CALL FOR PAPERS: Children and Youth Speaking Up and Speaking Out

Call for papers: Children’s History Society and Manchester Centre for Youth Studies Conference Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, 25-27 June 2020.

The last two years have seen some of the most powerful youth protest movements in decades. Greta Thunberg’s school strike calling for climate action inspired a global campaign among millions of school children.

In the United States, March for Our Lives saw hundreds of thousands of young people demonstrating against gun violence in one of the largest youth protests in U.S. history. From possessed and prophetic children, to young people participating in industrial disputes and school strikes, to
violent gangs imposing themselves on their peers, the young have endeavoured to convey their own feelings and views, while adults have tried to explain and interpret them.

‘Young people speaking up and speaking out’ raises questions about how the youthful voice has been conceptualized in qualitative historical research and what is meant by children’s rights. ‘Speaking up and speaking out’ has not necessarily taken a verbal form and not all children and young people
have been able either to speak up or speak out, given a variety of constraining forces. Conversely, collective action has taken many forms, from the Children’s Crusade (1212), to traditions
of ‘misrule’ and role-reversal.

This third biennial conference of the Children’s History Society consequently seeks to explore the challenges and possibilities of researching how children and young people have resisted, confronted or acceded in societies that have rarely valued their voices, in the face of adults who have tried to restrain them and enforce silence in different historical settings and eras.

For individual papers, please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a 2-page CV, to childrenandyouth@mmu.ac.uk by 1 November 2019. Panel submissions featuring three papers of 15-20 minutes apiece are also encouraged, and should be submitted collectively by the panel organiser. Please state your contact email address on the abstract. Applicants will be notified
of the outcome in January 2020. We expect the selection process to be competitive, and hence we will prioritise panels and papers directly addressing the overall conference theme as well as one or more sub-themes from the suggested list noted on the CHS website.

All attendees and presenters need to join the Children’s History Society in order to participate in
the conference. To join, please visit the CHS website: histchilduk.wordpress.com/joining By joining up you will be contributing to an expanding series of activities and bursaries that the CHS is planning.

The conference will be hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, the world’s first industrial city. Manchester has a history of radical politics and protest, a vibrant music (and football) scene, famous art galleries, museums and libraries, many within walking distance of each other. Lovely countryside, such as the Peak District and Lake District is within easy reach by train.

To join CHS visit histchilduk.wordpress.com/joining/

For more information email childrenandyouth@mmu.ac.uk