during British colonialism.

Kind wishes,

Kristiina and Anu, Co-ordinators of LECI research community