Canadian Happenings

Mona Gleason, University of British Columbia

The history of children and youth is very much alive and well in the Canadian context.

New Organization

Over the past six months, three developments in particular signal that the field is attracting increasing numbers of interested scholars and exciting projects. In May of 2004, the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) witnessed the birth of its newest sub-committee: History of Children and Youth Group (HCYG). The purpose of the sub-committee is to provide a forum for scholars around the country (and internationally) interested in any aspect of the history of children and youth. Until this official development, many scholars working in the Canadian context laboured in isolation. With the founding of the committee, we have our central “home.” Our first chairperson, Tamara Myers from the University of Winnipeg, kicked off our inauguration with the announcement of a special sponsored session scheduled for the 2005 meeting of the CHA in London, Ontario. The session, entitled “Where are the kids?”, will focus on the absence of youthful perspectives in much of Canadian historical scholarship. The session will also afford the opportunity to celebrate the great work in the history of children and youth that has been done and continues to enliven the discipline.

In addition to providing a scholarly support and mailing list that keeps scholars informed of national and international developments, the HCYG hopes to build links with its counterpart in the United States, the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY). The SHCY has been an avid supporter of Canadian scholars, frequently working on parallel projects in the history of children and youth, and continues to be an important professional association for many Canadian scholars. Currently, HCYG members are working on a panel submission to the upcoming SHCY conference in Milwaukee. Those interested in joining the HCYG can contact Tamara Myers at t.myers@uwinnipeg.ca.

Conference Happenings

Two conferences, the Canadian History of Education Association/ l’Association canadienne d’histoire de l’éducation (CHEA) held in Calgary, Alberta in October of 2004, and Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Child Health in the 20th Century, held in Montreal, Quebec, in the same month, featured a host of international papers devoted to various aspects of the history of children and youth in diverse contexts. The CHEA conference featured papers on themes such as Children, Schooling, and War, Special Education and the “Healthy” Child, and Child-Centred Educational Cultures and Literature. A full accounting of the conference proceedings can be found that the CHEA website (http://www.chea-ache.ucalgary.ca) The Child Health conference, held in conjunction with an exhibition entitled “Growing Up in Montreal” at the McCord Museum, similarly attracted an international array of scholars from the United States and Europe. The conference sought to bring together scholars “in history, anthropology, sociology, medicine, film, cultural studies, and art history to examine the history of child health in the twentieth century.” Paper titles and abstracts can be found at the website of the McCord Museum or by contacting George Weisz, the principal organizer of the proceedings. (george.weisz@mcgill.ca)