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understandings of contemporary children’s lives through historicalperspectives.  The conference will be held at the Australian NationalUniversity in Canberra from 18th – 19th of July, 2013.When we consider that children are marginalized by age in relation tostructures of power – as well as, caste, class and gender – they in factconstitute multiple subaltern groups.  The critical interrogation of theconcept of childhood and experiences of children is timely andimportant.  Althoughthere is intense theoretical and development interest in children in SouthAsia, children’s perspectives remain largely silent in political, socialand economic debate.  Where children are the subject of adult speculationin development discourses, impacts on the lives of real children are oftensurprisingly underrepresented.  This workshop will locate children inimportant historical and social changes in contemporary India whileforegrounding children’s stories and agency.  We aim for a convergence ofinnovative ideas around childhood, recognizing that this category iscontested and raises important dilemmas for inter-disciplinary studies.This workshop will bring together previously disparate threads of differentdisciplinary approaches to children and childhood, allowing us within thesetwo days to identify and develop convergences, conflicts, and aspects thatmay have been over-looked by one discipline, but explored in another.  Theconference aims to highlight the methodological implications of researchinto the perspectives and experiences of children.Some of the dilemmas and themes to be explored include:- children’s experiences, voices and stories- universal versus multiple childhoods and the historical and culturalspecifities of conceptualizing childhood in South Asia- how we conceive of children’s agency in relation to structures ofpower- a critical interrogation of child rights discourse, and the gapbetween the rhetoric and reality of children’s participation- diverse childhoods across class and caste, with a particular focusupon marginalized children- how to methodologically approach children’s perspectives andexperiences as adults and as scholars- experiences and discourses of gendered girlhoods and boyhoods- the significance of education in issues of social inequality,constructions of Indian nationalism and modernity.Topics that papers could consider include, but are not limited to:- childhood and modernity, development and consumption amidst rapidsocial and economic changes- institutions of childhood, including schools, hostels, early infantwelfare centers, orphanages and youth organizations- the anthropology of education, ideologies and styles of pedagogy, andchildren’s experiences and agency within the classroom- children and medicine (children’s understandings and experiences ofillness and healing; discourses surrounding children and health)- children’s cultures (including play and friendship)- South Asian children’s literature and children’s representation inliterature- gender and sexuality- children in families (including changing domesticities, familyrelationships and structures of power, and sibling-caretaking)- children and violence (domestic, communal and state)- children and work.We invite proposals from various scholarly disciplines (includinganthropology, history, sociology, law and justice studies, developmentstudies, cultural and visual studies, etc), as well as representatives oforganizations working specifically with issues surrounding youth andchildhood.Please submit 200-300 word abstracts for proposed papers by 10th January2013 to either Dr. Zazie Bowen (Zazie.Bowen@anu.edu.au) or Jessica Hinchy (Jessica.Hinchy@anu.edu.au ).Jessica HinchySchool of Culture, History and LanguageCollege of Asia and the PacificAustralian National University, Canberrasource: H-Asia