Understanding Adolescence: Academic Workshop

Tuesday 12 September 2023,  10am - 4:30pm BST

To attend via Zoom, sign up here: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QD2zQmwKSKmLKAekgSg0UQ 

 

Organised by: Dr Emily Emmott: UCL; 
Associate Editor for Biological Anthropology, 
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 

 

In contemporary Western academia, adolescence is increasingly recognised as a key life stage. For example, some developmental scientists have recently argued that adolescence is a “second critical period” for developmental plasticity and socio-cultural learning, catalysing research into the study of adolescence.
Anthropology has much to contribute to contemporary understandings of adolescence: as reviewed by Schegel & Hewlett (2011), over the last century, anthropologists have highlighted the variations and commonalities of adolescence across cultures, revealing its significance. Building on this foundational knowledge, this workshop aims to showcase current anthropological studies of adolescence from multiple sub-disciplines of anthropology.
By facilitating inclusive and multidisciplinary knowledge-exchange and conversation, we aim to identify key themes around emerging anthropological knowledge on adolescence, potentially informing and leading to a special issue on adolescence in the JRAI.

Schedule

10:00 Introductions/Opening by Emily Emmott

10:15-11:45 Theme - Liminality

Catherine Allerton, London School of Economics
'Coming of Age In- and Out-of-Place: Temporalities of Adolescence in Mobile and Migrant Southeast Asia'

Ben Theobald, University College London
'The Liminality of Adolescence: Perceptions of life stages within a community of adolescent Buddhist monks in Thailand'

Yasmeen Arif, University of Oxford
'This is a learning stage for us: adolescence as social and spatial identity among ‘hostel girls’ in Pakistan'

Matthew Richardson, Tyne Coast College
'Messy spatialisations: adolescence, liminality, and queer Jewish lifecourse trajectories'

Paolo Grassi, University of Milano Bicocca
'«I See No Future Here»: Growing Up in The Biggest Social Housing Neighbourhood in Milan'
 

11:45 BREAK

12:00-13:00 Theme - Networks and Knowledge

Kasia Buzanska, University of Cambridge
'Digital Adolescence: Extimacy and Phatic Relationship Building on Social Media'

Angela Giattino, London School of Economics
'Learning indigeneity: politics of ethnicity and knowledge among indigenous adolescents in urban Amazonia'

Sheina Lew-Levy, University of Durham
'Exploring the role of BaYaka forager and Bantu farmer adolescents in mediating integration into the market economy in northern Republic of the Congo' (Co-authors Vidrige Kandza, Haneul Jang, Adam H. Boyette, Lee T. Gettler)

 

13:00 LUNCH

13:45-15:15 Theme - Health and Development

Jennifer C. French, University of Liverpool
'The Secret Lives of Paleolithic Teens: Puberty Assessment of Adolescents in the European Upper Paleolithic' (Co-authors Mary E. Lewis, April Nowell)

Mary E. Lewis, University of Reading
'Adolescents in Bioarchaeology: a gateway to human health'

Tanay Katiyar, École normale supérieure-PSL (ENS-PSL), Adam Hunt (University of Zurich)
'An age of 'storm and stress'?: Adolescent Mental Health in Non-industrialised Societies' (Co-authors Adam Hunt, Adrian Jäggi)

Giulia Gaggioni, University of Edinburgh
'Sleep in adolescents across diverse socio-ecological landscapes'

Delaney J. Glass, University of Washington
'Using Hormonal Coupling of Cortisol and Testosterone to Understand the Adolescent Transition among Indigenous Qom girls' (Co-authors Jessica Godwin, Margaret K. Corley, Eleanna Bez, Eleanor Brindle, Claudia R. Valeggia, Melanie A. Martin)

 

15:15 BREAK

15:30-16:30 Theme - Education

Chelsea Wallis, University of Oxford
'Equality Doesn’t Always Mean Integration: Neurodivergent Adolescents and Education'

Davide Falcone, University of Bologna
'Here there are only old people and middle school kids: adolescence in Castel S. Pietro Terme (Italy)'

Kelly Fagan Robinson, University of Cambridge
'Poverty of Pathway in a Pupil Referral Unit'