Venue: University of Warwick

Dates: 19-20 April 2018

Keynote speaker: Dr Manon Pignot (Université de Picardie-Jules Verne)

From the end of the nineteenth century, the discourses articulated around children’s rights to physical protection, health and well-being underwent profound changes. From the multiplication of laws to protect children in the public and private spheres, to the rise of non-governmental organisations and associations, efforts were made to bring young people relief from trauma, insecurity and maltreatment. Yet, simultaneously, that same period has gone hand-in-hand with increasing opportunities for children to experience such tragedies; and in both domestic settings (abuse or neglect) as well as wider geopolitical manifestations of violence (war and genocide) such anxieties have influenced the form and nature of the above responses.

‘From Trauma to Protection’ is a two-day interdisciplinary conference which seeks to interrogate these two mutually-dependent themes in modern history. Paying attention to scholarship on the history of the family, on state and NGO aid provision, and on the perspectives of children themselves, its focus on constructions and understandings of trauma as a medicalised category should be of interest to SSHM scholars working on child and family health initiatives, humanitarian healthcare, and health and well-being campaigns which are directed at, or seek to mobilise, children and young people.

A conference programme is currently available here, and details about registration and conference costs are available here.

Discounted conference rates are available for students and Early Career Fellows with no (or very restricted) funding for research costs. As the conference is in receipt of funding from the SSHM, research students and ECFs who are members of the Society may be eligible for a conference attendance bursary and should direct all relevant queries to the Society’s bursary officer, Dr Anna Greenwood.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the organisers via childrenconferencewarwick@gmail.com if you have any queries