The graduate students of the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden are pleased to invite you to a conversation about Childhood Studies. The Grad Student Forum of the The Multiple Childhoods/Multidisciplinary Perspectives Conference (MC/MP) http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/multiple-childhoods/ will bring together new and emerging scholars engaged in the study of children and childhood who wish to connect across disciplinary boundaries, share experiences, discuss their research, learn where the field of Childhood Studies is going, and meet the diverse range of fellow scholars around the world who will be taking it there!
The majority of the conference will consist of traditional papers, panels, keynotes, and posters, so the Forum will be composed of roundtable discussions amongst the participants. Each discussion will be on one of the topics described below. The topics stem from the conference theme and are, we believe, core to the field of Childhood Studies but applicable for anyone studying children and childhood from any disciplinary or multi-disciplinary perspective. The Forum discussions will address the following themes:

--Doing multidisciplinary studies--how, why, perils, pitfalls and rewards.
--Interrogating “the child” -- who is a child? when is a child? age, development, society, culture?
--Exploring Childhood Studies--an ongoing discussion, what is this new field, where does it come from, what does it entail now, and where are we as emerging scholars going to take it.
--other topics you care to propose related to the overall theme of Multiple Childhoods/ Multidisciplinary Perspectives: Interrogating Normativity in Childhood Studies

To join the conversation, please send a 1-2 page written statement on one of the above topics. Statements will be circulated amongst participants in advance of the Forum and will serve as springboards for the roundtables. This statement is neither a formal paper nor an abstract for a paper presentation. It should provide other participants a preliminary glimpse into what you would like to discuss with fellow researchers: what particular aspects of the above topics interests you most; how do you approach or even begin to address some of the questions or related issues; what are some of your own experiences of, and questions about, the topic you’d like to have a conversation about. Roundtables will be moderated by a graduate student who will (hopefully!) ensure fruitful debate, conversation, and discussion emerging from the thoughts in the statements.

To participate, please submit a 1-2 page statement on any one of the above topics by March 26, 2011 to Martin Woodside: mlwoodside@gmail.com, with the subject line “Charting the Course.”

The Forum will take place at the MC/MP Conference at The Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia, on May 19th, and will be followed by a less formal gathering of all graduate students attending MC/MP during happy hour at the Palomar Bar! And this will be immediately followed by the Conference opening reception, also at the Hotel Palomar.

For any further questions please contact Anandini Dar (anandini@camden.rutgers.edu) or Patrick Cox (ptcox@camden.rutgers.edu).

We look forward to your interest!
Graduate Student Forum Committee.