We welcome submissions from ACYIG members for our blog!
The ACYIG blog is a venue to writers and readers around themes common to the anthropology of children and youth. It provides a time-sensitive forum for scholars to communicate budding ideas, reflect on methodology, or share thoughts on critical issues that might not fit elsewhere. It also brings scholars into dialogue with practitioners to reflect on questions related to children and youth.
The blog is open to ACYIG members and non-member guests. We intend for our content to serve anthropologists as well as other academics and practitioners from diverse fields that intersect with children and youth, to inspire critical and innovative thinking in addition to providing a platform for networking and tip-sharing.
- children/youth in the news — Experts on topics that are coming up a lot in the current news write about their take on current events, parse out the news coverage or what isn’t being addressed, give deeper ethnographic insight into what is at stake, perhaps provide historical perspective, etc.
- important issues related to children/youth that are NOT in the news — Things we know about as researchers that we wish had media coverage, and why.
- photography from the field / brief photo essays
- questions of ethics and the IRB — specifically in relation to research with minors and protected populations
- the “anthropology of childhood and youth” outside of typical anthropology departments
- status and future of being an “anthropologist of childhood/youth” in the U.S.; job advice & related
- “why study children?” – novel perspectives and creative applications for thinking about the relevance of our discipline
- notes from the field — open-ended reflections on research w/ kids
- kids’ perspectives on participating in research
- childhood and youth in popular culture, etc.
- summaries of discussions that occur on our listserv (or other such community resources)
Please note that general submissions are screened internally and decisions about posting pieces are made quickly, so this is of course not a formal academic publication nor is it to be considered peer reviewed. It is, however, a great way to get more people to view your ideas and publicize your work, and to help publicize the anthropology of childhood and youth!
Want to liven up your teaching and scholarship related to children and youth? The ACYIG blog can publish your students’ work in a special student blog series. Student posts could take a variety of forms, depending on each instructor’s goals. They can include ethnographic observations, critical reflections, fieldwork commentaries, proposed research, etc. They may range from very short contributions of a few hundred words, to longer submissions adapted from student papers. Involving undergraduate or graduate students this could potentially include a peer-review process before and after posting to reinforce learning. The process incites thoughtful contributions and constructive peer comments, and it enables students to gain valuable experience writing shorter pieces for online dissemination. We invite instructors to contact Robin Valenzuela directly to express their interest. Together, we can shape the parameters of a possible course assignment or set of submission guidelines to fit with your teaching objectives.
For detailed information on submitting to our blog, please reference the blog submission guidelines document. Please contact Robin Valenzuela at robinvalenzuela1708[at]gmail.com , ACYIG Content Coordinator for Blog and Social Media for more information.