THE LAW AND THE CHILD IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

[We have the following announcement for the conference "The Law and the Child in Historical Perspective, 1400-2000," to be held June 1-2, 2014, at the University of Minnesota Law School, 229 19th Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55455.]

The study of the history of children, youth and childhood has grown dramatically in the last two decades, making age a new category of historical analysis.  The Law and the Child will focus on law's central role in changing understandings of childhood and children's experiences, considering among other things selfhood, family, market relations, society, and state.  Our hope is for a broad reach geographically and chronologically, from the Medieval World to the Twenty-First Century, and for papers that consider the multiple sources that intersect in the legal construction of childhood and in children's lived legal experiences.  These include race, class, gender, disability, sexuality, ethnicity, psychology, dependency, agency, citizenship, and (il)legitimacy.  We also hope papers will address topics in both civil and criminal law.  The conference, one of a series begun in 2007, is intended to showcase the work of junior scholars working the field of legal history and to bring them into conversation with senior scholars.  It is co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota Law School and History Department, the Childhood and Youth Studies Across the Disciplines IAS Research Collaborative at the University of Minnesota, the Indiana University School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School and History Department, the University of Illinois College of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, and the University of Chicago Department of History.

Interested participants should submit a proposal of no more than 300 words, in Word format, accompanied by a cv of no more than 3 pages to Barbara Welke at welke004@umn.edu.  All proposals are due by 20 December 2013.  Applicants will be notified by email no later than 17 February 2014 whether their proposals have been accepted for presentation.  No previously published work will be accepted, as the conference is designed to provide a forum for productive and supportive discussion of works in progress.

Accepted participants will be required to submit a full paper, in Word format, of no more than 10,000 words by 1 May 2014.  All papers will be pre-circulated on a password-protected website, and read by all participants.  A modest travel and accommodations budget will be provided for all presenters.