Albus Seminar 2026: Children's Literature for Our Time - the Old, the New and the Difficult

Albus Seminar 2026 - children's literature: Wednesday 18 November 2026, 11:00–16:00, Hovedbiblioteket, Aarhus. Tickets cost 150–350 kr.

Albus Seminar 2026 places children's literature at the centre with three thematic blocks: classics and canonical literature, war from a child's perspective, and hope and hopelessness as a literary field of tension. The seminar takes place in the Great Hall at Aarhus Central Library.

Programme

11.00-11.15: Welcome by Frederikke Holkgaard Buhl and Mikkel Krogh Stausbøll

Theme 1: Classics and Canonical Literature Revisited

11.15-11.45: PhD presentation by Frederikke Holkgaard Buhl: "It's not a question of good messages: Racism in Danish children's classics."

The presence of racism in old children's classics has been continuously discussed in Danish media. The presentation examines what lies behind the question of whether a children's book is racist, and what ideas about race are expressed in Danish children's literature. Frederikke Holkgaard Buhl is a PhD student at the Centre for Children's Literature and Media at Aarhus University, researching racism in Danish children's literature from 1900-2025 with particular focus on classics and canonical works.

11.45-12.15: Research presentation by Stefan Kjerkegaard: "Authors, fiction and freedom. Who has the right to tell whose story?"

The presentation draws on current debates about identity, representation and author roles, and discusses the tension between representation and fiction today - including the risk that literature loses some of its freedom if authors are primarily read as representatives of particular groups. Stefan Kjerkegaard is a lecturer in the Department of Nordic Studies and Experience Economy and was part of the committee that developed a new literary canon in 2025.

12.15-13.00: Lunch

Theme 2: War from a Child's Perspective

13.00-13.40: Research presentation by Birgitte Beck Pristed: "Children's books in the Russia-Ukraine war."

The presentation paints a picture of what narratives and counter-narratives about the war children and young people grow up with in Ukraine and Russia today, and how Ukrainian and Russian independent children's book publishers operate under wartime conditions.