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.