American Childhood in 25 Artifacts
This collection was assembled by the Children and Childhood Studies Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) 25th annual conference. MAPACA is a regional association of The Popular Culture Association/American Cultural Association. Area Chairs Patrick Cox and Brandi J. Venable solicited artifacts of American Childhood to celebrate MAPACA's silver anniversary in a way that honors the past and looks forward to new ways to present it. We aim to enlarge the audience capable of participating in the conference by bringing a portion of our area's scholarship online, and invite all of you to participate in this online discussion of Popular American Childhood Culture. Several of the contributors and curators will gather for a special roundtable discussion of children and pop culture at the MAPACA conference in Baltimore, November 8-10.
Special thanks goes to Meredith Bak who incorporated this project into her Senior Seminar course in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers. Several of the contributions are from her students.