An International Symposium on the Material Culture of Play.

This one-day symposium brings together scholars from Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom and the USA who are involved in the latest research from the world of children’s play. The speakers will talk about their research on toys, games, architecture, and literature from various geographical and historical locations. From work on cold war toys in Argentina to the role of kindergarten architecture in Kuwait and on to the virtual realm of computer gaming, the day promises to be a scintillating look at the very latest work in play studies. 

Plaything and Playtimes: Symposium Schedule – May 23, Arts A108

9.30-9.40 Welcome and Introduction – Ben Highmore (University of Sussex)

SESSION 1 – Chair – Ben Highmore

9.40-10.10 Digitising fidget toys – Bjørn Nansen (University of Melbourne) and Jessica Balanzategui (RMIT University, Melbourne) online

10.10-10.40 The State of Play – Hannah Field (University of Sussex) - online

10.40-11.10 Miniature Worlds: H. G. Wells’ Little Wars – David Hopkins (University of Glasgow)

11.10-11.25 Questions and responses

11.25-11.45 Tea and Coffee Break

SESSION 2 – Chair – Seth Giddings

11.45-12.15 Building blocks, avant-garde art, and the utopian imagination in Latin America – Jordana Blejmar (University of Liverpool) and Erika Teichert (University of Bristol)

12.15-12.45 The curious place of the child in the city: playground objects and emotions – Jon Winder (University of Liverpool)

12.45-13.00 Questions and responses

13.00-14.00 Lunch

SESSION 3 – Chair – Hannah Field

14.00-14.30 Modern Kuwait and the Urbanism of Childhood – Wadha Almutawa (University of Pennsylvania) online

14.30-15.00 Gaming Life from 1790 to the 2000s: Moving Pieces through Fraught Pasts into Imagined Futures – Megan A Norcia (Florida Gulf Coast University) online

15.00-15.30 In Defence of the Plastic Toy: Artificiality, Instability, and Impermanence – Meredith A. Bak (Rutgers University) online

15.30-15.50 Questions and responses

(15.50-16.00 comfort break)

SESSION 4 – Chair – Ben Highmore

16.00-16.30 Playful Deception: How Children’s Magazines Turned Youth into Magicians – Eva Van de Wiele (Ghent University) - online

16.30-17.00 Postdigital Playgrounds – Seth Giddings (University of Southampton), Sara Grimes (University of Toronto), Darshana Jayemanne (Abertay University)

17.00-17.30 Questions and responses and wrapping up.

The event is free for both online and in-person attendance. If you do sign up for in-person attendance but later decide you can’t come then please do let us know as this will release tickets for others. We will send the link to join the event remotely nearer the date.