King's Professor named President of Society for History of Children and Youth

Dr. Patrick Ryan, King’s University College Associate Professor of Childhood and Social Institutions, has been elected President of The Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) for the 2017-19 term.

Dr. Ryan helped develop SCHY (est. 2001) - most notably by co-founding and editing its affiliate network (H-Childhood) with over 1,700 scholars world-wide.

“The Society is the world's largest organization dedicated to advancing the critical, historical study of childhood and youth. It’s an honour to be recognized by your peers from around the world. It’s an opportunity to continued to make a contribution to the direction of the field," says Dr. Ryan.

SHCY publishes a peer-reviewed journal through Johns Hopkins University Press, the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, and holds conferences of between 220-250 papers biennially.  It draws scholars from all continents and has met in the U.S., Sweden, the UK, and Canada.   

"We are a diverse interdisciplinary group, organized around a common effort to better understand childhood and youth through historically-grounded research," he explained.  SHCY fosters international, interdisciplinary relationships by holding conferences, running a peer review journal, supporting smaller organizations that have a similar mission, and by granting prizes for exceptional work in the field of childhood history.

These efforts, Dr. Ryan explained, allow specialized areas of research (such as the critical, social study of childhood) to develop over vast regional and temporal domains.  "You might be the only historian doing this work within your institution, but SHCY and H-Childhood provide a basis for scholarly exchange among thousands of similar researchers around the world."  

As a result - over the past year alone - Dr. Ryan published a number of articles in collaboration with scholars located in Australia, Sweden, England, Ireland, the U.S., and Canada.  King's CSI program carries similar international flavour by drawing faculty members and developing international seminars for students in North America and Europe. 

Congratulations Dr. Ryan on your election as President of the Society for the History of Children and Youth. 

For more information on the Society for History of Children and Youth click here.  For more information on the study of Childhood and Social Institutions at King’s click here.