About CARCYE
Launched in 2011, CARCYE was formerly known as C-FAR, the Centre for Child-Focused Anthropological Research, which was established at Brunel’s Department of Human Sciences in 1999 with the sponsorship of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and a grant of £59,446 from the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. This grant provided for two post-doctoral research fellowships, which were held by Dr Joanna de Berry, who is now with the World Bank, and Dr Nicolas Argenti.
The major intellectual objective of C-FAR was to show why child-focused research is central to the continuing development of theory and practice in mainstream anthropology. Under the Directorship of Professor Christina Toren, and later Dr Nicolas Argenti, it aimed to consolidate and build a comparative international anthropological approach to child-focused research; to use this approach in settings where children’s lives and welfare are at risk from war, famine, displacement, abuse, neglect, deprivation, physical and mental ill health; to incorporate and address national and international policy concerns and practices relating to issues such as child labour, education and family life; and to raise the profile of child-focused anthropological research, disseminate its findings, and promote their contribution to improving children’s lives.
To this end, in 2001 C-FAR sponsored a three-day International Conference on ‘Children in Their Places’. Other international symposia followed, including: a workshop on the position of children in war-torn countries (2002), resulting in a publication - Children and Youth on the Front Line: Ethnography, Armed Conflict and Displacement, edited by Jo Boyden and Joanna de Berry; a workshop on research methods in child-focused anthropology (2003-2004); a workshop on emerging perspectives in the anthropology of childhood (2008) and a workshop on ‘Learning, Livelihoods and Social Mobility’ (2009). Papers from this workshop are published in a special issue of the Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Vol. 43(4). C-FAR also hosted two Postdoctoral Fellows, Dr Gillian Evans, who held a British Academy Fellowship between 2003-2006, and Dr Anna Portisch, who held an ESRC Postdoctoral fellowship between 2008-2009, along with several other postdoctoral affiliates, and saw the successful completion of numerous PhD students. Dr Nicolas Argenti took over as Director of C-FAR in 2006. Under his Directorship, C-FAR further consolidated its international reputation as a leader in child-focused anthropological research. Dr Peggy Froerer became Director in 2009.
While child-focused research continues to underpin the Centre’s core research remit (most notably in the form of workshops, the recruitment of PhD students and Postdoctoral fellows, and more general anthropological research and publication activities), the major intellectual objectives have been expanded to incorporate a broader focus on the anthropology of youth and the anthropology of education. It was agreed that the theoretical and conceptual links between the anthropology of childhood and youth, and the anthropology of education and learning - particularly in view of issues concerning the transmission and acquisition of social and cultural skills, practices and knowledge - make a strong case for the expansion of the Centre’s research focus. It was with the aim of reflecting this expansion that the name of the Centre was changed in 2011 to CARCYE: the Centre for Anthropological Research on Childhood, Youth and Education.
With these changes, CARCYE remains committed to facilitating dialogue and collaboration with national and international colleagues and centres working on children and childhood, on youth and young people, and on the anthropology of education and learning. In addition to the ongoing research being carried out by individual members of the Centre, our research activities include an annual workshop and participation in a 'childhood research group' with colleagues from Oxford, Bath, Warwick, Birkbeck, LSE and the Open University.
The evolving research activities of CARCYE remain crucially important in attracting postgraduate students to the MSc Anthropology of Childhood, Youth and Education, the first of its kind in the world. CARCYE is also critical in attracting doctoral students to undertake PhD research subjects related to the anthropology of childhood, youth and education.
