The Urban Youth Symposium will bring together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners to engage in roundtable discussions about the topic of urban youth today. Unlike traditional academic conferences, this symposium will unite many different voices as a means to engage in intellectual conversation about issues affecting minority young people in urban places. The symposium will highlight the work being done on campus and in our community and set that work within a larger context of practitioners, writers, activists, theorists, and academics. Rutgers–Camden’s own Future Scholars will participate in this event.

The symposium will be held on the Rutgers–Camden Campus and is FREE and open to the public. For more information and to register, click here.

Special Guest Lecturer (Fall 2009): Prof. Barrie Thorne, U-C Berkeley

Prof. Barrie Thorne, U-C Berkeley, will be the special guest of the Department of Childhood Studies on September 30 and October 1. A public talk, entitled “Social Class Inequality and Children's Experiences and Management of Family Shame,” is scheduled for September 30, at 4:30 pm in the 4th Floor Lounge of Law School. A reception will follow in the Stedman Gallery at 6:00pm. We expect that Dr. Thorne will speak in one of our classes and will make herself available to meet with students.

Barrie Thorne is a pioneer of women’s studies and of childhood studies and is an early supporter of our program. Please see http://womensstudies.berkeley.edu/faculty/barrie.html for some information about her. As her visit approaches, we will have other materials to make available. >>> download flier (PDF)

The Childhood Studies Department is pleased to introduce two new faculty members

Dr. Susan Miller earned her PhD in History and the Sociology of Science from the U of Pennsylvania in 2001. Dr. Miller’s research and teaching interests combine girls’ studies, women’s studies and American history. She is the author of Growing Girls: The Natural Origins of Girls’ Organizations in America (Rutgers UP 2007) and currently teaches courses such as “Coming of Age in America” and “The Science of Sex and Sexuality” at Penn. Susan will be joining us as an Assistant Professor in the Fall 2009 semester.

Dr. Lauren Silver received her PhD from the Graduate School of Education at the U of Pennsylvania in 2007. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the American Culture Studies Program and the Center for Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington U in St. Louis. Dr. Silver’s research interests include urban education and child welfare and her recent and forthcoming publications and presentations engage topics ranging from adolescent mothers and the child welfare system, race and gender influence on teen parenting, and the social worker as ethnographer. Lauren will join us as an Assistant Professor in the Fall 2009 semester.

New Faculty Member Will Join Childhood Studies Department

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Charles Watters, currently Director of the European Centre for the Study of Migration and Social Care at the University of Kent, will be joining the Department of Childhood Studies in January 2010. Dr. Watters is the founding editor of the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care and the author of numerous articles and book chapters on mental health and social care, acculturation and social policy.  He is also the principal investigator on a number of international research grants dedicated to assisting asylum-seeking children and adults. His most recent book is
Refugee Children:  Towards the Next Horizon (Routledge 2008).  We are delighted to welcome Dr. Watters to Rutgers!

Sengstack Foundation Endows Graduate Fellowship at Rutgers–Camden for Nation’s First PhD Program in Childhood Studies

The David K. Sengstack Foundation, based in Princeton, has donated $750,000 to launch the David K. Sengstack Endowed Graduate Fellowship at Rutgers–Camden.  The fellowship will seek to attract and support “the best and brightest graduate students” from across the nation to study childhood while pursuing their doctoral degrees at Rutgers–Camden in the nation’s very first PhD program in this burgeoning scholarly discipline.
>>> read the complete Rutgers Press Release

COURIER-POST, Dec. 14
Headlined “Foundation funds $750K Rutgers fellowship,” a news article announced a graduate fellowship in childhood studies supported by the David K. Sengstack Foundation.  Dr. Lynn Vallone (professor, CFAS-childhood studies) was interviewed in the article.  Placed by the communications office.

 PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL, Dec. 11
Headlined “Happy Gift Day for Rutgers-Camden,” a news story announced the establishment of a graduate fellowship in childhood studies supported by a $750,000 grant from the David K. Sengstack Foundation. 

56:163:698: Special Topics in Childhood Studies: Child, Family, Nation (Dr. Carol Singley) cross-listed with 56:352:593:A6 Special Topics in American Literature: Child, Family, Nation

We explore major themes in American literature (for example, “chosenness,” individualism, opportunity) with attention to how kinship, childhood, and ethnic and racial minority status help to shape American identity. How do ideas about American values form, and how do families, children, and minorities figure in these constructions? Readings range from Puritan poet Ann Bradstreet to romantic Walt Whitman and realist Edith Wharton to modern and contemporary writers Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, and Gish Jen. Readings will follow M.A. Comprehensive Reading List. >>> more grad courses

Dr. Daniel Cook's research on "princess culture" was highlighted in this month's Rutgers Focus (Feb 6, 2008). >>> read the article

The article highlights alumni who are returning to Rutgers University to enroll in Rutgers–Camden's doctoral program in childhood studies, the nation's first program of its kind.

>>> read more about alumni in the CS PhD program

Dr. Dan Cook, associate professor of childhood studies at Rutgers-Camden, addressed the Disney princess culture and its impact on today’s young girls during Cappuccino Academy at Barnes & Noble in Marlton at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31. 

This lecture was part of Cappuccino Academy, a monthly series of free public lectures delivered by members of the Rutgers-Camden community at Barnes & Noble.  For more information, call (856) 225-6627.

The Rutgers-Camden PhD program in Childhood Studies, the first in the Nation, was featured in the Courier Post (Jan 22, 08). The article highlights the program and its current pool of students "who are using their intellectual skills and affinity for children to tackle some big problems." >>> read the full article online

NEWARK, N.J. – The nation’s first doctoral degree-granting program in childhood studies will be launched at Rutgers University’s Camden campus beginning fall 2007. The creation of a childhood studies department at Rutgers-Camden, which will award bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, was approved by the Rutgers Board of Governors during its meeting today on the Newark campus. The program awaits endorsement by the New Jersey Council of College Presidents.

>>> read more (Press release: Rutgers University Board of Governors' approval of the Childhood Studies Program at Rutgers-Camden)