Interactions between mother and infant are central to our understanding of ourselves as a species and a society. “The Maternal-Infant Nexus in the Past” is the theme of this year's Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past conference. This year's conference will be online, and registration is free and open to all.

The Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past is an international interdisciplinary organisation. This year's annual conference is being hosted by Associate Professor Dr Siân Halcrow, Head of the Biological Anthropology Research Group at the University of Otago. The conference is delivered online in two-hour sessions across a few days from 25–29 October (NZ time)

Read the conference schedule – Note: listed times are in the British Summer Time (BST) time zone

Keynote speakers

Professor Maureen Carroll

Professor Carroll is a Roman archaeologist whose key research interests are Roman burial practices, funerary commemoration, and Roman infancy, childhood and family studies.

Speaking at 8:10pm, 25 October 2021 (NZT)

Associate Professor Alison Behie

Associate Professor Behie's research areas include 'Pregnancy, birth and stress – the impacts of prenatal stress caused by disasters and environmental changes on pregnancy and birth'.

Speaking at 8pm, 26 October 2021 (NZT)

Professor Holly Dunsworth

Professor Dunsworth is a biological anthropologist. She teaches with new and original approaches aimed at overturning evolutionary misconceptions and outdated evolutionary dogma. She has a broad background that carries her interests beyond the fossil record from the evolution of pregnancy, childbirth, and infant care.

Speaking at 9am, 28 October 2021 (NZT)

Professor Sarah Knott

Professor Knott is Sally M Reahard Professor of History and a Research Fellow of the Kinsey Institute. She's the author of numerous books including Mother Is a Verb, which explores what story can be told from the shards and fragments that remain about experiences of pregnancy, birth and the encounter with an infant.

Speaking at 9am, 29 October 2021 (NZT)

Registration

Register via Eventbrite

All welcome.