Rutgers Book Series Defining Scholarship in Childhood Studies

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN – As a groundbreaking book series related to the study of childhood prepares to enter “adolescence” with the publication of its 11^th book, its editor notes that scholarly and popular audiences alike increasingly seek new insights into the lives and development of children.

Myra Bluebond-Langner, a distinguished professor of anthropology at Rutgers University—Camden, edits the Rutgers University Press Series in Childhood Studies, which recently released its 11^th book, “Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality.”  Authored by Jessica Fields, an assistant professor of sociology at San Francisco State University, "Risky Lessons" considers the current controversy surrounding sexuality education as it plays out in classrooms and everyday lives of students and teachers.

“This book series seeks to address timely topics in a manner accessible to a wide audience, while remaining firmly grounded in careful and considered scholarly research” explains Bluebond-Langner, who launched the series.

The result is an ongoing series that increases knowledge about childhood and its many attributes.  Bluebond-Langner reports that childhood studies is emerging rapidly as an academic discipline, much like women’s studies did in the 1950s. In September 2007, Rutgers—Camden launched the nation’s first PhD program in childhood studies; the campus also offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the discipline.

In the Rutgers University Press series, readers include professors and researchers as well as those directly responsible for ministering to children’s needs and formulating policies affecting their lives and futures.  Authors come from a variety of fields including anthropology, criminal justice, history, literature, psychology, religion, and sociology.  Led by Bluebond-Langner, each manuscript is peer-reviewed by outside experts in the author’s field, and then undergoes additional review processes involving Rutgers University Press staff, editorial boards, and academic advisory boards.  

The result has been a number of innovative and award-winning publications which have been adapted for use in undergraduate and graduate courses not limited to childhood studies.  Since the publication of “Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities” by Amanda Lewis (which won both the 2004 Myers Outstanding Book Award and 2005 Critics’ Choice Award), the series has explored how children cope with circumstances ranging from chronic illness to poverty to war.  Future books will look at topics such as the influence of religion on childhood experience; children of women in prison; the politics of youth activism; and the experiences of American-born children of immigrants.

Rutgers—Camden has become a leader in defining childhood studies as an emerging scholarly and research discipline.  The campus is home to a Center for Children and Childhood Studies, as well as a Department of Childhood Studies, which offers interdisciplinary degrees at the BA, MA and Ph.D levels.  The multidisciplinary curriculum provides students with strong humanistic and social science perspectives on children and their representations.  This approach prepares Rutgers students for careers in areas such as public policy, social services, youth programming, and education. 

Like the Rutgers Center for Children and Childhood Studies, also founded by Bluebond-Langner, the book series reflects a commitment to research; service and outreach; and education.  According to Bluebond-Langner, “Our books are scholarly works that we hope will be read by people not only concerned with the academic and research issues raised, but also with policy implications for the care of children.  This book series is the first to focus on childhood studies, and continues to be both multidisciplinary in scope and accessible to the public.  It’s important to us that these books be jargon-free, so that professionals from a variety of academic disciplines as well as laypersons can read the work.

“I’m thrilled that all of the books in the series in childhood studies have enjoyed critical acclaim.  Our authors have been invited to present to a wide variety of audiences, thus highlighting major issues confronting children and demonstrating Rutgers’ commitment to this emerging field.”

A longtime advocate for children with chronic diseases, Bluebond-Langner is the 1997 winner of the Charles A. Corr Lifetime Achievement Award in Literature on Children and Death, which is given by the Children’s Hospice International for authors who write about children with chronic, life-threatening or fatal conditions. Her books, "The Private World of Dying Children" (1978, Princeton University Press) and "In the Shadow of Illness: Parents and Siblings of the Chronically Ill Child" (1996, Princeton University Press), have established Bluebond-Langner as a leader in her field. The former tome was awarded the 1987 Margaret Mead Award, a singular honor presented jointly by the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to research her forthcoming book, “Choiceless Choices: Decision Making for Children with Cancer When Cure is Not Likely.” Her research has led to invitations to deliver papers at the worlds preeminent universities.

Bluebond-Langner joined the Rutgers—Camden campus in 1974. She is a graduate of Temple University and earned her advanced degrees at the University of Illinois.

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