Call for papers - Multidisciplinary forum of child and youth research, with a focus on HIV/AIDS

HIVAN (Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking) is a research, networking and advocacy organisation attached to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. HIVAN is convening a two-day forum on the 26th and 27th of November 2004 in Durban and will present various in-house projects which link biomedical and social science research with practice. Other researchers across multiple disciplines in the field of childhood studies and HIV/AIDS are invited to share this platform to present their work. The Forum will be open to both academics and practitioners.

Day1 will consist of a series of paper presentations and is expected to comprise two main foci: social and biomedical approaches. Discussion will be enabled through breakaway group and report-back sessions. Professor Olga Nieuwenhuys, a distinguished social scientist from the Institute for Development Studies (InDRA) at the University of Amsterdam, has been invited to make the keynote presentation on the morning of Day 1.

On Day 2 girls and boys who have participated in various HIV/AIDS-related research contexts will co-present with adult researchers with whom they have worked. This participatory approach, while meant to be lively and creative, nevertheless requires careful pre-planning on behalf of those who wish to co-present with young people. Young people have much of value to convey regarding their experiences as both the subjects and objects of research. Mrs Shirley Mabusela, celebrated Children?’s Rights Specialist and former Deputy Director of the South African Human Rights Commission, has been invited to sum up the proceedings on Day 2 and to close the Forum.

Contemporary approaches within childhood studies in the social sciences increasingly involve children and youth in gathering research data about their own lives, as well as in forming fresh methodologies that open a space for the emergence of young voices that are not overlaid with adult conceptions of childhood and the state and place of children and youth in society. Accessing young and varied voices implies paying close attention to everyday repertoires, to the ways in which children and youth contribute to the creation of social worlds in relation to, for example: care, the shaping and daily maintenance of households, the creation of support networks across groups of kin and neighbourhoods and the fundamental reshaping of societies, among other things. This Forum anticipates rich and kaleidoscopic perspectives, by all accounts?…

Call for Papers:

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2004Submission Deadline: October 15, 2004

Topic Area: Social and Biomedical research papers and presentations focusing on the area of children, youth and HIV/AIDS

The following types of submissions will be welcome:

• Research Papers - Completed research papers in any topic area listed above.
• Research in planning -Planned research in the topic areas above, or related areas. The proposal should include the research objectives, proposed methodology, and a discussion of expected outcomes.
• Student Papers - Research done by students in any of the topic areas, or related areas.
• Case Studies - Case studies in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.
• Work-in-Progress Reports or Proposals for Future Research - Incomplete research or ideas for future research in order to generate discussion and feedback in the topic areas listed, or related areas.
• Reports on Issues Related to Teaching - Reports related to innovative instruction techniques or research related to teaching in any of the topic areas listed above, or related areas.


For more information on this multidisciplinary forum, and to obtain the relevant forms, please email HIVAN's webmaster on [email protected]