Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Minnesota Morris/History of Childhood (Spring 2025)
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- Course name
- History of Childhood
- Institution
- University of Minnesota Morris
- Instructor
- Emily Bruce
- Wikipedia Expert
- Brianda (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- History
- Course dates
- 2025-01-07 00:00:00 UTC – 2025-05-02 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 15
Does childhood even have a history? This is not the sort of question we usually ask about courses organized around nation-states, war, or political movements. But it is a question that still troubles the relatively new study of children and childhood. And yet by the very contrast we may see in the lives of, say, an elite boy in late Imperial China and a working-class schoolgirl in post-WWII London, it becomes clear that children and childhood around the world have varied greatly, even in terms of who counts as a child in different times and places.
We will explore this diversity through case studies from the early modern era to the present. Our geographic emphasis will be on Europe, with occasional comparative examples from other regions in the world; you are also more than welcome to explore non-European topics in your individual research. The course readings are drawn from social, cultural, and political approaches to the history of childhood, as well as historical documents created by children themselves.
This course has two main goals. The first goal is to “denaturalize” a monolithic idea of childhood by exploring diverse histories of childhood and noticing how differences in child- rearing have shaped particular societies. Childhood, as understood by adults and as experienced by children, is historically and geographically variant; furthermore, children have been active participants in the making of that history, not merely objects of adult concern. We will pursue these arguments through scholarly and historical readings, mini- lectures, discussions, informal writing, and other class activities. I also encourage you to bring in examples you see of sources for studying childhood in the media, in movies and literature, and from other courses or research. The second goal of the course is to deepen and enhance your information literacy. We will do this through working closely together on independent editing projects on Wikipedia for topics related to the history of childhood. This may include geographic or temporally-specific pages, biographies, or thematically organized topics. Some students will craft original pages from scratch, following guidelines on the encyclopedia, and others will edit, expand, and enrich existing pages.
| Student | Assigned | Reviewing |
|---|---|---|
| MarbyBarby |