SHCY

The Society for the History of Children and Youth offers annual grants to scholarly event organizers. SHCY will award two $500 grants and one $1500 grant for events that take place in 2026–27. The application deadline is May 1. Find more information here: www.shcy.org/events1/even...

Jumping Over Childhood - Digital Childhoods Most of us conceive of childhood and maternity as separate, linearly progressive stages of life. First comes childhood, then comes puberty, then comes adulthood and reproduction. However, scholars con...

Check out this week's interview on Digital Childhoods with Bianca Premo on the tragic case of the "youngest mother in the world" and what it teaches us about time, maturity, and Peruvian history: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/jumping-...

Calls for submissions for SHCY's Grace Abbott Book Prize, Fass-Sandin Article Prize, and Laura Lovett Dissertation Prize will be coming soon—stay tuned!

Wrote a few words in @shcy.bsky.social's online exhibit Childish Things last week. Thanks @layla-koch.bsky.social for your helpful comments!

Collecting Children's Mite for Missions and Nationhood - Digital Childhoods Many objects related to the history of childhood have been lost to time, and the one I have chosen to write about is among them: collection boxes. These boxes were ephemeral objects, typically handed ...

This week on Digital Childhoods, Idunn Rostøl (@ivrostol.bsky.social) shares about Norwegian children's mission to Romani children and how this shaped ideas of nation and childhood. shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/collecti...

Childish Professor - Exploring the History of Children's History - Digital Childhoods Read in today’s post about The Childish Professor, a new public history project by Dr. Holly N.S. White that helps make the exciting history of childhood more accessible to students, educators, and mo...

In this week's Digital Childhoods post, read about Dr. Holly N.S. White's exciting new public history project on the history of childhood: "The Childish Professor"!

Call for symposium papers: "Digital Geographies of Childhood and Youth."

The international symposium will take place at Heidelberg University (Germany) from 22 to 24 June. Among the organizers is our member, Peter Kraftl.

Abstracts are due by 8 March.

www.transient-spaces.org/cfp-digital-...

NEW ISSUE OUT NOW The Lion and the Unicorn 48.2, Apr 2024 #S2O #OpenAccess at Project MUSE   CONTRIBUTORS
Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Vanessa Joosen, Paavo Van der Eecken, Brianna Anderson, Amy Webster, Yi Li, Melissa Terras, Yongning Li, Yauheniya Lekarevich, Sergei Pashakhin, Justin Wigard, Agnes Brauer, Felix Giesa, Michelle Kamolz, Mary Rizzo, Joshua Altshuler, Sara L. Schwebel, Elena Baibikov, Raffaella Baccolini, Áine McGillicuddy, Keith O'Sullivan, Roberta Pederzoli, Julia Beck, Lena Kåreland, Simon Springare, Åsa Warnqvist, Olle Widhe, John A. Walsh, Sasha Goryl, Kate Long, Glen Layne-Worthey, Kylee Green, Maryam Khorasani, Lorinda B. Cohoon, Katharine Slater, Stephen Dudas, Dainy Bernstein HOPKINS PRESS JOURNALS www.press.jhu.edu/journals/lion-and-unicorn

NEW ISSUE OUT NOW
The Lion and the Unicorn
48.2, Apr 2024
#S2O #OpenAccess at Project MUSE

tinyurl.com/bdd4ct7v

CONTRIBUTORS

Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Vanessa Joosen,
Paavo Van der Eecken, Brianna Anderson,
Amy Webster, Yi Li, Melissa Terras,
Yongning Li, Yauheniya Lekarevich,
Mary Rizzo & more

Friendly Warnings: Youth and Protection in British Sexual Surveillance of International Travel, 1885–1914

Next week at the 'Life-cycles' history seminar in Bloomsbury, this paper from Magdalene Klassen (Johns Hopkins University): www.history.ac.uk/news-events/.... All welcome

Childish Professor - Exploring the History of Children's History - Digital Childhoods Read in today’s post about The Childish Professor, a new public history project by Dr. Holly N.S. White that helps make the exciting history of childhood more accessible to students, educators, and mo...

In this week's Digital Childhoods post, read about Dr. Holly N.S. White's exciting new public history project on the history of childhood: "The Childish Professor"!

THE WORLD OF CHILDREN: Foreign Cultures in Nineteenth-Century German Education and Entertainment, edited by Simone Lässig and Andreas Weiß is now available in paperback!

Find out more here: bit.ly/4qJzlYT

#History #CulturalStudies #EducationalStudies #GermanStudies

Publish on the history of children and youth A new book series with Routledge, co-edited by Dr Kristine Alexander and Dr Simon Sleight, is welcoming submissions.

Routledge Studies in the Histories of Children and Youth - expressions of interest welcome for book publications! All the details are here www.histchild.org/articles/pub... #histchild

I haven't been on here in a while for personal reasons, but hopping back on to say that my new book is available for download here: www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

If you are interested in #histchild #histed then there should be something here for you!

This is a call for papers for a special issue of gender and history on childhood, gender and crises. For more details email katie.barclay@mq.edu.au

Call for papers: Childhood, Gender and Crises: Living at the End of the World. for Gender & History

Candies and Crises - Digital Childhoods On 2nd October 1931, a couple of weeks after the so-called Mukden Incident staged by the Japanese as an excuse for invading Manchuria, readers of the newspaper Shenbao (Shanghai News) who looked at th...

In the first Digital Childhoods post of 2026, Valentina Boretti (vboretti.bsky.social) explores how candy and patriotism were connected in 1930s Shanghai: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/candies-...

Candies and Crises - Digital Childhoods On 2nd October 1931, a couple of weeks after the so-called Mukden Incident staged by the Japanese as an excuse for invading Manchuria, readers of the newspaper Shenbao (Shanghai News) who looked at th...

In the first Digital Childhoods post of 2026, Valentina Boretti (vboretti.bsky.social) explores how candy and patriotism were connected in 1930s Shanghai: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/candies-...

Call for papers for one-day colloquium: Charity, Humanitarianism, and Childhood. Monday 22nd June 2026. Centre for the History of Childhood, University of Oxford Magdalen College Oxford, UK, and online. We welcome papers that consider the theme of ‘Charity, Humanitarianism, and Childhood’ from a wide variety of perspectives. Areas that papers might explore include: Children’s experiences as recipients of charity and humanitarianism, including in the context of conflict and displacement. Children’s experiences as charitable and humanitarian actors and providers. Representations of childhood within charitable and humanitarian discourses. Institutions and communities that mobilise around charitable and humanitarian relief for children. Memories, intergenerational transmission, and legacies of charity and humanitarianism. Failures, limitations, and tensions resulting from charitable and humanitarian actions. Archives for, approaches to, and public engagement with the study of charity, humanitarianism, and childhood in the past. Conceptual connections between care, vulnerability, and age. We welcome papers from any disciplinary or professional background and career stage, including advanced undergraduate and graduate students. We encourage papers that engage with the diversity of children’s and young people’s experiences in any historical period and place. Please send abstracts of c. 250 words for a fifteen-minute paper and a brief bio to sian.pooley@magd.ox.ac.uk by midday on Friday 13th March 2026. We plan to offer in person and online participation, so please indicate your preference when submitting. Organising Committee: Charlotte Canizo, Joseph Leidy, Siân Pooley, Susannah Wright

📢Call for papers📢 for this year's Centre for the History of Childhood colloquium on Charity, Humanitarianism, and Childhood on 22 June 2026. Please send us your abstracts by midday on Friday 13 March. We look forward to hearing from you! More details here: www.history.ox.ac.uk/centre-histo...

SHCY Dissertation Award Winner on British Child Migrants - Digital Childhoods For this year, the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth has awarded their Dissertation Award to Dr. Susanne Quitmann for her thesis titled, “Reconceptualising Voice: An Exploratory Case Stud...

Congratulations to @susannequitmann.bsky.social for winning the 2025 SHCY Dissertation Award! Read in this week's interview about her innovative research about British child migrants and finding the child's voice: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/shcy-dis...

Do you work on #domesticabuse #divorce #economicabuse #childcustody in the third sector/policy? Then we have the workshop for you! 'Archives to Action' is a free 1-day workshop exploring the important role archival research can play in policy reform. Details 👇
www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s Study suggests brain development has four pivotal ‘turning points’ at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83

Maybe the term 'adulthood' is, in fact, not incredibly useful if we keep redefining it to mean a shorter & shorter section of our lifespans (without even getting into the problems with assuming changes in the brain map onto social roles...) www.theguardian.com/science/2025... #histchild #skystorians

SHCY Grace Abbott Prize Winner on Poor Children and Christian Missions in Colonial Kerala - Digital Childhoods For the year of 2025, the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) has awarded the Grace Abbott Prize to Divya Kannan’s Contested Childhoods: Caste and Education in Colonial Kerala publish...

Congratulations to Divya Kannan, this year's SHCY Grace Abbott Prize winner. Read more about her book, research, and thoughts in this week's interview on Digital Childhoods: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/poor-chi...

A Token of a Young Imperial Traveler - Digital Childhoods Beginning in 1928, the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women (SOSBW), an off-shoot of the Overseas Settlement Committee, launched four educational and international tours for schoolgirl...

Read in this week's Digital Childhoods post by Megan Buiocchi about a pin commemorating a British girl's overseas trip in 1934—and how the tour symbolized British women's new imperial roles: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/token-of...

The call for papers for the @histchild.bsky.social 2026 conference at the University of Sheffield, 1-3 July, is now up on our website! Deadline 14 December www.histchild.org/pages/sheffi... #histchild #skystorians #histyouth

Fun Reading for Refinement: A Preteens’ Guide to Letter Writing - Digital Childhoods Growing up with strict parents who value good manners, I have always had a close affinity with the history of manners in my journey of historical discovery. My attention is thus naturally drawn to var...

Pre-teen writing etiquette goes way back! Check out the wonderful images in this week's post by Danni Cai on Digital Childhoods to learn more about how Chinese youth navigated letter-writing: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/fun-read...

Cover of my book We Have Come To Be Destroyed: Growing Up In Cold War Britain. The cover is an eerie blue-green and the words melt into an image of a group of children confronting the camera at a festival in Coventry in 1980.

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

Consider Children's Temporality, 'Playes' - Digital Childhoods In 2023, Mahshid Mayar published the insightful article “‘Playes Print the Letter’: American Child(hoods) as Archival Present/ce” in the Journal for the History of Childhood and Youth. In it, she expl...

Archiving childhood is all about time! Read Mahshid Mayar's insightful take on children's temporality in this week's interview on Digital Childhoods: shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/consider...

Call for conference papers:

"Child's Play in Popular Culture: History, representations and consumption."

Abstracts are due by 30 November.

The conference will take place online on 30 April - 1 May 2026.

call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/04/...

Care Play: More Ways Young People Played Kindly with Videogames - Digital Childhoods Follow along to read the entire comic strip by Bevs Boredom Comics! Growing up the in the 1990s and 2000s, the first game that I played and completed with my sister by my side was The Legend of Zelda:...

How much did you cherish your tamagotchi? In this week's post on Digital Childhoods, Kacey Doran analyzes care play within video games to question gender dynamics and shooter game discourse. Check out the wonderful illustrations by @bevscomics.bsky.social! shcydigitalchildhoods.org/dir/care-play/

Here’s a short article I did for Digital Childhoods on homemade toys in Ireland, with some fabulous sketches and notes from the Schools’ Folklore Collection