Global Histories of Childhood and Youth, Lectures

This class will give you a general introduction to the field of the history of childhood in global perspective. Childhood is sometimes understood as an unchanging and natural stage of life through which humans pass. A look into the history of childhood shows, however, that childhood is constructed differently in different times and places. What was it like to be a child throughout history? How has childhood changed and how has it remained the same? These are some of the questions this course will address, in addition to the nuts and bolts of what it means to research and write histories of childhood.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1) Articulate the main debates among historians of childhood, as will be assessed by the weekly worksheets.

2) Construct a brief, global history of childhood based on primary and secondary sources, as demonstrated by the final written essay.