SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH
XIV BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“Troubling Methodologies: In Search of Young People in History”
June 28-30, 2027
Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
The XVI Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth invites scholars to reckon with the complexities of the production of knowledge by, about, and with young people. Listening closely to young people’s “small stories” forces us to think carefully about young people as targets of knowledge, as subjects of knowledge, and as producers of knowledge – as knowers – in their own right. Grappling with these multiple interrelated ways of knowing requires considerable self-reflexivity on the part of researchers.[1]
In search of juvenile worlds that were both entwined with, and separate from, adult worlds, historians of children and youth have wielded the sophisticated research methodologies of the humanities and social sciences. They have cast a wide evidentiary net, drawn on a range of innovative sources, and read conventional archival documents creatively and against the grain. Yet rarely do we foreground our “ethnography of practice” at scholarly gatherings.[2] This conference extends an invitation to do just that. It seeks to encourage conversations about the kinds of primary sources we analyze, the analytical concepts we mobilize, the methodological approaches we employ, and the ways of knowing with which we wrestle.
By foregrounding an epistemological thread of inquiry, we hope to bring into conversation scholars who specialize in different regions, and who work on the history of young people from Antiquity to the present in both national and transnational contexts. We warmly encourage submissions that explore the intersections of oral history and the history of children and youth across different time periods and in different parts of the world. We also invite submissions that feature children and youth as collaborators and participants in research projects.
Guidelines for Submissions
We invite panels, roundtables, individual papers, and workshops related to the conference theme and encourage innovative presentation styles and formats. Sessions are generally 1.5-2 hours in length.
Proposals are due September 15, 2026 and should be sent to SHCY.conference@gmail.com. Decisions will be made by early December 2026.
Feel free to post calls for panelists at https://networks.h-net.org/h-childhood, and to use the hashtag #SHCY2027 on social media to connect with others working on similar topics.
Panel Submissions & Roundtables
We encourage all full panel submissions to include a diversity of scholars in terms of institution, rank, and identity as well as at least one graduate student. Panels should aim for geographical and temporal breadth. We invite submissions in both English and French and encourage the submission of bilingual panels.
Full panels should include three or four papers and a chair. Panel submissions should include a 300-word abstract and one-page CV for each presenter as well as the proposed chair and a 150-word overview of the panel as a whole.
We will also consider roundtables consisting of three or four speakers and a chair. Roundtable submissions should include a 300-word description of the proposed session as well as a one-page CV for each participant, including the chair.
All panels and roundtable submissions must include a chair. Chairs may also be presenting on another panel at the conference.
Individual Submissions, Workshops, Walking Tours, Exhibitions, and Film Screenings
We are pleased to consider individual paper submissions, out of which the program committee will assemble a limited number of panels (see above for ways to connect with others working in your field). We invite submissions in both English and French.
We also encourage submissions for workshops on “Troubling Methodologies” that may focus on genres of primary sources (i.e. oral history, photographs, children’s drawings, children’s life-writing, etc.), analytical concepts, methodologies, and/or innovative pedagogical approaches to the conference theme.
Finally, we welcome proposals for “outside-the-box” programming that engage with the conference theme through historical walking tours, exhibitions, and film screenings.
All completed proposals should be sent to SHCY.conference@gmail.com by 15 September 2026. For a full checklist for submission requirements, please see below.
Conference Fees and Accessibility
All participants must be members of SHCY at the time of the conference in addition to paying conference registration fees. Details on memberships can be found here.
We aim to provide an accessible conference. More information on accessible presentations can be found here. Attendees should contact the organizers with any accessibility requirements in advance of the conference.
Questions
Questions may be sent to the organizing committee at SHCY.conference@gmail.com.
About Montreal
Located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka traditional territory, and founded by the French in 1642, Montreal is widely acclaimed as one of the most beautiful and historic cities in North America. Today, Montreal is a culturally and linguistically diverse global city with more than twenty percent of its residents born outside of the country. Many have fled war, genocide and political repression in their homelands. It is also the second largest French-speaking city in the world, just behind Paris. It is not unusual for urban households to speak three languages.
The biennial meeting is organized by faculty from Montreal’s leading French- and English-language universities – McGill University (Stephanie Olsen), the Université de Montréal (Catherine Larochelle), the Université du Québec à Montréal (Magda Fahrni), and Concordia University (Barbara Lorenzkowski) – and hosted by Concordia’s “Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling,” a global leader in the field of oral history.
Situated in the heart of the downtown core, Concordia University is a major English-language public post-secondary institution with its roots in the YMCA’s Adult Education Department. Concordia continues to have a strong commitment to community-engaged research as well as arts-based and digital “research-creation” (a term that we use in Quebec to acknowledge the variety of creative forms that research can take). Today, Concordia has one of the most diverse student bodies of any university in Canada. Its perspective is global.
Checklist for Panel Submissions
1. Session organizer’s name and contact information
2. 150-word panel overview
3. Name, institutional affiliation, one-page CV, and a 300-word proposal for each proposed paper and/or participant
4. Name, institutional affiliation, and one-page CV of the proposed panel or roundtable chair
5. Indication of any accessibility requirements
6. Identification of any audio/visual requirements
Checklist for Roundtable Submissions
1. Session organizer’s name and contact information
2. 300-word roundtable overview
3. Name, institutional affiliation, and 1 page c.v. for all participants (including chair)
4. Indication of any accessibility requirements
Checklist for Individual Submissions, Workshops, Walking Tours, Exhibitions, and Film Screenings
1. Name, institutional affiliation, one-page CV, and a 350-word proposal
2. Indication of the type of format (i.e. individual submission, workshop, walking tour, exhibition, film screening)
3. Indication of any accessibility requirements
4. Identification of any audio/visual requirements
[1] Inspired by Zazie Bowen and Jessica Hinchy, “Introduction: Children and Knowledge in India,” South Asian History and Culture, 6, no. 3 (2015): 317-29.
[2] See Anna Sheftel and Stacey Zembrzycki, eds., Oral History Off the Record: Towards an Ethnography of Practice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).