The title of this year’s conference is “Reimagining the Child: Next Steps in the Study of Childhood(s)”.

Since its inception, the field of childhood studies has pushed boundaries in academic approaches to children and childhood. It has challenged scholars to refigure children as active participants in society and constructors of their own life experiences, worked to give voice to young people in research, promoted the understanding of childhood as a socially-constructed category, and encouraged groundbreaking interdisciplinary methodology and analysis. We recognize, however, that innovative thinking about children and childhood is not limited to those scholars working directly in the field of childhood studies. The goal of this year’s graduate student conference is to bring together graduate students and other early-career scholars whose work represents a contribution to expanding academic understandings of and approaches to children and childhood.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Theorizations and discourses of childhood
• Representations of children in media
• Relationships between children and technology
• Considering children in approaches to human rights, ethics, and morality
• Children’s culture(s)
• Children as social agents
• Bringing children’s voices to academic study
• Children’s participation in research and as researchers
• Emerging and diverse perspectives on childhood in psychology
• Children and views of “the child” in politics and policy
• Geographies and histories of childhood
• Differences and parallels in diverse experiences of childhood
• Intersections of childhood with other social categories, such as gender, race, and disability
• Changing understandings of childhood and their implications for teaching and learning

Proposals are welcome from scholars in all fields, including sociology, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, media studies, fine arts, political science, public policy, geography, psychology, and education. We are particularly looking for presenters engaged in interdisciplinary work.

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words to the conference chair, Julian Burton, at julian.burton@rutgers.edu. Include the words “conference abstract” in the subject line. Please include your name, current level of study, and affiliated institution in the body of your e-mail. Attach your abstract as a separate document containing no personally identifying information.

Deadline: 20 December 2015. Notifications will be sent to accepted presenters by 31 January 2016.

Further information will be made available on the Childhood Studies Rutgers Facebook page at facebook.com/childhoodruc and the Childhood Studies Grad Student Organization event page at goo.gl/WwLc7E