understandings of contemporary children’s lives through historical
perspectives. The conference will be held at the Australian National
University in Canberra from 18th – 19th of July, 2013.
When we consider that children are marginalized by age in relation to
structures of power – as well as, caste, class and gender – they in fact
constitute multiple subaltern groups. The critical interrogation of the
concept of childhood and experiences of children is timely and
important. Although
there is intense theoretical and development interest in children in South
Asia, children’s perspectives remain largely silent in political, social
and economic debate. Where children are the subject of adult speculation
in development discourses, impacts on the lives of real children are often
surprisingly underrepresented. This workshop will locate children in
important historical and social changes in contemporary India while
foregrounding children’s stories and agency. We aim for a convergence of
innovative ideas around childhood, recognizing that this category is
contested and raises important dilemmas for inter-disciplinary studies.
This workshop will bring together previously disparate threads of different
disciplinary approaches to children and childhood, allowing us within these
two days to identify and develop convergences, conflicts, and aspects that
may have been over-looked by one discipline, but explored in another. The
conference aims to highlight the methodological implications of research
into the perspectives and experiences of children.
Some of the dilemmas and themes to be explored include:
– children’s experiences, voices and stories
– universal versus multiple childhoods and the historical and cultural
specifities of conceptualizing childhood in South Asia
– how we conceive of children’s agency in relation to structures of
power
– a critical interrogation of child rights discourse, and the gap
between the rhetoric and reality of children’s participation
– diverse childhoods across class and caste, with a particular focus
upon marginalized children
– how to methodologically approach children’s perspectives and
experiences as adults and as scholars
– experiences and discourses of gendered girlhoods and boyhoods
– the significance of education in issues of social inequality,
constructions of Indian nationalism and modernity.
Topics that papers could consider include, but are not limited to:
– childhood and modernity, development and consumption amidst rapid
social and economic changes
– institutions of childhood, including schools, hostels, early infant
welfare centers, orphanages and youth organizations
– the anthropology of education, ideologies and styles of pedagogy, and
children’s experiences and agency within the classroom
– children and medicine (children’s understandings and experiences of
illness and healing; discourses surrounding children and health)
– children’s cultures (including play and friendship)
– South Asian children’s literature and children’s representation in
literature
– gender and sexuality
– children in families (including changing domesticities, family
relationships and structures of power, and sibling-caretaking)
– children and violence (domestic, communal and state)
– children and work.
We invite proposals from various scholarly disciplines (including
anthropology, history, sociology, law and justice studies, development
studies, cultural and visual studies, etc), as well as representatives of
organizations working specifically with issues surrounding youth and
childhood.
Please submit 200-300 word abstracts for proposed papers by 10th January
2013 to either Dr. Zazie Bowen (Zazie.Bowen@anu.edu.au) or Jessica Hinchy (
Jessica.Hinchy@anu.edu.au ).
Jessica Hinchy
School of Culture, History and Language
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University, Canberra
source: H-Asia
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
DM (13 octobre 2012). CFP: “South Asian Childhoods: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives” Conference. SRI LANKA & DIASPORAS. Consulté le 10 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/u7rg