NEWSLETTER
Society for the History of Children and Youth
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No. 11 |
Winter 2008 |
News from
the Field, I
Joan E. Cashin (The Ohio State University) organized a forum on race and the American family, which was published in the Journal of Family History in January 2008. Participants included Steven Mintz. Anne Lundin (Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison), School of Library and Information Studies is retiring in May 2008. She plans to continue her research into the early kindergarten movement and children's rooms in libraries, in Froebel and his influence on children's literature. She did a paper on the cultural work of Kate Douglas Wiggin at the conference in Sweden and hopes to continue that pursuit of literary and institutional history. Joseph Hawes, one of SCHY's founding members and its first president, retired from the University of Memphis in December. He plans to continue writing and spend the rest of his time simply refining the meaning of "retire." In Fall 2007 Joanna B. Michlic took the position of The Helene and Allen Apter Chair in Holocaust and Ethical Values at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Stephen Gennaro completed PhD in Communications at McGill University in Montreal, Canada with a dissertation entitled "Selling Youth: How Market Research at the J. Walter Thompson Company Framed what it meant to be a Child (and Adult) in 20th Century America. He also received a Post Doc at UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and is working with Dr. Douglas Kellner. In January 2007, Jonas Qvarsebo took a position as
Head of Department and Senior Lecturer at Children, Youth and Society,
School of Teacher Education, Malmo University, Sweden. The school is
in the process of updating its website, but there is some info in English
already: The Urban History Association Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book (North American) published in 2006 has gone to Timothy Gilfoyle (Loyola University of Chicago) for A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld Of Nineteenth-Century New York (W.W. Norton, 2006). In July 2007, Ann Kirson Swersky received her doctorate from Tel Aviv University with a dissertation entitled “Future Citizens: Wards of the State at the Monson State Primary School, Massachusetts 1866-1894.” There has been a change of position in the Folk Arts Department of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum at Nuremberg, Germany. Dr. Heidi A. Mueller has retired, and the new curator is Dr. Claudia Selheim. The Toy Collection is a part of her department, too. Don Romesburg has just accepted a tenure-track Assistant
Professorship in Women's and Gender Studies at Sonoma State University,
which will start in Fall 2008. New Books by SHCY Members Charles Dorn (Bowdoin College) has a new book out entitled American Education, Democracy, and the Second World War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). It examines how U.S. educational institutions during World War II responded to the dilemma of whether to serve as “weapons” in the nation’s arsenal of democracy or “citadels” in safeguarding the American way of life. By studying the lives of wartime Americans, as well as nursery schools, elementary and secondary schools, and universities, Charles Dorn makes the case that although wartime pressures affected educational institutions to varying degrees, these institutions resisted efforts to be placed solely in service of the nation’s war machine. Instead, Dorn argues, American education maintained a sturdy commitment to fostering civic mindedness in a society characterized by rapid technological advance and the perception of an ever-increasing threat to national security. First book alert: Luminita Dumanescu (Babes-Bolyai University, Romania), Children's Transylvania: Demographic Aspects of Childhood in the second half of 19th Century (Argonaut Publishing House). It is published in Romanian. Julie Miller (Hunter College, City University of New York) announces the publication of Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-Century New York City is being published by New York University Press on April 1, 2008. Leslie Paris (University of British Columbia) has a new book out: Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp (New York Univeristy Press, 2008). Andrew Hartman (Illinois State University) announces his new book: Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School (Palgrave Macmillan, March 2008). Heather Munro Prescott (Central Connecticut State University), is the author of the new book Student Bodies: The Influence of Student Health Services in American Society and Medicine. Published by the University of Michigan Press, the book explores connections between university health centers and the evolution of American health and medicine, linking developments in college health with larger trends in American cultural and medical history. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, Professor Prescott examines the relationship between administrative regulation of "student bodies" and broader social-cultural views about young adults and their status in 19th- and 21st-century America. Ingrid Söderlind (Institutet för Framtidsstudier) announces a couple of new studies from Sweden which may be of interest to members: Marianne Dahlén: The Negotiable Child. The ILO Child Labour Campaign 1919-1973 (2007) Uppsala University, Department of Law (in English) and Anna-Karin Frih: Flickan i medicin. Ungdom, kön och sjuklighet 1870-1930 (The girl in the medicine. Youth, gender and illness in Sweden 1870-1930) (Örebro University, Sweden, 2007) - in Swedish but with an English Summary. Heidi A. Müller has a new book out: Good Houskeeping: A Domestic Ideal in Miniature. The Nuremberg Doll Houses of the 17th Century in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Translation into English by Sarah C.D. Slenczka (Nuremberg, 2007). The large Nuremberg doll houses of the 17th century to which the volume is devoted represent both a singular ensemble within the collections of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and the keystone of its toy collection. Thanks to the scope, detail and diversity of their inventory, these miniature houses offer invaluable insights into the cultural history of the 17th century. By focusing on characteristic furnishings and drawing comparisons to both the Nuremberg burgher house and surviving material culture, the author seeks to demonstrate and interpret the relationship of the doll houses and their contents to contemporary domestic reality. Of pivotal significance is the Stromer Doll House of 1639 whose inventory of more than 1000 mostly original furnishings provides a superb impression of a complete burgher household of the period. Marta Gutman (City College of New York) and Ning
de Coninck-Smith (Arhus University) have co-edited Designing
Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children (Rutgers
University Press, 2008) Architectural historians, social historians,
social scientists, and architects examine the history and design of
places and objects such as schools, hospitals, playgrounds, houses,
cell phones, snowboards, and even the McDonald’s Happy Meal.
Special attention is given to how children use and interpret the spaces,
buildings, and objects that are part of their lives, becoming themselves
creators and carriers of culture. The authors extract common threads
in children’s understandings of their material worlds, but they
also show how the experience of modernity varies for young people across
time, through space, and according to age, gender, social class, race,
and culture. R. Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes have co-authored “Producing the Prurient through the Pedagogy of Purity: Childhood Sexuality and the Social Purity Movement,” Historical Sociology 20 (4)443-461 as well as “Sexuality and The Strange Carnalities of Advertisements: Deconstructing the Discourse of Corporate Paedophilia,” Australian Feminist Studies (Forthcoming). They are also in the process of co-editing a special issue of Historical Sociology on the History of Sexuality of Childhood and Youth. Harvey Graff (The Ohio State University) has co-authored “Literacy Myths,” with John Duffy for the Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd ed., Vol. 2 Literacy, ed. Brian Street and Nancy Hornberger (Berlin and New York: Springer, 2007). 41-52. E. Wayne Carp has authored “How Tight Was the Seal?: A Reappraisal of Adoption Records in the United States, England, and New Zealand, 1851-1955” in International Advances in Adoption Research for Practice, edited by Elsbeth Neil and Gretchen Wrobel (John Wiley & Sons, forthcoming, summer 2008). Miroslava Chavez-Garcia announces the publication of “In Retrospect: Anthony M. Platt’s /The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency/ (1969, 1977),” /Reviews in American History/ 35 (September 2007): 464-48. This article examines the impact of Anthony M. Platt's _The Child Savers_ (1969, 1977) on the last forty years of "juvenile justice" history. Robin Bernstein (Harvard University) has a new article out: "'Never Born': Angelina Weld Grimké's Rachel as Ironic Response to Topsy." The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Volume 19, Number 2 (Spring 2007): 61-75. This article focuses on the uses of child-characters in Rachel, an anti-lynching play by Harlem Renaissance playwright Angelina Weld Grimke. In March 2008, members can attend a roundtable on Catriona Kelly's Children's World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890-1991 at the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies in Atlanta. It will feature Rebecca Friedman, Assistant Professor, Department of History Florida International University; E. Thomas Ewing, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Virginia Tech; and Jacqueline Olich, Associate Director, UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies. At the same conference, Jacqueline M. Olich will make a presentation on "Images of Soviet Children in the Frank Whittston Fetter Collection" 2008 is a year of celebrations as the Norwegian Centre for Child Research (NOSEB) has its 25 year anniversary and the Department of Child Studies have its 20 anniversary. Both departments have an important strand of historical studies. The Department of Child Studies multidisciplinary environment has a number of historians since the founding of the department in 1988 when Professor Bengt Sandin was the first historian to be hired. Professor Bengt Sandin has taken on the task of being department head at Child Studies at the department of Thematic Studies in Linköping University after his sabbatical in California last academic year. Historian Professor Ellen Schrumpf was recently hired at NOSEB. The process of planning birthday parties is running it due course and not yet made public. Bengt Sandin is presently working on a study of the identity of the fetus, welfare policies and abortion politics in Sweden and a study of the history of child psychiatry in Sweden together with psychologist Karin Zetterkvist-Nelson. The historians Judith Lind and Cecila Lindgren and psychologist Karin Zetterkvist Nelson received a major research grant for a study of adoption which bring together historical and contemporary perspectives. Miroslava Chavez-Garcia (University of California-Davis)
brings to members’ attention that the Boalt Hall School of Law,
at the University of California, Berkeley, hosted a two-day symposium
on “Juvenile Justice Reform: Forty Years After /Gault/,” on
October 26 & 27, 2007. The conference brought together an exciting
and diverse array of folks working on juvenile justice. Judges, probation
officers, advocates, academics, community organizers, and former youth
offenders -- as well as many others -- attended this event. Topics included
Reforming Juvenile Corrections in California, Disproportionate Minority
Confinement, and Juvenile Justice in the Media. On October 26th, at lunch
time, Bernardine Dohrn, Clinical Associate Professor
of Law, Northwestern University Law School and Director, Children and
Family Justice Center, gave a riveting account of the juvenile justice
system and the role of race in that system in the last thirty or so years,
ending with the recent events in the "Jena 6" case. When finished,
Professor Dohrn brought audience members to their feet in appreciation
of her moving presentation. For more on the details of the event, see http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/bccj/conferences/gault/program.html. The
conference webpage now includes video from every panel, all of the powerpoint
presentations given at the conference and biographies of the presenters.
Follow this link to the site: Hatto Fischer wishes to point members to the Kids'
Guernica movement which started in Japan 1995. Its 15th
anniversary will be celebrated with an exhibition and workshop
in Florida organized by Tom Anderson in January 2010
(Tom Anderson, Florida State University,tanderson@fsu.edu)and
an international festival in Ubud, Bali in August. Children paint in
a collaborative learning process peace murals the same size as Picasso's
Guernica (7,8 x 3,5 m). Dirk Schumann reports that since November 2007 he has been part of an interdisciplinary and international research group at the ZiF Bielefeld (Center for Interdisciplinary Research) that discusses the question whether there has been a "loss of control" of violence (on an indivual, a group, and a state level) in the recent past. His is focusing on school violence in the U.S. and Germany in this context and is mainly examining expert debates and approaches to dealing with the problem since the 1970s. A German colleague, Klaus Weinhauer, investigates youth violence in the U.K. and Germany since the 1960s. Another German colleague, Barbara Kaletta, examines recent school shootings in Germany. A concluding conference will take place in September; its papers will very likely be published as a collection of essays. More information is available at http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/ZIF/FG/2007Control/index.html. David Lancy (Utah State University) announces the following website on the “Anthropology of Childhood” and invites contributions from SHCY members. Also note that the April issue of Anthropology News will be devoted to children and youth. http://www.anthropologyofchildhood.usu.edu/ Jacqueline Olich (UNC-Chapel Hill) brings to members’ attention several websites:
Benjamin Abelow has posted a simple website that describes his work on the links between childhood and religion from an interdisciplinary approach. He is especially interested in the possibility that historically widespread patterns of childhood punishment, abandonment, and neglect have deeply shaped religious traditions and experiences. The web address is: http://www.childhoodandreligion.info Marquette University announces the launch of a major
digital collection related to the history of children and youth: The
Indian Sentinel magazine, which was the official publication of
the Society for the Preservation of the Faith among Indian Children. The
magazine is part of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions collection
in the special collections section of the Raynor Memorial Library at
Marquette. More information on the collection can be found at: http://www.marquette.edu/library/information/news/2008/Indian_Sentinel.html CFP – deadline February 15, 2008! “Youth and Transition in Central Asia,” The Third International Student Conference on Youth and Transition in Central Asia will take place at International Atatürk Alatoo University, Bishkek, April 23, 2008. Central Asian states faced a new world order alongside independence after the Soviet Union's collapse. A vital characteristic of the new order was the transition from planned to a market economy. Undoubtedly this process affected society to a great extent. Equally, this process is getting faster and more penetrative due to the advanced technological age that we find ourselves in. How does this process and transition affect Central Asian youth and how do young people perceive this, how is this process seen through their eyes? The aim of this conference is to evaluate how Central Asian youth is coping with this transition, what are the opportunities available to them, the potential hurdles that they may face and the possible solutions that they have toward it. We await views, analysis and opinions with regard to the following and other related fields: Educational opportunities; Socio-economic factors; Networking and the media; Internet; Cultural gains; Sport and health; Art; Languages; Religion; History; International Relations; Sociology and Anthropology. Submitted abstracts should be single-spaced, contain a maximum of 300 words (including the title and the reference), and be in Times New Roman 12. The title should be in bold, centered at the top of the page, next your name, university where you study, country you are studying in, and your e-mail address. The deadline for submission of abstracts: Feb. 15; for Final papers April 1, 2008. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by Feb. 21, 2008. All papers will be published. Best papers will be awarded. All abstracts should be sent to: iaaustudentconference2008@yahoo.com E-mail: info@iaau.edu.kg Internet: http://www.iaau.edu.kg Members may be interested in “Scouting: A Centennial History
Symposium,” which will take place at Johns Hopkins University
on February 15-16, 2008. This conference aims to examine the
history and legacy of the global Scout movement over the past century
by bringing together scholars from around the world to share their
expertise. For more information, visit the conference website: http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/tproctor/scoutwebpage08.htm. Request to Edit Wikipedia Entries Anthony Krupp writes: As you no doubt know, wikipedia.org is one of the first sources(sometimes the only one) to which our students turn for enlightenment. Currently, Wikipedia articles on "child" and "childhood" are woefully deficient. (Please take a quick look at either article right now.) If you are reading this note, you are likely well situated to improve these articles swiftly and significantly. Wikipedia is very easy to use, but if you feel uncomfortable editing, please feel free to send text you'd like to see incorporated into either article to Anthony Krupp (anthonykrupp@gmail.com), who will do so for you. © Society for the History of Children and Youth, 2008 |