Call for Papers

[pt...@camden.rutgers.edu]

Call for Papers -- Exploring Childhood Studies, A Graduate Student
Conference

Department of Childhood Studies
Rutgers University, Camden

The graduate students of the Department of Childhood Studies at
Rutgers University, Camden invite submissions for papers and poster
presentations for their first formal graduate student conference on
April 9, 2010. Graduate students from all disciplines who are engaged
in research relating to children and childhood are encouraged to
submit proposals.

The field of childhood studies engages in both theoretical and
empirical study of children and childhood within historical,
contemporary, interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, state, national, and
global contexts. Each combination of perspectives provides new
insights into the lives of children and the families, cultures, and
societies in which they are embedded. The interdisciplinary nature of
the field is one of its greatest strengths and the core of its
remarkable potential for scholarly advancement, but also leaves the
field open for exploration and interrogation, and its borders
difficult, if not impossible, to define.

The Exploring Childhood Studies conference proposes defining Childhood
Studies by "doing" childhood studies; the conference will explore the
field by offering explorations within it. We seek papers from all
disciplines that keep childhood as a construct, children as a
category, or the child as a real living human as their central focus,
providing critical thought and insight while locating them in
different contexts, fields, and ideologies.

In keeping with what we believe is the essential interdisciplinary
nature of Childhood Studies, this conference seeks to be
interdisciplinary itself. We seek proposals from all disciplines--
education, literature, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology,
law, political science, history, criminology, philosophy, medicine,
religion, film studies, and cultural studies--as well as
interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary scholarly work.

The range of open topics within this field is as broad as the contexts
of the experiences of children and childhood: war, health, rights,
gender, poverty, wealth, policy, ethics, popular culture,
globalization, school, family, home, sexuality, community, and
representations in all modes of fiction. The field of Childhood
Studies itself is open to interrogation.

Selected papers will be grouped into panels that may be based around
discipline, theme, or perspective, but will demonstrate the common
grounding of the papers in their mutual exploration of children and
childhood studies.

Paper presentations should be limited to 20 minutes in length. Please
send 250-word abstract for paper or poster presentation (specify
which) and cover letter with name, current level of graduate study,
affiliated university, and email address to m_mo...@vfcc.edu. Include
the words "conference abstract" in subject line, and include name on
the cover letter only.

For further information about The Exploring Childhood Studies
conference, contact: Patrick Cox at pt...@camden.rutgers.edu or
Anandini Dar at anan...@camden.rutgers.edu.

Deadline for submission is October 31, 2009. Accepted presenters will
receive email notification by January 10, 2010.

Home to the Department of Childhood Studies and The Center for
Children and Childhood Studies, Rutgers-Camden is a leader in the
national and international discourse on the state of children and
childhood. We are very proud of the fact that Rutgers-Camden is the
first and only PhD-granting Department of Childhood Studies in the
nation, which has now entered its third year. We look forward to
introducing the larger academic community to our fellow students,
exemplary faculty and unique program, and to engaging in vigorous and
stimulating discussions with our peers throughout academia.

Visit the Department of Childhood Studies here: http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/