Events

Recent events at Ca’ Foscari

10/11/2023 - International conference “Adaptation and the Fairy Tale: Alice before and after”
Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Bernardo (classroom B)
Organisers: Alessandro Cabiati and Laura Tosi

The international conference “Adaptation and the Fairy Tale: Alice before and after” features some of the most distinguished scholars in the fields of children’s literature and fairy-tale studies. The theme of the conference is the adaptation of “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland” (1865) in its various forms and directions: towards Alice, for which Carroll’s novel can be interpreted as a fantasy reworking of the previous Victorian fairy-tale tradition; and from Alice onwards, which deals with adaptations of the novel in various fields related to psychiatry, translation, the city of Oxford, advertising, thing theory, and immersive reality.

24/06/2022 - The International Online Symposium "Teaching and Researching Children’s Literature in the Digital Age: New Perspectives and Technologies"
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Symposium Organisers: Prof. Laura Tosi, Dr. Anna Gasperini, Dr. Alessandro Cabiati

This international symposium, organised by the editorial board of Children's Literature in Italy, brough together speakers from ten different countries showcasing innovative research in the field of children's literature, with the aim of discussing the digital tools and the new technologies created to respond to the pandemic emergency and meant to outlast it.
The symposium initiated an international conversation on the new digital resources for Children’s Literature scholars, discussing how these can be used in the long run to improve teaching and research, making them more accessible at all levels to both students and researchers around the world.

6-9/04/2021 - The International Online Conference “Food and/in Children’s Culture – National, International Transnational Perspective”
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Conference Organisers: Professor Laura Tosi, Dr Anna Gasperini
Keynote Speakers: Professor Emeritus Peter Hunt, University of Cardiff, UK; Professor Bjorn Sundmark, Malmö University, Sweden; Dr Victoria De Rijke, Middlesex University London, UK; Dr Zoe Jaques, University of Cambridge, UK

This conference brought together an international group of forty speakers working on children's literature and culture from a variety of backgrounds for a four-days conference addressing the ideological, political, and cultural implications of food in children’s culture.
Professors Hunt and Sundmark, and Drs De Rijke and Jaques presented the keynote addresses, discussing themes ranging from Twentieth-century British literature to totemic food, from food and humanity in Astrid Lindgren’s literary production to animal ontologies in children’s literature.
Against the methodological and thematic framework set by the keynotes, the forty speakers explored such themes as greed, scarcity and abundance, nationalism, and gender, analysing a wide array of textual forms: novels for children and adults, picturebooks, cookbooks, advertisements in periodicals, autobiographies, and propaganda texts, among others.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 840686.

More information about the event

19/10/2020 - Verso il confine...e oltre! - Raccontare le migrazioni negli albi illustrati
Aula Media - Palazzo Cosulich, Dorsoduro 1405, Fondamenta Zattere, Venezia (VE)
Organisers: Stefania Sbarra, Laura Tosi, Daniela Meneghini, Lucio De Capitani, Elena Sbrojavacca (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) Vanja Passerini, Monica Pellinghelli, Marina Petruzio (Fondo Sergio Silva)

This exhibition of picturebooks on migrants and migration experiences stemmed from “Promozione del dialogo interculturale e dell'inclusione degli studenti con background migratorio” [Facilitating intercultural dialogue and inclusion of students with migrant background], a project financed within the programme FAMI “IMPACT Veneto” prog.2415: Integrazione dei migranti con politiche e azioni coprogettate sul territorio [Migrant integration via co-planned local policies and actions]. Besides several texts collected with the support of staff from Ca’ Foscari, the exhibition also featured precious and rare picturebooks from the Fondo Sergio Silva of the Istituto Comprensivo Salvo D'acquisto (Parma).

More information about the event [ITA]

06/11/2019  - “Curious Appetites! Food in Victorian Children’s Literature”
A Talk by Emeritus Professor Peter Hunt, University of Cardiff
Aula Conferenze, Palazzo Cosulich Fondamenta Zattere, Dorsoduro, 1405

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 840686.

24/11/2016 - When Alice Meets Pinocchio
An International One-Day Conference on Anglo-Italian Relations in Children's Literature
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies
Ca' Bernardo, Sala B - Dorsoduro 3199, Venice
Organizer: Prof. Laura Tosi, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Professor Tosi’s interview about the event

5-6/12/2013 - Adventures in Wonder World: The Power of Literary Fantasy
International Conference - Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Ateneo Veneto, Venezia Campo San Fantin, 1897
Coordinator: Professor Laura Tosi

Event programme

Fall Semester 2013 - Adults, Children and 20th Century English Literature
Graduate Course on Children's Literature organized by Professor Peter Hunt and Professor Laura Tosi
Università "Ca' Foscari" Venezia

20/03/2012 - Presentazione del volume Dall'ABC a Harry Potter: Storia della letteratura inglese per l'infanzia e la gioventù (Bononia University Press, 2011)
Bologna Children's Book Fair
Saletta Intermezzo - Ingresso Ovest Costituzione
Introduction by Peter Hunt (Emeritus, University of Cardiff) followed by a round table on children's literature.
Chair: Maurizio Ascari (Università degli Studi di Bologna). Participants: Laura Tosi, Alessandra Petrina, Mariangela Mosca, Francesca Orestano and Elena Paruolo

Ottorino Andreini, Cover of Il Giornalino della Domenica, Year 4, Number 11, 1909.

Recent events in Italy and abroad

7-9/06/2023 - “Norm and transgression in the Fairy-Tale tradition: (non)normative identities, forms, and writings”  
Brown University
Conference Organisers: Alessandro Cabiati and Lewis Seifert
Keynote Speakers: Maria Tatar (Harvard University), Anne E. Duggan (Wayne State University), Laura Tosi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawai’i-Mānoa)

Discussing the theme of norm and transgression in the fairy-tale tradition in its various forms and significations, this conference showcased talks from both established and early-career scholars addressing the following question(s): What can be considered as normative, and what as transgressive, in a fairy tale?

More info and full conference programme on the conference website.

5/12/2022: Giocattoli animati: Infanzia e Letteratura - Living Toys: Children and Children’s Literature
Università Europea di Roma

7-8/11/2019 - International Conference "Transgression vs. Politically Correct in Children's Literature"
Università degli Studi di Milano - Dipartimento di Lingue e letterature straniere
Piazza S. Alessandro, 1
International scholars of children and young adult literature met in Milan on November 7-8 to discuss texts and images related to "Transgression vs. Politically Correct in Children's Literature". The speakers addressed texts and images belonging to a variety of periods and contexts.
Speakers: Alessandra Avanzini (Milano) Galia Benziman (Jerusalem) Paolo Caponi (Milano) Donatella Bisutti (Milano) Peter Hunt (Cardiff) Angela Anna Iuliucci (Milano) Catherine Kurkjian (New Britain, CT) Déborah Lévy-Bertherat (Paris) Maria Cristina Mancini (Milano) Beatrice Moja (Milano) Martino Negri (Milano) Francesca Orestano (Milano) Cristina Paravano (Milano) Lissa Paul (Toronto) Margaret Rose (Milano) Cinzia Schiavini (Milano) Sylvie Servoise (Le Mans) Laura Tosi (Venezia) Pompeo Vagliani (Torino)
Organizing committee: Francesca Orestano (Università degli Studi di Milano), Martino Negri (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca), Cinzia Schiavini (Università degli Studi di Milano)
Logistics and communication: Marco Canani (Università degli Studi di Milano)

20/05/2017 - I tesori nascosti del fondo inglese del MUSLI
MUSLI - Museo della Scuola e del Libro per l'Infanzia
Via Corte d'Appello, 20/C - Torino

18/05/2017 - Buon compleanno, Libro! I più bei libri per bambini di 100 anni fa
MUSLI - Museo della Scuola e del Libro per l'Infanzia
Via Corte d'Appello, 20/C - Torino

15/12/2016 - International Workshop "Christmas Wonders"
An International One-Day Conference. Fourth Edition
Università di Napoli "Suor Orsola Benincasa"
Biblioteca Pagliara - Via Suor Orsola 10, Napoli
Organizer: Prof. Stefania Tondo

28/11/2013  - W Salgari! - Launch of the collection of materials donated by Vittorio Sarti
Annual event at the MUSLI
Palazzo Barolo, Via Corte d’Appello, 20/c Torino
Event programme:

  • Launch of the donation of manuscripts and autograph by Salgari recently donated by the Vittorio Sarti Foundation
  • Posthumous (1913) Salgari novels published by Bemporad
  • Overview of prominent studies on Salgari produced in 2013

Speakers of the events included: Roberto Antonetto, Felice Pozzo, Giovanna e Franca Viglongo, Pompeo Vagliani, Massimo Novelli.
In occasion of this event the MUSLI organised an exhibition of the manuscripts and drawings included in the donation, which could be explored on site in digital form.

8/11/2013  - Children's Literature and the Teaching of History
Università degli Studi di Milano, Aula Crociera Alta di Giurisprudenza
Via Festa del Perdono, 7 - Milano
History, magistra vitae, is traditionally linked with children’s literature, both as the subject of course books, enriched with images and chronologies, and as narration, portraying events or characters / heroes / protagonists of a given historical period. In both instances, such relationship functions through the “emplotment” described by Hayden White as essential to the discursive nature of all texts – history included.
This colloquium examined the forces shaping the account of historical events and historical fiction: contributions are invited on:

  • The teaching of history as a school subject: classical models, manuals, compendiums, illustrations
  • The narration of history: fictional models, contexts and protagonists, sources and documents, witnesses and narrators
  • History in words and images: the representation of the event, the portrayal of the hero,

Project: Francesca Orestano, chair of English Literature - Università degli Studi di Milano

25/02/2012 - A Round Table on Children's Literature
British Council, via Morghen 31, Napoli
Introduction by Peter Hunt (Newcastle/Cardiff University).
Book Launch: Dall'ABC a Harry Potter: Storia della letteratura inglese per l'infanzia e la gioventù (ed. by L. Tosi and A. Petrina, Bononia University Press, 2011) and Brave New Worlds. Old and New Classics of Children's Literatures (ed. by E. Paruolo, Peter Lang, 2011).
Chair: Erminia Pellecchia (Il Mattino). Participants: Mariangela Mosca Bonsignore, Francesca Orestano, Elena Paruolo, Alessandra Petrina and Laura Tosi.

04/04/2012 - Children on the Move
British Council, Via Manzoni, 38 Milano
The panel explored the figure of migrant children in children's literature and suggested ways of introducing intercultural issues to students.
Speakers: Francesca Orestano, Professor of British Literature at Milan State University and children's literature specialist (introduction); Maria Cecilia Rizzardi, teacher of English Linguistics at Milan State University discussed language in English class readers; Maddalena Mazzocut-Mis, essayist and playwright, teacher of Aesthetics at Milan State University, discussed her work, Rospilla; a reading of Rospilla by Martina De Santis followed; Maggie Rose, writer and translator, teacher of British Theatre Studies at Milan State University, talked about her short story London No Return (Principato), charting the experiences of an Italian boy who migrates to London in the 1930s and experiences the horrors of World War II.

26/11/2011 - Dall' ABC a Harry Potter: A Seminar on Children's Literature
British Council, via Manzoni, 38 Milano
The five authors of Dall'ABC a Harry Potter: Storia della letteratura inglese per l'infanzia e la gioventù (L. Tosi and A. Petrina Eds, Bononia University Press, 2011) discussed with the public their new and original text, the first on children’s literature in English-speaking countries to be published in Italy.
The journey started with medieval children’s texts and encompassed such modern and contemporary fantasies like Tolkien and Rowling. The authors addressed a variety of aspect concerning children’s literature and included in the scope of the analysis recently published texts, which attest to both the increasing academic interest in the field and its potential as a teaching and research tool for teachers of English language and literature.
Alessandra Repossi introduced Mariangela Mosca Bonsignore (University of Turin), Francesca Orestano (University of Milan), Elena Paruolo
(University of Salerno), Alessandra Petrina (University of Padua) and Laura Tosi (University of Venice 'Ca' Foscari').

25/11/2011 - Launch of the volume Dall'ABC a Harry Potter: Storia della letteratura inglese per l'infanzia e la gioventù (Bononia University Press, 2011)
Università degli Studi di Milano, piazza S. Alessandro, 1
Mariangela Mosca Bonsignore (Università degli Studi di Torino), Francesca Orestano (Università degli Studi di Milano), Elena Paruolo (Università degli Studi di Salerno), Alessandra Petrina (Università degli Studi di Padova) e Laura Tosi (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia).
Coordina Nicoletta Vallorani (Università degli Studi di Milano).

Professor Tosi’s interview in occasion of the launch of the volume

Walter Crane, The Sleeping Beauty Picture Book (cover), 1911

If you would like to advertise your conference, book launch, event or project in this section, contact us at childrenslititaly@unive.it