Dr Kristine Moruzi is a lecturer and ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher in the School of Communication and Creative Arts. Her monograph, Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, 1850-1915 (Ashgate, 2012) was a semi-finalist for the Colby Book Prize honouring the scholarly book that most advances the understanding of the nineteenth-century British newspaper or periodical press. In December 2016, Dr Moruzi convened the conference ‘(Re)Examining Historical Childhoods: Literary, Cultural, Social’, and she has written an overview of the event:
The first Society for the History of Children and Youth event to be hosted in Australia was a great success. We developed a strong program with over 40 papers, two keynotes, and a special roundtable session on “Engagement and Impact in History of Childhood Research” which included former children in institutional care. Although presenters were predominantly from Australia, we also had scholars from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. We included a range of scholars including postgraduates, early career researchers, independent scholars, and established academics. We also had a number of attendees from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
Our two keynote speakers were excellent. Emeritus Professor of English Literature (Canterbury Christ Church) Adrienne Gavin gave our first keynote on “The Edwardian Cult of Childhood: Representing the Child in British Fiction 1901-1914.” The Contemporary Histories Research Group funded David Pomfret, Professor of History (University of Hong Kong), who delivered the second keynote entitled “Difficult Histories, Dangerous Pasts: Childhood, Disease and Emotion in Colonial Asia.”
The event also included presentations by Contemporary Histories Research Group members Dr Bart Ziino on Australian children’s correspondence during the First World War; Dr Kristine Moruzi on the Canadian Junior Red Cross; and postgraduate student Emma Hayes on the golden age in British children’s literature.
