REDRAWING CHILDHOOD
PhD in the Arts

“REDRAWING CHILDHOOD” challenges the conventions of using formal aspects of graphic narratives in reconstructing representations of childhood and finding new ways of storytelling regarding that life period. It challenges contemporary ideas of childhood and its representations. The assumption is that contemporary representations of childhood are conceptualised in terms of what the child is not yet, or what it must be, whereby the potential of childhood to question and renew the world is ignored and suppressed.

Drawing upon my childhood’s war experiences and the challenges I faced while making the graphic novel about it, I suggest investigating ways of representing childhood differently, with substantial attention to experiences with war and trauma. I propose recognising and excluding elements of an adult’s normative perspective on childhood and challenging the power structures between children and adults in the narrative. Starting from an analysis of war conditions together with an analysis of representations of childhood in children’s literature and scientific research, I explore methodologies that make it possible to suspend the gaze of the adult in order to enable different and undefined views on childhood. This way, the research project contributes to theory related to implications for the representation of childhood in literature and the conventions of formal aspects in graphic narratives.

 

Supervisors:

Prof. dr. Nancy Vansieleghem (Supervisor)
Prof. dr. Roel Vande Winkel (Supervisor)

Prof. dr. Pascal Lefèvre (Co-supervisor)

Judith Vanistendael (Co-supervisor)

Duration: 2020 – 2024
LUCA School Of Arts, Research Unit Intermedia
KU Leuven, Institute for Media Studies

In 2020, it was awarded FWO’s fundamental research grant.

 

Journal articles (peer-reviewed)

Radanović, D., Vande Winkel, R., Vansieleghem, N. with Radanović, D. (corresp. author) (2023). You draw like a child! Interrogating aetonormative tendencies in imitations of children’s drawings in graphic narratives.

Comicalités, (Children’s drawings in Comics), Art.No. 8408. doi: 10.4000/comicalites.8408 Open Access

Accepted Journal articles (peer-reviewed)

Radanović, D., Lucovnicova, O., Vande Winkel, R. with Lucovnicova, O. (corresp. author) (2024). Beyond East and West: Auto (Art) Ethnography – Challenges and Reflections. The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts.

Invited lectures

Radanović, D. (2023). Multimodality in practice – making and reading multimodal narratives. Invited by the University of Antwerp. Presented at The Children’s Literature summer school, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, 03 Jul 2023-07 Jul 2023. (URL)

Abstracts/Presentations/Posters

Radanović, D., Vansieleghem, N., Vanistendael, J. (2023). How Climate Change Changed the Art Class. Presented at  The European Conference on Educational Research, Glasgow, UK, 22 Aug 2023-25 Aug 2023.

Radanović, D., Bugno, L., Agostinetto, L. (2023). How Do Future Teachers Represent Cultural Diversity? Investigations of Changes in Cultural Diversity Beliefs Representations After Intercultural Education Course. Presented at The European Conference on Educational Research, Glasgow, UK, 22 Aug 2023-25 Aug 2023.

Radanović, D., Lucovnicova, O., Vande Winkel, R. (2023). Between East and West: Auto (Art) Ethnography – Challenges and Reflections. Presented at the Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society, Krakow, Poland, 05 Jul 2023-07 Jul 2023. (URL)

Radanović, D. (2022). From educational research to poster – a presentation of the research project: Rethinking Normative Ideas About Childhood Through Artistic Practice. Presented at the From Educational Research to Poster – PhD Course in Pedagogical, Educational and Instructional Sciences, University of Padova, Pedagogical, Educational and Instructional Sciences, 07 Nov 2022-07 Nov 2022.

Radanović, D., Vansieleghem, N., Vande Winkel, R. (2022). Rethinking Normative Ideas About Childhood Through Artistic Practice. (Abstract No. 1851). Presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) Emerging Researcher’s Conference, Yerevan, Armenia, 22 Aug 2022-25 Aug 2022.

Radanović, D., Vande Winkel, R., Vansieleghem, N. (2022). You Draw Like a Child! Mimicking a Child’s Drawing Style as an Exercise of Aetonormativity. Presented at the Research Workshop: Children’s Drawings in Comics, Ghent University Museum, 24 May 2022-25 May 2022.

Radanović, D. (2021). Project Redrawing childhood. Presented at the Doctoral seminar research unit Image, LUCA School of Arts, Campus Sint-Lucas Ghent, Belgium, 16 Dec 2021-16 Dec 2021.

Radanović, D. (2021). Graphic storytelling: an attempt to materialise and transform aetonormativity in the narrative about childhood. Presented at the Children’s Literature Summer School, University of Antwerp (Belgium), 05 Jul 2021-09 Jul 2021.

Datasets

RADANOVIĆ, D., Dragana Radanovic, (contr.) (2023). You draw like a child! Interrogating aetonormative tendencies in imitations of children’s drawings in graphic narratives. KU Leuven RDR. doi: 10.48804/4TNTY6 Open Access

Creations in the Arts or Design

Radanović, D., Adamović Kordej, J., Atoski, I., Danilović, S., Đorđević, J., Embeli, L., Filipović, I., Jevđović, D., Mihajlović, B., Milojković, A., Petrović, A., Petrović, J. (contr.) with Trajković, M. (graphic designer) Kod Kuće – Antolo ija kratkog stripa o radu od kuće i “sa kućom”. (Artist’s book). 01 Oct 2023. (COBISS.SR-ID 12344039) (URL)

Tamburić, Ž., Stojanović, M., Radanović, D. (contr.), Adamović, J. (contr.), Banović, S. (contr.), Čelanović, T. (contr.), Đukić, B. (contr.), Fejzula, T. (contr.), Filipović, I. (contr.), Gajić, A. (contr.), Jovanović, S. (contr.), Jovanović Fafner, S. (contr.), Kerac, B.B. (contr.), Kovačević, D. (contr.), Kuprešanin, D. (contr.), Milošev, D.W. (contr.), Milošević, R.G. (contr.), Milović, Đ. (contr.), Milutinović, M.B. (contr.), Nenadov, D. (contr.), Paunović, D. (contr.), Nikolić, M. (contr.), Perović, D. (contr.), Savić, B.G. (contr.), Subić, S. (contr.), Ukropina, J. (contr.), Vićanović, M.M. (contr.), Vidić, Z. (contr.), Zograf, A. (contr.) Beyond Comics: A look into the artworks of comics authors from Serbia/ Izvan kvadrata: Pogled na umetničke radove stripskih autora iz Srbije. (Exhibition). Venue: International comics festival Belgrade/Salon Stripa SKC Belgrade, 28 Sep 2023-01 Oct 2023. (COBISS.SR-ID 122894345) (URL)

Radanović, D. New image of childhood. (Exhibition). Venue: The House of the Authors / La Maison des Auteurs, 17 Mar 2022-20 Mar 2022.

Radanović, D. with Kosić, V. (curator) My Room. (Exhibition). Venue: Residence of Princess Ljubica, Belgrade, Serbia, 23 Nov 2021-03 Dec 2021.

Awards

2022. August, ERC Best Poster Award – In person, European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) Emerging Researcher’s Conference Yerevan, Armenia.
2020. Cross-country Comics Residency Program – the first place, The French Institute in Serbia, the International Center for Comics and Illustration (Angouleme, France), the Komunikart Agency and the City of Pancevo.