Embedded Files
by Dr Aneesh Barai
Established in January 2022 by Dr Caroline Hart and Dr Aneesh Barai, and now run by Aneesh, this cluster embraces all research that relates to children and young people, as well as research specifically examining ideas about childhood or the social construction of childhood. Naturally, a lot of research in the School of Education relates to childhood and youth in some way, and so, as a cluster, we have sought to make connections with a wide range of scholars and practitioners who take diverse approaches to the topic of childhood.
In the past, we’ve had talks from a children’s author, a folklorist, a researcher on children’s play during COVID restrictions, historians analysing an archive of children’s drawings, and International Relations (IR) researchers talking about how they are integrating childhood studies into their discipline.
This year, we have run 5 events, and have two more scheduled, all organised in collaboration with other research clusters, groups, networks and centres that operate in the university:
-In October, we worked the Migration Research Group for an event on refugee and asylum-seeking children, including a talk by Dr Christina Tatham on her current research on the rights of the child.
-Next, we worked with the Contemporary Folklore Research Centre for a symposium organised by Dr Yinka Olusoga, Dr Julia Bishop and Dr Cath Bannister on the renowned folklorist Iona Opie, on archival research on children’s play, and the ESRC funded project The Play Observatory, about digitally archiving children’s play experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
-In March, we worked with the Digital Society Network’s hub in Global Digital Popular Culture for an event exploring contemporary research into videogame cultures. We invited speakers from across the UK to tell us about contemporary cultural approaches to (post-)digital play, the phenomenology of videogame play, and trans temporalities and embodied approaches to videogame studies. Our colleague Dr Angela Colvert, an expert in alternate reality gaming in education, chaired the event.
-The next morning, we co-badged an event with the Literacies and Language cluster, run by Dr Fiona Scott, with a talk by Dr Damiana Pyles about children’s streaming practices on Netflix and the social messages they’re receiving from contemporary media. Our former MA Digital Literacies student Sara Garcia Cespedes, who has a forthcoming publication on the Netflix adaptations of Sabrina and Wednesday, acted as a respondent to the talk.
-In April, we co-organised an event with the Participatory Research Network, run by Dr Kirsty Liddiard, where for the first time in the cluster we invited young people themselves to be speakers, about their experiences as co-researchers on projects led by the University of Sheffield, along with Dr Sabine Little, Dr Ryan Bramley and PhD student Danica Darley. This event powerfully highlighted the importance of children and young people’s involvement, not only as participants, but as researchers, in projects about their communities.
We have been fortunate to host inspiring speakers and explore a wide variety of topics, with multiple approaches to conceptualising childhood and youth, and have grown this cluster from its inception in 2022 to become a thriving community, not only in the School of Education, but including staff and students from across the university, and beyond.
All of our events are free, hybrid and open to the public, so please do join us if you’d be interested in engaging with ideas around childhood and youth. You can find out about our upcoming events on X/Twitter @youth_cluster, or you can email Aneesh (a.barai@sheffield.ac.uk) to join the cluster’s mailing list.
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