‘You are not prisoners, nor is this a prison’: empire, emotions, and welfare, 1860-1900
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Event details
Join us for research seminars hosted by the Department of History with a selection of visiting academics, alongside University of York researchers. All students and staff are very welcome.
Date: Wednesday 4th December 2024 (17:30-19:00)
Speaker: Claudia Soares (Newcastle University)
Title: ‘You are not prisoners, nor is this a prison’: empire, emotions, and welfare, 1860-1900
Location: V/N/123
Please register HERE
Abstract: Across the British Empire in the mid nineteenth century, there was increasing anxiety about the growing number of young ‘criminals’, destitute and ‘vagrant’ children. A raft of new legislation introduced in Britain and in its colonies facilitated the removal and detention of children to different types of reformatories and industrial schools to both reform and prevent supposedly problematic behaviours. This paper draws together my recent British Academy funded research on children’s welfare in Britain, Australia and Canada to highlight the important role that emotions played in shaping understandings about these groups of vulnerable young people. As the paper shows, these understandings shaped and justified the specific practices adopted within institutions to aid young people’s management and rehabilitation. In doing so, the paper makes the case for bringing history of emotions approaches to the study of institutionalisation and shows how emotions concepts can illuminate new insights into the complexities of ordinary and marginalised lives of working class and poor families, their emotional experiences and interpretations of institutionalisation/
'A zoom link will be made available for distance learning PhD students on request'
For further information please contact the convenors Dilnoza Duturaeva (dilnoza.duturaeva@york.ac.uk) and Ana María Otero-Cleves (anamaria.otero-cleves@york.ac.uk).