SELCIE

We’re delighted to shared details of this free, 1-day symposium, organised by our friends and colleagues @sarahdunnigan.bsky.social and Dr Lois Burke, on 12 Dec 2025.

Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/investigat....

More info here: www.swinc.englit.ed.ac.uk/investigatin....

Do share widely!

We're so looking forward to this!🧡 Please RT & share widely!

Conference poster for Irish & Scottish Women Writers of Children's Literature with blue and green graphics.

Save the date! 💚 Very excited to announce this upcoming December symposium @EdinburghUni organised by @LoisMBurke & @_SELCIE_🦉 funded by the British Academy! More details & registration link to follow! #scottishlit #womenswriting #irishlit #childrensliterature

With Lois Burke and Ainsley McIntosh

Last Q&A of the day: discussing Victorian and Edwardian female writing and nature’s influence on it. Thanks to everyone who made (and still makes) this event so fabulous!

Ainsley McIntosh delves into the engagement with nature from an intimate embodied perspective of Elizabeth Rae Keir, Edinburgh’s own poet, in her talk on 'Written in a storm: Care, Consolation, and Elizabeth Rae Keir'. 🌹
#selcie_project #universityofedinburgh

Lois Burke introducing our audience to manuscript magazines handwritten by late-Victorian girls during her talk on 'Family Connections and Care for the Natural World in Isobel Wylie Hutchison’s Childhood Writing' 📚
#selcie_project #universityofedinburgh

🌿 Elizabeth Darling exploring women's role in children's education during her presentation entitled 'To be a kindergartner is the perfect development of womanliness: Reflection on women's agency as social and urban reformers in Edwardian Edinburgh'.
#selcie_project #universityofedinburgh

Jane Whinnett catching the audience with her talk on “The Little Gardener” - discussing Froebel training and education in early kindergartens #selcie_project #universityofedinburgh

Lyn Stevens and Rina Teske answering questions about children’s interactions with fairytales and how fairies were depicted in children’s books

Rina Teske is discussing children’s interaction with nature in schools and stories at home in her talk “From within and beyond the garden walls: Tracing the Green Thread in Scottish Nature Writing for Children, 1800-1900”

We are thrilled to have heard all about the rich collection of children's literature within the Museum of Childhood by our fantastic speaker Lyn Stevens!
#selcie_project 🦋

The Nature Nurture: SELCIE Symposium is off to a good start! Our first speakers Lyn Stevens and Rina Teske are going to talk about children’s encounters with nature and nature in children’s writing

IASSL PhD Award Chaired by Steve Newman PhD prize which will be awarded to PhDs on Scottish literature submitted outside of the UK (written in English or other languages) Awarded every 3 years, at every IASSL Worl…

Big news 🎓 The IASSL PhD Award is open! For theses on Scottish literature completed outside the UK (June 2024–26). Encourage your colleagues to submit!

The first award will be delivered in June 2027 at our Philadelphia Conference.

More details here: scotlit-iassl.org/awards/iassl...

Nature Nurture: SELCIE Symposium Edinburgh’s Childgarden Heritage, Cultures of Care, and Scottish Women’s Writing

We’re delighted to share details of ‘Nature Nurture: Edinburgh’s Childgarden Heritage, Cultures of Care, and Scottish Women’s Writing’, a symposium on 6 June, organised by our friends and colleagues @selcie.bsky.social!

Get your free ticket here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nature-nur...

See you there!

❤️ [from Edinburgh Museums and Galleries Capital Collwctions online]

🌿 Image of early 1900s Edinburgh kindergarten from collection at Museum of Childhood.

Image shows a photograph from the 1900s of eight children playing with a black and white rabbit. Another rabbit is running away in the foreground.

SAVE the DATE for a new SELCIE Symposium!🦉 6 June 2025, 12.00-17.00, University of Edinburgh. 'Nature Nurture: Edinburgh's Childgarden Heritage, Cultures of Care, and Scottish Women's Writing' 🌱 Details & booking info coming soon! #scottishliterature #children #nature #edimburgh @asls.org.uk

Lá Fhéile Valilintín! Happy St Valentine’s Day from Museum of Childhood Ireland, Músaem Óige na hÉireann. Image is of a Child’s drawing- a smiling, joyous, multicoloured heart

The Magical Nature of Nature in Andersen’s Fairy Tales – SELCIE In the first of a new series of blogposts in the run-up to the opening of our new spring exhibition, Nurture Through Nature with Children’s Books, Calvin Goh revisits the poignant, magical nature worlds which come alive in the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.

'Nature [is] a metaphorical stand-in for those with neither voice nor power'. Calvin Goh explores the link between nature, children & fairy tales in our new blog 🌿💚 #childrensbooks #fairytales #naturenurture 🐦🌸🦉 blogs.ed.ac.uk/selcie/2025/...

Sanna Annukka's beautiful image for The Fir Tree (Hutchison 2012)

Sanna Annukka's beautiful image from The Fir Tree ( Hutchison 2012)

Something for nature and fairytale lovers alike! 💚 A new blogpost for Valentine's Day tomorrow - Calvin Goh explores the magical poignancy of H.C. Andersen's nature worlds 🌲🌟 #naturetherapy #children #fairytales #books #museums #naturewriting

To mark the run-up to our exhibition at Museum of Edinburgh, in partnership with Museum of Childhood, we have a new series of blogposts on Nature Nurture in children's books! Starting Valentine's Day 💚🍃 #lovenature #children #books #museums blogs.ed.ac.uk/selcie/about/ @uoe-llc.bsky.social

Image and frontispage of 'In the Woods' by M.K.M. in Edinburgh Museum of Childhood collection.

A singing blackbird perched atop a gate.

Frozen foliage in a pond.

Reading 'In the Woods' by M.K.M (1883) and looking at Giocomelli's springtime illustrations in Museum of Childhood book collection. Outside it's wintry but we can hear a blackbird's full-throated song! 💚🍃 #naturenurture #children #books £libraries #museums

Little teddy bear in a kilt and tartan bunnet dressing a Christmss tree decorated with teddies.

Only eleven sleeps till Christmas and the little bears are busy putting the finishing touches to their tree 🎄🧸 From Molly Brett's The Jumble Bears (1977) in Edinburgh's Museum of Childhood book collection #children #books #history #teddybears #museumlife

CALL FOR PAPERS 📢

🗓 Language and Communication in Histories of Children and Young People
📅 7–9 July 2025
📍
@UniofGreenwich

Explore how children and young people have shaped, used, and been shaped by language throughout history.
Submission deadline: 5 Jan 2025
#histchild

Hello Bluesky! We're SELCIE, Scotland's Early Literature for Children Initiative 🦉, a children's literature research project housed in English & Scottish Literature @Edinburgh Uni. We work in partnership with Edinburgh's Museum of Childhood 🍂