International Congress of Youth Literature

date: 02.09.2024

category: News

This weekend, Trieste became the IBBY World Capital of Youth Culture.

From 30 August to 1 September 2024, the 39th Congress of IBBY, the International Congress of Youth Literature, an association of 81 countries, took place at the Congress Centre of the Old Port of Trieste. The Federation was founded in Zurich in 1953 on the initiative of the German writer and journalist, Joelle Lehman, with the aim of making it possible for all children to read good quality books.

Due to the proximity of this year's meeting, the lectures, round tables and debates were also attended by a number of Slovenian authors and experts, including Dr. Barbara Baloh and Dr. Eda Birsa from the Faculty of Education, University of Primorska (UP PEF), who, together with graduate students Renata Padovan and Mia Umer, presented their research on children's literature with an emphasis on narrative in a multilingual context.

The congress was also attended by Dr. Aksinja Kermauner and Dr. Janja Plazar (UP PEF), who were selected to give a lecture among hundreds of submitted papers from all over the world.

They presented their innovative work in the field of inclusion (teaching science to children with visual impairment and children with reading disabilities) and their new original type picture book on astronomy entitled "Reaching the sky without limits / Raggiungere il cielo senza limiti".