MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response / Course details

This course introduces students to a global history of children in modern situations of war and displacement. Drawing on specific historical case studies from the Canadian residential school system to the Vietnam war, it puts into perspective current issues that are at the forefront of public and policy debates (war on children in Syria and Yemen, child soldiers in Myanmar and South-Sudan, refugee youths in Western Europe, army recruitment of adolescents in the UK, etc.). As part of our discussions, we will address how history and humanities more generally can help child protection actors to be better prepared to work in complex environments.

• Reflect on the long-term influence of the past on public debates, policy frameworks, and humanitarian action particularly focused on children and young people
• Understand the wider usefulness of humanities and social sciences for the humanitarian sector, especially in matters involving children and young people
• Deepen critical reasoning, intellectual curiosity, and critical engagement with the humanitarian sector past and present
• Strengthen written and oral communication skills
• Engage critically with a wide range of academic and field-oriented literature

The principal teaching and learning methods will be the lecture that will include class exercises and student-led discussion. Students will have to do some guided reading and address specific questions.

All materials will be available on Blackboard via a weekly Express page.

10x2 hours lecture

11x2 hours office hours

• Gain a global understanding and historical overview of the experiences of children and young people in war and displacement
• Learn about specific historical and recent case studies
• Identify the evolutions of legal, practical, and cultural understandings of childhood and child protection
• Grasp the challenges of conducting historical and social research with children

• Critically engage with a wide range of disciplines and materials
• Familiarise yourself with many different geographical and chronological settings
• Develop a critical understanding of the methodological challenges of history writing and their relevance beyond the discipline.
• Further develop awareness of current humanitarian issues around children in war and displacement and their longer histories

• Gain a strong understanding of policy brief writing
• Demonstrate analytical and debating skills with peers and tutor
• Demonstrate efficiency and creativity in writing
• Show effective use of library resources and search engine to gather information

• Interpretation and argumentation (written and oral)
• Communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Project and time management
• Cultural and ethical awareness

• Abebe Tatek. 'Reconceptualising children's agency as continuum & interdependence', Social Sciences, 8:3 (2019)
• Davey Eleanor. HPG Policy Brief: Humanitarian history in a complex world (London: Overseas Development Institute, 2014).
• Heide Fehrenbach and Davide Rodogno. '"A horrific photo of a drowned Syrian child": Humanitarian photography and NGO media strategies in historical perspective', International Review of the Red Cross, 97 (2015),
• Honwana Alcinda. ‘Children's Involvement in War: Historical and Social Contexts’, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, 1:1, (2008), 139-149.
• Kushner Tony. ‘Truly, madly, deeply … nostalgically? Britain’s on–off love affair with refugees, past and present’, Patterns of Prejudice, 52:2-3 (2018), 172-194.
• Oh Arissa. ‘From War Waif to Ideal Immigrant: The Cold War Transformation of the Korean Orphan’, Journal of American Ethnic History, 31:4 (2012), 34-55.
• Pignot Manon. ‘Drawing the Great War: Children's Representations of War and Violence in France, Russia, and Germany' in Mischa Honek and James Marten (eds). War and Childhood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 170-188.