University of Sheffield, 9-10 February 2017
Keynotes: Professor Linda Pollock (Tulane University) and Dr Angela Davis (University of Warwick)
Submissions are invited for a conference on the sharing of childcare responsibilities through history. In many societies throughout time, children have been cared for by adults who were not their biological parents. The practical and emotional care of children was and is, out of necessity or choice, undertaken by a patchwork of individuals, from grandparents, siblings, or friends, caring for children temporarily or as long term foster or adoptive ‘parents’. In recent years, the sharing of childcare responsibilities as women return to work after childbirth has been heralded as a new development. Modern western families have also been perceived as becoming less ‘traditional’, with the growth of single parents and step-families provoking debate about parental stability and its effects on children.
However, the imperatives of maternal employment are not new, and neither are the concerns over the cultural and economic impact of parental substitution. This conference invites submissions from across the disciplines and from a wide chronological and geographical range, to question what makes a parent, and the effect that shared childcare responsibilities have on familial relationships and cultures.
For a full CFP please visit alternativefamiliesconf.wordpress.com or email alternativefamiliesconf@gmail.com.
Deadline for submissions 30 September 2016.