The Childhood Studies Department of Rutgers University–Camden is pleased to announce its Annual Lecture, delivered this year by Dr. Susan Terrio, Professor of Anthropology and French Studies at Georgetown University and the author of Whose Child Am I? Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in U.S. Immigration Custody (UC Press, 2015).

Dr. Terrio’s talk, “Dispelling the Myths: Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in U.S. Immigration Custody,” will take place on Tuesday March 8 at  4:30 pm, with reception at 6 pm, in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Campus Center at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey.

The faculty, students and staff of Childhood Studies cordially invite you to attend this exciting event.  Both lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

Please see our website for more information about the event:
http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/events/4th-annual-lecture-in-childhood-studies/

Friday 19 February 10.30-12.00
W&N building, 6^th floor, room WN-P656, this is behind the main building
VU University Amsterdam

Cartographies of Child Poverty in Policies and Programmes in Kenya: Locating Children’s Voice at the Interstices of Competing Representations

Elizabeth Ngutuku (Eliza)

PhD Researcher
International Institute of Social Studies

Abstract:

Policies and programmes for child poverty and vulnerability harbour specific constructions on child poverty as well as poor children.  These constructions may affect children’s subjective experiences and elide the voices of children. Despite this possibility, these interventions have often been perceived as natural and the norms they harbour are often invisible. The proposed one year research in Kenya intends to problematize and denaturalize these dominant constructions as embedded in policies and programmes.  Elizabeth Ngutuku will map these competing representations against the perspectives and lived experience of children. In so doing, she intends to locate children’s voices, while aware that these perspectives might go beyond the articulated as they might be contained in the unsaid as well as hidden in the processes of silencing.

Note that our March meeting will take place on Tuesday 15 March 10.30-12.00. We will have the pleasure of a presentation of Dr Clarice Cohen from Brazil. If you are interested in presenting at one of our seminars yourself, please contact the Network chair: Dr Sandra J.T.M. Evers, s.j.t.m.evers@vu.nl

VU University is located at a 10-minutes’ walk from Amsterdam Zuid railway station. Tram stop ‘De Boelelaan / VU’ is served by tram lines 5 and 51. W&N Building is located behind the main building:

http://www.vu.nl/nl/Images/CAMPUS_PLATTEGROND-looprichtingen_100px_website_contact_tcm289-386787.jpg

Feel free to communicate information of this seminar to other people who might be interested.

Could you confirm your participation in the 19 February seminar to us? childrenseminar@hotmail.com

RISE/ Virtual Pedagogy Seminar
2 March 2016, 11.00-12.30
Convent Parlour, Digby Stuart College
University of Roehampton
South-West London

The programme is:

Welcome & Introduction by Dr. Michalis Kontopodis & Dr. Julie Shaughnessy (10’)

Young People, Participation & Media: Between the Rhetoric & Practice of Democracy by Dr. Shakuntala Banaji, LSE (60′ including discussion)

Coffee, tea & informal interaction (30’)

Seats are on a first-come first-served basis (but you are welcome to tell me whether you are able to join). Please forward this announcement to interested students, colleagues and practitioners!

Abstract and speaker information: 

Young People, Participation and Media: Between the Rhetoric and Practice of Democracy, Dr. Shakuntala Banaji, LSE

There has been widespread concern in contemporary Western societies about declining engagement in civic life; studies find that people are less inclined to vote, to join political parties, to campaign for social causes, or to trust political processes. Young people more than other groups are frequently described as disenchanted with elections, alienated or apathetic. Some scholars have looked optimistically to new media – and particularly the Internet – as a means of revitalizing civic life and giving young people a voice. Governments, political parties, charities, NGOs, activists, religious and ethnic groups, and grassroots organizations have created a range of youth-oriented websites that encourage widely divergent forms of civic engagement and use varying degrees of interactivity. But are young people really apathetic and lacking in motivation? In what circumstances does the Internet have the power to re-engage those disenchanted with politics and civic life? And what role do social class, political and media literacy play in motivating sustained participation?

Based on three major research projects funded by the European Commission between 2006 and 2016, the paper attempts to understand the role the internet and media more generally play in young people’s participation in democracy and the civic sphere. Examples are drawn from Hungary, the Finland, France, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom – countries offering contrasting political systems and cultural contexts. The books based on this research – ‘Banaji, S & Buckingham, D. (2013) ‘The Civic Web: Young People, the Internet and Civic Participation’ and Cammaerts, Bruter, Banaji et al. (2015) ‘Young People and Democratic Life in Europe: Between Hope and Disillusion’ also address broader questions about the meaning of civic engagement, inclusion and exclusion, the nature of new forms of participation, and their implications for the future of civic life.

Dr. Shakuntala Banaji is a Lecturer in Media and Communications, and Programme Director of the Master’s in Media, Communication, and Development at LSE. Her teaching and research covers children, youth and media cultures in South Asia and Europe, Hindi films, the internet and civic participation. She has worked on several largescale funded projects, and is currently UK project director for CATCH-EyoU: Constructing Active Citizenship with Young People in Europe (Horizon 2020, 2015-2018).

http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/WhosWho/AcademicStaff/ShakuntalaBanaji.aspx

Further details: https://mkontopodis.wordpress.com