Camden home to nation's first doctoral program in childhood studies
Archived article from Feb 20, 2006
Children make up more than one-third of the world’s population and face continuing threats, such as sex trafficking, slavery and war. Half of them across the world live in poverty.
Camden scholars and administrators recognized a growing need for the academic study of childhood issues. In response, they launched an effort resulting in the nation’s first doctoral degree-granting program in childhood studies beginning fall 2007.
Childhood studies is acknowledged widely as an emerging academic discipline that is transforming research and scholarship on children in the same way that women’s studies and African-American studies transformed the study of race and gender during the late 20th century. The Rutgers Board of Governors approved the department’s creation Feb. 10.
The new department will offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It is the first department on the Camden campus to offer doctoral degrees. Additional doctoral programs in public affairs and computational science are under development. Camden offers a minor in childhood studies at the undergraduate level. The campus offers 34 undergraduate and 13 master’s-level programs.
“Improving the lives of children is one of the greatest challenges facing the United States,” said Margaret Marsh, dean of the Rutgers-Camden Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “Even now, few practitioners and scholars dealing with children’s issues have received the necessary graduate training that provides them with multidisciplinary approaches to intricate matters.”
The field of childhood studies comprises multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, religion and other fields. The doctoral program in childhood studies will require 45 credits of coursework and completion of a research dissertation. The master’s and baccalaureate programs will be offered both full and part time.
The childhood studies program will prepare policy leaders with new perspectives in child-related social practice and scholars capable of innovative research in this interdisciplinary field. The program will provide advanced theoretical and methodological study of children and childhood within state, national and global contexts.
Marsh cites the Camden campus as the ideal setting for the childhood studies program. Children make up approximately 40 percent of Camden’s population, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
Through the Center for Children and Childhood Studies, faculty and students engage in research projects addressing childhood matters and implement a wide array of projects designed to assist Camden’s children in such areas as literacy, health and preparation for career development. Marsh anticipates that such outreach efforts will become important research and internship opportunities for Rutgers students in the graduate childhood studies programs.
The Center for Children and Childhood Studies was launched in 2000 at Rutgers-Camden to focus faculty expertise in childhood matters on the creation and dissemination of knowledge to those responsible for ministering to children’s needs and to those formulating policies affecting their lives and futures.
A $125,000 grant from Rutgers’ Academic Excellence Fund last year aided the formation of the childhood studies department.
“This new doctoral program, along with its complementary undergraduate and master’s programs, will position Rutgers as a regional, national and international leader in the emerging childhood studies movement,” said Camden Provost Roger Dennis. “Our students will define a new generation of scholarship and real-world practice that, in turn, will impact the lives of children for generations
to come.”
- Ashanti M. Alvarez and Michael Sepanic
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