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MCC Microlearning Series - Babies Often Get Bored: Change and Continuity in Childrearing Advice, 1926-2021

Babies Often Get Bored: Change and Continuity in Childrearing Advice, 1926-2021

This discussion examines changes in parenting magazines’ portrayal of children and family life between 1926 and 2021. This talk explores the social context of family life by looking at magazine covers.  This research shows changes over time in the portrayal of children and family life. For instance, magazine covers become more intensively child-focused, with children increasingly featured on the covers over time. I’ll also talk about how I came to study parenting advice, looking at an example of a previous study, that explored how peanut allergies were discussed in parenting advice magazines. 

Reading: Muñoz, V. L., & Quirke, L. (2022). The joy of foodwork: allergies, gendered foodwork and emotion work in parenting advice, 1991–2020. Food, Culture & Society25(5), 953-976.

Presenter(s):

Linda Quirke has been a faculty member in Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University since 2008, after completing her PhD at McMaster University in 2006. Her SSHRC-funded research focuses on family life: parenting magazine advice and children's leisure time. She has previously examined parenting advice regarding children’s body weight and foodwork, as well as education and research ethics. She teaches courses in research methods and sociology of families. She lives on the Haldimand Tract (Kitchener) and her teenaged children roast her for being a so-called parenting “expert”.

A link to my research publications is here.

Cost: Free

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/CZ3uSPNZDNDarMmC9

This is part of the Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series and is open to the public.
Contact Manisha Khetarpal by email  mkhetarpal@mccedu.ca or call toll free: 1 866 585 3925

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MCC Microlearning Series - Surveillance: The Master Patterns

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April 3

MCC Microlearning Series - Focus for Writers