NEWSLETTER

Society for the History of Children and Youth

Canadian Happenings

Mona Gleason, University of British Columbia

We’ve Arrived…..
HCYG Announces Prize Winners

At the 2008 Canadian Historical Association (CHA) conference, held over four days in early June at the University of British Columbia (UBC), attendees were faced with a wonderful, unprecedented dilemma: so many papers and sessions devoted to the history of children and youth, so little time! Under the major theme, “Thinking Beyond Borders – Global Ideas, Global Values,” the program committee called for sessions and papers under several sub-themes. For the first time in the history of the CHA, the sub-theme of “childhood, youth, and generations” was highlighted. Other sub-themes included “environments, cultures, and power” and “migrations, place, and identities.”

In keeping with the “Wet” Coast rain that greeted participants, the conference proved to be a watershed event for Canadian scholars interested in the historical experience of young people. Twelve dedicated sessions and a total of 34 individual papers devoted to numerous topics in the field were presented. A sampling of session titles hints at the impressive range of topics delivered over the course of the conference: New Norms for Childhood, Print Cultures and Youth Cultures; At the Crossroads of History: The Politics of Canadian Youth in the 1960s; Children’s Experiences with War, Crime, and Sickness; The Politics of Babies Around the Globe; Protecting and Controlling Youth; Childhood, Colonialism and Race in Early Twentieth-Century Canada and the World; and Youth and Sexuality.  None of this was, of course, mere happenstance.  By including “children, youth, and generations” in the sponsored sub-themes, CHA conference organizers exemplified the power of the “if you build it, they will come” phenomenon. Scholarship in the history of children and youth is growing quickly in Canada and given the strong showing of graduate students in Vancouver, will continue to do so.

Along with encouraging papers in the history of children and youth, the CHA acknowledged the growing importance of the field by inviting Dr. Paula S. Fass, Margaret Byrne Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and President of the Society for the History of Children and Youth, as the conference keynote speaker. Dr. Fass’s eloquent and engaging address,  “Children on the Edge of History and Historiography,” argued for a broader engagement with, and acknowledgement of, the central contributions that young people have made to long-standing global trends that transcend our North American borders.  Demonstrating the field’s central importance to the main conference theme, “Thinking Beyond Borders – Global Ideas, Global Values,” Fass made clear that the history of children confronts and challenges traditional borders and boundaries in unique ways. To fully unearth these histories is to engage with political, economic, and scientific developments that are best understood as global and globalizing. Fass demonstrated the importance of politicizing our approach to children and childhood, re-imagining their historical experiences as global in scope and implication and truly interwoven with the fate of families and nations. Her message was important not only for those of us who toil in the field but to those who are remain uncertain about why this history matters.

The History of Children and Youth Group (HCYG), an affiliated committee of the CHA, capitalized on this tremendous scholarly energy. The first Neil Sutherland Prize for the best article or chapter in the history of children and youth was awarded to Rhonda Hinther for “Raised in the Spirit of the Class Struggle: Children, Youth, and the Interwar Ukrainian Left in Canada,” Labour/Le Travail 60 (Fall 2007), 43-76. Honourable mention was given to Stephen Robertson, "Boys, of course, cannot be raped: Age, Homosexuality, and the Redefinition of Sexual Violence in New York City, 1880-1955," Gender and History, 18 (August 2006). Other CHA committees also recognized outstanding work by Canadian youth scholars. Tamara Myers won the Canadian Committee on the History of Sexuality Best Article Prize for "Embodying Delinquency: Boy's Bodies, Sexuality, and Juvenile Justice in Early Twentieth-Century Quebec," Journal of the History of Sexuality, 14 (October, 2005). The Dominion of Youth – Adolescence and the Making of Modern Canada, 1920-1950 (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2006) by Cynthia Comacchio won honourable mention for the Sir John A. MacDonald Prize for “the book judged to have made the most significant contribution to Canadian history.” With the generous support of the Department of History and the Department of Educational Studies at UBC, the HCYG was able to host its first celebratory reception to meet each other and honour these outstanding accomplishments. (Please visit the HCYG website at http://www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/HCYG ).

The 2008 meeting of the CHA brought scholars who focus on youngsters together in a way that was unprecedented in the Canadian context. Judging from the success of childhood sessions, interest in the Neil Sutherland Prize, a provocative keynote address, and growing and enthusiastic membership in the HCYG, the field in Canada is truly coming into its own.