Tamer Institute for Community Education concluded its first conference on "The Critical Movement in Arab Children's Literature" on Thursday, November 22, 2018, after two days of lectures, dialogues, and scholarly discussions. The conference was attended and participated by more than 100 researchers, writers, artists, and librarians from various Arab countries, in addition to interested individuals working in the production and criticism of children's and young adult literature.
The conference was organized by Tamer Institute for Community Education in partnership with other interested institutions in the Arab world. The significance of the conference lies in providing a platform for intellectual exchange regarding the critical movement in Arab children's literature, shedding light on the relationship between the productive and critical movements, and their intersections and divergences in the Arab context. Moreover, the conference provided an opportunity for Tamer Institute to enrich the field of literary criticism in children's and young adult literature by presenting studies on important contemporary critical issues, analyzing critical concepts and tools used in critiquing children's and young adult literature, and offering critical evaluations of different publications as illustrative examples for those involved in various forms of literary criticism. Additionally, the conference aimed to facilitate experience-sharing and partnership-building between institutions and individuals working in the field of children's and young adult literature to develop initiatives at the local and Arab levels.
The conference hosted around 25 researchers from Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Oman, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, who are specialists, innovators, and researchers in the field of children's literature and its criticism.
The conference addressed seven main axes, including visual texts and illustrations in Arab children's and young adult literature, identity, diversity, and differences in children's and young adult literature, empirical critical experiences (critique of critique), war and migration, folk heritage and its manifestations in children's and young adult literature, in-depth examination of specific topics in children's literature, and awards in children's literature.
Among the participants, Dr. Ismail, an associate professor in sociology and anthropology at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, presented a research paper titled "Genealogy of the Scene in Arab Children's Literature: Hussein Bikar and His Students," which highlighted the achievements of the Arab Boy's Magazine's visual archive, focusing on artist Hussein Bikar's contributions to the visual infrastructure upon which other artists built their literary and artistic interventions in the Arab Boy's Magazine. The presentation revolved around the characteristics of this professional artistic legacy and its historical formation in the context of the development of modern Egyptian visual art.
The first session discussed visual texts and illustrations in Arab children's and young adult literature. Dr. Ali Al-Jaafari from Kuwait presented a paper titled "Illustrated Children's Stories According to Effective Visual Discourse: Manifestations of Arabic Calligraphy as a Model." Dr. Abdelkarim El Manawi from Morocco presented a paper that addressed the impact of animation cinema on children's literature. The second axis focused on identity, diversity, and differences in children's and young adult literature. The session was moderated by Dr. Rizan Ibrahim from Jordan and included various papers. Dr. Khaled Hussein from Iraq presented a paper titled "Transformations of Identity in Iraqi Children's Literature: Stages and Power Dependencies." Dr. Houria Nahari from Algeria presented a paper discussing Amazigh identity and belonging in children's literature in Algerian primary school textbooks. Dr. Mohamed Saber from Iraq presented a paper on the problematics of identity in Arab children's and young adult literature. Dr. Sabah Issawi from Saudi Arabia presented a reading on global literary theories, focusing on disability studies as a model.
The third axis addressed folk heritage and its manifestations in Arab children's and young adult literature. Ms. Taghreed Al-Najjar, owner of Al-Salwa Publishing and Distribution House, presented in this session. Dr. Sonia Al-Namr from Palestine presented a paper titled "A Journey Through the Geography of Tales." Omani journalist Amama Al-Lawati discussed children's literature in the Sultanate of Oman, focusing on the themes of selected Omani stories. On the second day, Dr. Ayman Desouki, professor of modern Arabic literature and comparative literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, presented a paper titled "Is There a Critical World for Children's Literature?" The researcher addressed the challenges of criticism and theorization from a comparative literature perspective. The paper examined the developments and ongoing changes in fundamental concepts such as "literature" and "child," and their impact on the understanding and reception of children's literature in the Arab context. It also discussed the critical directions and questions raised, such as the audience of this criticism. The paper presented several methodological and critical challenges that contribute to the field of comparative literature as a transdisciplinary knowledge that breaks boundaries and specializations. Dr. Ayman's intervention relied on some theoretical approaches aiming to contribute to breaking the cultural, cognitive, and academic siege and marginalization of children's literature.
The fourth axis included empirical experiences in terms of concepts and methodologies of criticism, presented by Dr. Samah Idris from Lebanon, who is the editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine. The session included several research papers. Dr. Suhail Harb from Lebanon presented a paper discussing the critical scene in Lebanon for children's literature, both in terms of description and critique. Dr. Fatima Shafiri from Algeria discussed Algerian children's literature in the balance between modernity and heritage. Dr. Hala Bazzi from Lebanon presented a paper on the Lebanese experience in critiquing children's literature, and Sara Zahrane from Palestine presented Tamer Institute's experience with children and librarians.
The conference also included a session under the axis of war and migration, presented by Ms. Cathy Khattar, Grants Manager at the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC. Alice Awad from Palestine presented a paper titled "Shelters, Bombings, and Fear: War and Its Reflections in Arab Children's Literature." Rabab Toutah from Palestine presented a paper titled "On Displacement and Within Displacement: The Arab Child's Book." Aya Yunis from Jordan presented a paper titled "Contemporary Shadows of War and Displacement in Supporting and Shaping Arab Children's Literature." Dr. Mahmoud Al-Attash, a professor of literature and criticism in the Arabic Language Department at Birzeit University, conducted a session titled "A Close-Up Lens (Special Topics in Children's Literature)." The session included a paper presented by Susan Abu Ghaida from Lebanon on gender in children's and young adult literature. Dr. Badee Khales from Palestine presented a paper on analyzing electronic stories used in kindergartens in Jerusalem in light of the criteria of children's literature. Mr. Saber Mdalal from Tunisia presented a paper titled "Archaeology of Translation for the Arab Child."
The last axis in this conference discussed awards in children's literature and was presented by Dr. Safaa Abu Asab, the Director of Civil Society Development Programs and the Regional Children's Literature Program at the Swedish Diakonia Foundation in Jerusalem. During this session, Wafa Qassous from Jordan presented the experience of the "Abdul Hameed Shoman Award" at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Dr. Hanada Kharma from Palestine presented a paper titled "Childhood as Seen by her Book: Presence in Text and Absence in Reality."
In conclusion, all the proposals and recommendations presented during the sessions and different axes were discussed, emphasizing the importance of considering the recipient "the child" when critiquing children's literature. Tamer Institute for Community Education expressed its hope that this conference would be a step towards the development of children's and young adult literature, which in turn would contribute to building a child capable of critical analysis and thinking, with a rich imagination, able to shape a national identity based on interaction and effort, and grounded in universal human concepts.
