AP/CCY 2999 6.00

Global Cultures of Children & Youth

This course is a critical, cross-disciplinary introduction to the global cultures of children and young people. It explores the ways young people in diverse places and spaces participate in and express social and cultural values and practices. It seeks to understand culture in the contexts of everyday social practice and the shared values and beliefs of distinct social groups, and as an expression of the arts, music, and literature. Of particular importance are the lived experiences of children as well as their knowledges and cultures. Informed by the fields of childhood and youth studies, the course builds on knowledge students acquire in CCY/ HUMA 1999 6.0 (formerly AP/HUMA 1970 6.0A) and defines children and young people as distinct social groups within larger adult cultures and social structures.

Understanding childhood as culturally defined, and young people as agents in and of culture, the course argues that children are not mere receivers of culture but active producers of it as well. Some topics that may be explored in the course include the cultural politics of the innocent child; the habitus of childhood; children’s play and folklore; children’s and young people’s material cultures; children’s friendships; children’s musical cultures; youth cultures; visual culture and young people; children’s and young adult literature; children’s literacies; new media and participatory cultures.