Hoiem to speak at Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood conference

Elizabeth Hoiem
Elizabeth Hoiem, Associate Professor

Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hoiem will speak at the second Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood Conference, which will be held May 8-9 at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. The conference is hosted by the multidisciplinary Institute for Child and Youth Studies and will address three themes:

  • Appropriations of childhood
  • Is work the opposite of play?
  • Does humanitarian aid help or harm children? 

In her talk, “British Industrial Labor Movements and the Origins of Modern Adolescence,” she will discuss how early labor laws engendered new conceptualizations and legal definitions of childhood and adolescence.

From the abstract: Historians agree that modern adolescence is the product of industrialization and first occurs among wealthier youth, whose protracted schooling and leisure constitutes a transitional period. Prior to a shared discourse of adolescence, however, diverse concepts competed for validity. This talk locates two constructions of adolescence that strove for public approval during British labor movements of 1830-50 and argues that each coalesced around different relationships between work and play.

Hoiem joined the GSLIS faculty 2014. She teaches in the areas of children’s literature, history of children’s literature, and fantasy literature. In her research and teaching she explores the history of technological innovations in children’s literature—from early children’s books and toys to contemporary applications of digital pedagogy—and looks at modern technology through a historical lens. Hoiem's research interests also include community engagement—specifically, the importance of literature to contemporary youth.

Hoiem is active in several professional organizations, including the Children's Literature Association and International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. She received bachelor's degrees in English and communication design from the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, in 2002. She received an MA in literary and cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004 and a PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. Prior to joining the GSLIS faculty, Hoiem was an assistant professor at East Carolina University.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Knox appointed interim dean

Professor Emily Knox has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information Sciences, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be interim dean designate. The appointment will begin April 1, 2025.

Emily Knox

iSchool instructors ranked as excellent

Fifty-six iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2024 and Winter 2024-2025. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the ratings from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

iSchool Building

Ocepek and Sanfilippo co-edit book on misinformation

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo have co-edited a new book, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. An open access edition of the book is available, thanks to support from the Governing Knowledge Commons Research Coordination Network (NSF 2017495). The new book explores the socio-technical realities of misinformation in a variety of online and offline everyday environments. 

Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons book

Faculty receive support for AI-related projects from new pilot program

Associate Professor Yun Huang, Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma, and Assistant Professor Haohan Wang have received computing resources from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a two-year pilot program led by the National Science Foundation in partnership with other federal agencies and nongovernmental partners. The goal of the pilot is to support AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Last month, awardees presented their research at the NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting.

iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."