The conference 'Growing Up in Divided Societies' will be held in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast, from June 10th to 11th, 2010.

The conference aims to bring together scholars whose work focuses on the experiences of children who are growing up in ethnically and politically divided societies.  Questions that the conference will explore include:

• How children's lives are impacted by ethnic and political divisions and how, in turn, children shape these societies through their own activity?
• How are children implicated in nation-building and how is childhood co-opted in divided societies for ideological purposes?
• How do children partake in, and respond to, such processes?
• And how is their political engagement enabled and constrained by the social structures and realities they are confronted with in these societies?

The opening address will be delivered by Professor Allison James: University of Sheffield. The conference is co-organised by: The Research Forum for the Child at Queen's University Belfast (for which Professor Madeleine Leonard - a Conflict in Cities project member -  is the convenor of a Special Interest Group on Research Methods); the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Adolescence in Cyprus and the International Childhood; and Youth Research Network.  Full details, including conference programme and registration details, can be found at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/TheResearchForumForTheChild/News/10-11June2010conference/