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Childhood Studies

Description

The Graduate Study Group in Childhood Studies is an interdisciplinary, intercollegiate affiliation of scholars investigating childhood as a critical field of inquiry. The group augments traditional scholarship in developmental psychology, anthropology, and sociology, and informs policy-relevant research by introducing graduate students to theorized approaches that consider the cultural-historical construction and contemporary (re)construction of childhood, with specific attention to issues of discourse, representation and practice.  The research and training offered by the Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Childhood Studies complements the social science and professionally-oriented approaches currently offered by the College of Education and Human Development including the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Institute of Child Development’s Child Psychology and Early Childhood Education Programs, the School of Social Work’s Youth Studies Program, and the Departments of Family Social Science, Sociology, and Anthropology, by casting concepts of childhood and the child within larger historical and cultural contexts.

Beginning with an understanding of childhood as an historically-bound practice that is neither wholly natural nor entirely cultural, Childhood Studies traces the various connections and mediations through which childhood – and in turn, specific child subjects – come into being.  Replete with emotional, psychic, social and political meaning, the child is central to collective narratives and myths that not only define whom we believe ourselves to be as civilizations, nations and cultures, but whom we believe ourselves to be as human beings. Childhood Studies interrogates and “makes strange” this life course category, theorizing among other things, how the child is variously represented – and thus positioned – within society generally (e.g., through television, film, consumer advertising, children’s literature, public policy), and more specifically, within different disciplinary perspectives (e.g., developmental psychology, education, sociology, law).  Following this, some of the questions that Childhood Studies asks include: How do our conceptions of children govern what we do to/with them?  Are these conceptions accurate?  If not, how might the social practices that constitute “childhood” need to change?   How can we take into consideration children’s conceptions of themselves?  How might children’s perspectives and experiences impact reigning (adult) ideas about children’s capabilities and needs? 

Leadership

The primary contact for this group is Sarah Holtman (Philosophy).  Additional members of the leadership team are Lee Galda (Curriculum and Instruction) and Kysa Hubbard (CSCL). 

Membership

Please direct questions about the new interdisciplinary graduate groups to Vicki Field, Director of The Graduate School’s Office of Interdisciplinary Initiatives, field001@umn.edu or 612-625-6532.