Dissertation Research on the History of Children and Youth
Compiled by Colleen Vasconcellos
Recently Completed Dissertations ( Download pdf version with abstracts of the dissertations )
Berg, Ellen L, Ph.D. “Citizens in the Republic of Childhood: Immigrants and the American Kindergarten, 1880-1920,” University of California, Berkeley, 2005
Bullard, Katharine, Ph.D. “The Benevolence of Empire: Disciples of Race Nation and Child Welfare in America,” University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2006
Chavez, Raul S., Ph.D. “Childhood Indians: Television, Film, and Sustaining the White (sub)Conscience,” University of California, Riverside, 2006
Damrow, Christine B., Ph.D. “'Every Child in a Garden': Radishes, Avocado Pits, and the Education of American Children in the 20th Century,” University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2005
de Schweinitz, Rebecca L., Ph.D. “'If They Could Change the World': Children, Childhood, and African American Civil Rights Politics,” University of Virginia, 2005
DuRocher Wilson, Kristina, Ph.D. “Lessons in Black and White: The Racial and Gender Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South, 1887-1939,” University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2006
Green, Keith R., Ph.D. “A Fairy Tale World: The Myth of Childhood in Imperial Germany,” University of Illinois, Chicago, 2005
Gopinath, Sumanth S., Ph.D. "Contraband Children: The Politics of Race and Liberation in the Music of Steve Reich, 1965-1966." Yale University, 2005.
Holt, Anne Haw, Ph.D. “Men, Women, and Children in the Stockade: How the People, the Press, and the Elected Officials of Florida Built a Prison System,” Florida State University, 2006
Hurlbut, Joanne, Ph.D. “Shaker Children: Their Lives, Literature and Literacy,” SUNY, Albany, 2005
Jowers, Sandra, Ph.D. “Ending the Educational Exile of Black Deaf Children in Washington: Miller v. District of Columbia Board of Education,” Howard University, 2006
Kickler, Troy, Ph.D. “Black Children, Northern Missionaries: The Freedmen's Bureau, and Southern Conservatives in Tennessee, 1965-70,” University of Tennessee, 2006
Marko, Tamera, Ph.D. “When They Became The Nation’s Children: The Raced, Classed, and Gendered Politics of the Foundation of Pediatrics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1881-1943,” University of California, San Diego, 2006.
Mihailoff, Laura, Ph.D. “Protecting Our Children: The History of the California Youth Authority and Juvenile Justice, 1938-68,” University of California, Berkeley, 2006
O'Connor-Floman, Karen, PhD. "The Naturalized Changeling in Victorian Literature of Childhood: Fairy Raids on Realism." The George Washington University, 2005.
Pearson, Susan J., Ph.D. “The Rights of the Defenseless: Animals, Children, and Sentimental Liberalism” University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2005
Richardson, Janine M., Ph.D. “Keiki o Ka Aina: Institutional Care for Hawai`i's Dependent Children, 1865-1938,” University of Hawai`i, Mânoa, 2006
Ringel, Paul, Ph.D. “Conceiving Childhood: Juveniles, Magazines, and the Acculturation of American Children, 1823-1918,” Brandeis, 2006
Rougeau, R. Nichole, PhD. "Alice's Shadow: Childhood and Agency in Lewis Carroll's Photography, Illustrations, and Alice Texts." Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, 2005.
Singer, Amy Elisabeth, PhD. “Under the radar: The subversive work of American children's books, 1930—1980,” University of Washington, 2005
Stern, Gaius, Ph.D. “Women, Children, and Senators on the Ara Pacis Augustae,” University of California, Berkeley, 2006
Towers, Iris, Ph.D. “When the Bough Breaks: Dependent Children in Westchester County, New York, 1880-1914,” CUNY, 2005
Walsh, John Patrick, PhD. "What Children Say: Childhood in Francophone Literature of the French Antilles and North and West Africa." Harvard University, 2005.
Wellen, Lauren A., EdD. "The Influence of Lilian G. Katz on Early Childhood Education: An Oral History." Northern Illinois University, 2005.
Wood, Elizabeth Jane, PhD. "Objects Matter: The Meaning of Objects from Childhood." University of Minnesota, 2005.
Dissertations in Progress
Aird, Sheila Marie. Howard University, "The Forgotten Ones: Enslaved Children and the Formation of a Labor Force in the British West Indies"
Allen, Benjamin Mark. University of Texas-Arlington, "'Children of the Sun': Spiritual Bridges along the Spanish Frontier, 1500-1820"
Anuik, Jonathan. University of Saskatchewan, "Metis Children and the Christian Educational Agenda--The Formation of a Metis Childhood Identity in 19th-Century Northwest North America"
Backes, Matthew, Columbia University, “The Father-Child Relationship in American Culture, 1800–50”
Bates, Rebecca. University of Kentucky, "Cultivating the British Nation, Saving the English Laborer: A Study of Working-Class Childhood, Labor, and Philanthropy, 1830-1924"
Birk, Megan E. Purdue University, "Children in the Country: 19th-Century Solutions for Rural, Dependent Children"
Boucher, Ellen. Columbia University, “An Imperial Investment: British Child Emigration to Southern Rhodesia and Australia, 1900-67”
Brian, Amanda. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Bonds of Empire: Growing Children in the Kaiserreich, 1871-1918"
Bridge, Kathryn. University of Victoria, “A Whole New Voice: The Pioneer Child in Western Canada, 1849-1920”
Chalmers, Elizabeth. University of Kentucky. "Children of the Occupation: French Children Living in German Occupied France during the First World War"
Chupik, Jessa. McMaster University. "The Institutional Confinement of 'Idiot' Children in 20th-Century Canada: The Case of the Orillia Asylum, 1900-35"
Collinson, Caroline. The Ohio State University "'The Littlest Immigrants': Adoption, Migration, and Exploitation of Border Crossing Children in the Americas"
Creagh, Dianne. SUNY, Stony Brook, “Cradled in the Fold: Dependent Children and Substitute Mothers in Catholic and Jewish New York, 1869-1940”
Drixler, Fabian. Harvard University. "Children of Fear: Population Policy and the End of the Low Fertility Regimes of Northern Japan, 1720-1920"
Fu, Jia-Chen. Yale University. "Society's Laboratories: Mapping Children's Health in Republican China, 1928-49"
Gallop, Rachel. University of Minnesota. "Dirty Hippies, Earth Mothers, Love Children: California Counterculture in the Vietnam Era"
Gooding, Kevin L. Perdue University, “For the Children’s Souls: Interdenominational Competition and the Religious Education of Children in Indiana, 1801-50”
Gorshkov, Boris. Auburn University "Factory Children: Child Industrial Labor in Imperial Russia, 1780-1917"
Green, Rachel. University of Chicago. "'There will not be orphans among us!' Detdomovtsy, Foster Children, and Adoptees of the World War II Era"
Harris, JuNelle. Harvard University, “In Whose Best Interests? 19th-Century Judicial and Legislative Child Custody Law in England and the United States”
Hartzok, Justus G. University of Iowa. "Children of Chapaev: The Russian Civil War Cult and the Creation of Soviet Identity, 1918-82"
Hinderer, Moira. University of Chicago. "Making African American Childhood: Chicago, 1890-1930"
Hollenbeck, Bryn Varley. University of Delaware. “The Littlest Americans at Home: The Material Culture of Childhood, 1890-1960s”
Jorae, Wendy. University of California-Davis, “Children of Chinatown: Chinese American Children in San Francisco, 1850-1920”
Lachaussee, Alice Hull. University of Mississippi. "Lessons in Heritage: Southern Children Inherit the Lost Cause"
Lambert, Cornelia. University of Oklahoma. “Understanding the Nature of Childhood in the 18th Century”
Lee, Daniel. University of California-Berkeley. “Children of African American Soldiers and German Women Post-World War II”
Livschiz, Ann. Stanford University. "Soviet Childhood as a Social, Cultural, and Political Institution, 1918-58"
Maus, Tanya. University of Chicago. “Child Saving: Psychology, Poverty, and Juvenile Reform in Late Meiji and Early Taisho Japan, 1895-1920”
Miller, Leslie. University of Georgia. "The Power of the Privileged: The Model of the White Middle Class Family and the Education of American Children, 1820-1920"
Morley, Joselyn C. Carleton University. "'Mother Dead, Father Living, A Very Useless Man': Children in Need, the Protestant Orphan's Home, and Municipal Welfare in Ottawa, 1915-29"
Nardi, Patricia. CUNY. “Mothers at Home: Their Role in Child-Rearing and Instruction in Early Modern Europe”
O'Brien, Claire. University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale. “'A Credit to Their Race': White Authors Look at African American Children, 1930-60”
Patters, N'Jai-An. University of Minnesota, “Deviants and Dissidents: Ideologies of Children's Sexuality, Boston, 1972-86”
Perez, Kimberly. University of Oklahoma, “Imagination and Sympathy: Envisioning the Natural World for the Modern Child”
Piel, Lizbeth H. University of Hawai`i, Mânoa. “Discovering the Mind of the Child: Modern Identity in Taisho Japan”
Ramey, Jessie B. Carnegie Mellon, “Contested Childhood: Black and White Orphans, Poor Families, and Institutional Childcare in Pittsburgh, 1877-1939”
Ransmeier, Johanna. Yale University, "'No Other Choice': The Sale of Women, Children, and Laborers in Late Qing and Republican China"
Ruis, Andrew. University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Children's Nutrition and Public Health in Early 20th-Century America”
Schultz, Carrie T. Boston College, “'Let the Little Children Come to Me': Catholic Children's Moral Development in the United States, 1920-65”
Shapira, Michal. Rutgers. “Subjects of Care: Reconstructing the Child and Psychology in War and Postwar Britain, 1940-60s”
Sovde, Jennifer. Indiana University, “Les enfants du paradis: Child Performers and Delinquency in the French Third Republic”
Spindel, Laurel. University of Chicago, “From Institution to Community: Changing Child-Caring Practices in Chicago, 1930-Present”
Sribnick, Ethan. University of Virginia. "The Transformation of Child Welfare: Children, Policy, and the State, 1945-80"
Sundermann, Elisabeth. University of California, Davis. " The Old School Ties: How Religion, Class, and Culture Bound English Education in the Postwar Era"
Tappan, Jennifer. Columbia University. “A Healthy Child Comes from a Healthy Mother: Mwanamugimu and Nutritional Science in Uganda, 1935-73”
Tinsley, Alexis. Brandeis University."Liberty's Children: The Changing National Identity of Children in New England, 1700-1827"
Villarreal, Rachel. University of Arizona. "Gladiolas for the Children of Sanchez: Revolutionary Rhetoric and Urban Renewal in Mexico City, 1946-68"
Wash, Charles. Howard University. "Childhood in Brazil: Free and Enslaved Children in Salvador da Bahia, 1822-88"
Webb, Daryl A. Marquette University. "Milwaukee Children in the Great Depression"
Zahra, Tara E. University of Michigan, “"Your Child Belongs to the Nation: Nationalization, Germanization, and Democracy in the Bohemian Lands, 1900-1945"”
Zey, Nancy. University of Texas at Austin, “'Rescuing Some Youthful Minds': Charity Schools, Orphan Asylums, and the Origins of American Child Welfare”
