NEWSLETTER

Society for the History of Children and Youth

Mona Gleason

The SHCY has an enthusiastic Canadian counterpart! The Canadian Historical Association meetings in London, Ontario, at the end of May, 2005, was home to the inaugural session of the CHA-affiliated History of Children and Youth Group (HCYG). The HCYG session entitled "Where are the Kids?" offered papers by Cindy Comacchio from Wilfrid Laurier University, Mona Gleason from the University of British Columbia, and Chad Gaffield and Tim Stanley, both from the University of Ottawa.  The session   attracted a great mix of students and more established scholars interested in bringing the history of childhood, children, and youth into the Canadian scholarly mainstream. Chair of the session, Dr. Tamara Myers from the University of Winnipeg, offered these observations about the session:

"Our "Where are the Kids?" panel was a great success thanks to Cynthia Comacchio, Chad Gaffield, Mona Gleason and Tim Stanley. Approaching the question from different angles, the panelists gave us a tremendous view of how important yet varied the histories of children and youth can/should be. While children seem ubiquitous at times, age as a category of analysis is still not well developed in the Canadian historical literature and the placement of children at the centre of historical inquiry remains elusive. The panelists raised critical epistomological, methodological and theoretical questions."

Enthusiasm for continuing to meet as a group interested in children and youth was certainly solidified at the London meetings.  We discussed ways to keep our momentum going with another sponsored session in 2006 at York University in Toronto. In addition, the HCYG is eager to establish strong and meaningful ties with our SHCY colleagues. Perhaps as both of our groups become further established, we can work on a joint conference between our two associations!

New Publications on Children and Youth

The current issue of BC Studies -- The British Columbia Quarterly  144 (Winter 2004-2005) is dedicated to "Being Young -- Journeys into Adulthood," and features articles by historians Veronica Strong-Boag ("Interrupted Relations: The Adoption of Children in Twentieth-Century British Columbia"), Margaret Milne Martens and Graeme Chalmers ("Educating the Eye, Hand, and Heart at St. Ann's Academy: A Case Study of Art Education for Girls in Nineteenth-Century Victoria"), Nic Clarke ("Sacred Demons: Exploring British Columbian Society's Perceptions of "Mentally Deficient" Children, 1870-1930"), and Michael Marker ("It Was Two Different Times of the Day, But in the Same Place": Coast Salish High School Experience in the 1970s.)

Cynthia Comacchio's new book entitled The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of a Modern Canada 1920 to 1950 from Wilfrid Laurier University Press is due to come out in February of 2006. The book promises to "captures what it meant for young Canadians to inhabit this liminal stage of life within the context of a young nation caught up in the self-formation and historic transformation that would make modern CanadaÉCynthia Comacchio offers the first detailed study of adolescence in early-twentieth-century Canada and demonstrates how young Canadians of the period became the nation's first modern teenagers."

Also of Note...

Rianne Mahon, "Child Care as Citizenship Right? Toronto in the 1970s and 1980s," Canadian Historical Review, 86, 2 (June 2005): 285-315.

Dorothy A. Forbes, et. al. "Health and Well-Being in Young-Old and Old-Old Canadians: A Comparison of Two Time Periods," International Journal of Canadian Studies 28 (2004): 39-62.

Kristin McLaren, " 'We had no desire to be set apart': Forced Segregation of Black Students in Canada West Public Schools and Myths of British Egalitarianism," Histoire sociale/Social History 37, 73 (2004): 27-50.

Tamara Myers, "The Rise and Fall of Jewish Female Anti-Delinquency Work in Interwar Montreal" in Bettina Bradbury and Tamara Myers, eds., Negotiating Identities in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Montreal (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004)

Mona Gleason, "From Disgraceful Carelessness to Intelligent Precaution: Accidents and the Public Child in English Canada, 1900-1950," Journal of Family History 30, 2 (April 2005): 230-241.