'A Game That Calls Up Love and Hatred Both': The Child, the First World War, and the Global South

1-3 December 2011, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Colour reproduction of book cover: 'Little Miss Anzac' by W.A. Holman This conference, which was part of a three year ongoing international project, demonstrated the power and manipulation of culture to influence both individuals and nations. It also demonstrated the significance of children’s culture in guiding youthful imaginations, thoughts, dreams and ideas. Children’s books play a profound role in the making of a national imagination.

The conference included a range of talks from both academics and children's literature practitioners, including panels with some of Australia's leading children's writers and illustrators.

Conference Programme

Thursday 1st December: Approaching War, University of Technology Sydney

The conference opened with a keynote speech from Theo Van Leeuwen, followed by a variety of panels on different aspects of the conference themes. Papers included perspectives from a variety of disciplines, including history, cultural theory, and children's literature.

Friday 2nd December: 'A Game That Calls Up Love and Hatred Both', University of Technology Sydney

Day two continued with papers and panels, before a plenary which offered delegates the opportunity to reflect on the issues raised during the conference.

Saturday 3rd December: Celebration of Australian Children’s Literature and Culture, Sydney Opera House

This event, held in collaboration with the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), brought together academics and some of Australia's leading children's book writers and illustrators to explore the influence of children's literature in shaping cultural identity.

Saturday 3rd December: Sunset Harbour Cruise, Sydney Harbour

Following the event in Sydney Opera House, delegates were invited to join an optional sunset cruise around Sydney Harbour, which included some literary and national history as well as the opportunity to liaise with other conference attendees and take in the beautiful sights of Sydney Harbour.

Keynote speakers

Theo van Leeuwen, University of Technology Sydney

Colour photograph of Theo van Leeuwen Before becoming an academic, Theo van Leeuwen worked as a film and television producer, scriptwriter and director in his native Holland and in Australia. He has worked at Macquarie University, the University of the Arts (London), and Cardiff University, and lectured at many other Universities throughout the world. He is now Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UTS.

He has written many books and articles on discourse analysis, visual communication and multimodality: eg Social Semiotics (Routledge, 2005) Global Media Discourse (Routledge 2007). He is also editor of the journal Visual Communication.

Theo is currently involved in a project on children's toys and the meanings offered to the child by the toy industry, and will discuss children's toys in the context of war.

Selected publications: Kress, G and Theo Van Leeuwen, Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2006 [1996]); Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa and Theo Van Leeuwen,'4. Stunning, shimmering, iridescent: Toys as the representation of gendered social actors', in Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis, Litosseliti, ed. Lia and Jane Sunderland (Philadelphia: John Benjamin, 2002), 91–108.; Van Leeuwen, Theo and Adam Jaworski “The discourses of war photography: Photojournalistic representations of the Palestinian-Israeli war”, Journal of Language and Politics 1:2 (2003), 255–275.; Machin, David and Theo Van Leeuwen. 'Computer games as political discourse: The case of Black Hawk Down' in The Soft Power of War, ed. Chouliaraki, Lilie (Philadelphia: John Benjamin, 2005), 119–141.; Van Leeuwen, T and Carey Jewitt, Handbook of Visual Analysis (London: Sage, 2001).