For a period of eight days, participants discussed cultural-science perspectives of children’s and young adult media, including for example disability, gender, age or celebrity studies, new methods such as digital humanities, as well as the book market, its developments and job opportunities, in the Class of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. In addition to numerous lectures and workshops by German and international speakers, who primarily addressed topics of cultural science and literary studies, the program also included creative workshops where participants had the opportunity to learn how to produce an audio drama (Chris Kling from Klangkantine) or how to illustrate a picture book (Pei-Yu Chang and Dully & Dax). Excursions to Grimmwelt Kassel, the ZDF broadcasting center in Mainz, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association in Frankfurt or the Klingspor Museum for modern and contemporary book and typographic art in Offenbach were also part of the cross-media and interdisciplinary program. 

Over the course of these eight days, participants from three countries, including a number of masters students from the joint degree program Children’s and Young Adult Literature/Book Studies offered by Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, could successfully expand their network, share their professional and personal experiences and thus profit from the guiding principle of the strategic alliance of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU). The very positive feedback is a clear indication of the great success of the first Summer School, which will be held for a second time in a similar format next year. 

German text: Adriana Acquaviti