… I’ve been painstakingly trying to sort out the rest of my life. This is the last year of my PhD, so I need to figure out what to do with myself and all my earthly possessions when they kick me out of my flat in July.

The PhD thesis is progressing ok, with a first draft done and amply commented on by my supervisor – back to the drawing board for draft number 2.

I’ve got a new peer-reviewed article published in Children’s Literature in Education: ‘The problem of power: Metacritical implications of the concept of aetonormativity for children’s literature research.’ Yep, it’s deliciously jargonny. Basically, what it means is this: currently, children’s literature theory is very much inclined to see adult power everywhere. In this article, I ask – why does this ‘power’ have to be so all-encompassing? Doesn’t the child have a share of the big bad word of ‘power’?

I’ve also got a new review in International Research Society for Children’s Literature, on the academic volume Philosophy in Children’s Literature, ed. by Peter Costello (2012). I love writing and reading reviews of academic books – it’s vaguely addictive.

And post-doc applications, of course… I’m just sending off my 20th application today for the extraordinarily competitive Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) in Oxford and Cambridge. So far, I’ve been rejected from one and longlisted for another; so all hope is not lost. JRFs are everyone’s dream: three or four years of funded research in a college, with some teaching allowed… and yes, the associated prestige. Chances to get one are very slight, but some people must get them, I guess.

My research proposal for those is quite different from what I’m doing at the moment: I’m trying to branch out into Childhood Studies and the philosophy of childhood, which I do a lot of indirectly in my thesis anyway. Fingers crossed that I get to do it, one way or another. The job market situation is extremely tough for graduates at the moment, especially in the arts & humanities, and I’m not too optimistic.

I’ll blog about the Children’s Literature Research Centre soon – we’ve had some exciting events recently!

Clem x