The Irish Postgraduate Children’s Literature Network
The Irish Postgraduate Children’s Literature Network (IPCLN) is a constituent organisation of the ISSCL. The IPCLN was established in response to a feeling among postgraduates that their needs differ to those of established academics and that these needs would be best served by a network based on information-sharing and friendly advice and support. The IPCLN aims to support and encourage postgraduate students and young researchers of all aspects of children’s literature, childhood and children’s culture. It is, as the name suggests, Irish based and postgraduate focused but membership is not strictly limited to these terms.
Saturday October 8th 2011 saw the fourth Irish Postgraduate Children’s Literature Network symposium take place at the National University of Ireland, Galway. This event gathered together postgraduate students of children’s literature from various universities around the country, and was focused on the theme of Getting Published. The day got off to a great start with a very warm welcome from Dr Kate Quinn, deputy head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at NUIG. This was followed by a selection of presentations of current research by PhD students working in diverse areas of children’s literature. After lunch was the session on Getting Published, delivered by Kelly Coate and Lindsay Myers (who spoke specifically on getting published in children’s literature) – this session was perfectly pitched to the audience, and was incredibly helpful and useful for all those in attendance. There was also one final panel on the various elements comprising children’s studies at NUIG, before the day was rounded off by a wonderful performance of children’s stories from local storyteller Dave Rock.
________________________________________________________
The IPCLN’s first symposium – New Directions – was held in May 2009 at Queen’s University, Belfast – organised by Martina Seifert and Beth Rodgers. On Saturday, postgraduate students gave presentations of work-in-progress and problematic chapters from their theses. In the evening, Professor Máire Messenger Davies (University of Ulster) talked about “Children’s Fiction on the Screen”. On the Sunday there was an intensive thesis workshop with Professor Jean Webb (University of Worcester).
On 14th November 2009, the second IPCLN, organised by Jane Carroll, was held in Trinity College, Dublin. The day was a series of workshops aimed at helping postgraduate students prepare and deliver presentations. Aspects covered by the workshops were: voice-work, PowerPoint, writing abstracts and on turning conference papers into articles. The day closed with two presentations: Valerie Coghlan spoke about the special collections of children’s books and schoolbooks held at the Church of Ireland College of Education and Mags Walsh spoke about Children’s Books Ireland and the challenges faced by arts organisations and children’s cultural centres today.
The third IPCLN event was hosted by the postgraduates of St. Patrick’s College of Education, Drumcondra on Saturday, 8th May 2010. The theme of the day was ‘The Endgame: Finishing the PhD’. Building upon the highly successful past events organised by the network, the gathering was a valuable source of support, information and training for postgraduate researchers. The event was open to all interested postgraduates at any stage of research. There were a number of practical and informative sessions organised for the day and topics covered included The VivaEditing and Proof-Reading – common mistakes and pitfalls and how to avoid them andGetting to the Finishing Line – where a panel of PhD graduates and supervisors offered insights into the final stages of PhD study and tips to survive the experience – what to expect and how to prepare.
