The international conference “Child Space 2025 — Narratives and New Perspectives on the Bioarchaeology of Children and Their Biosocial Complexity ” will take place in Budapest, Hungary, 4–6 June 2025. The focus of the meeting will be on the smallest social unit, the central element of the family: the child. The aim of the conference is to initiate a dialogue between cross-disciplinary research directions on childhood in the past.
One of the most popular topics of conversation in today's society is: the child. Countless textbooks and internet forums provide information on what we can do for their balanced physical and mental development, but with today's knowledge, we can also review our childhoods and improve our self-perception. Intergenerational differences, brought about by changing social and environmental contexts, are visible even at the scale of a human lifetime. We are now more aware of the complex process that defines our role in adulthood, which determines our ability to adapt to the challenges of modern society and the environment.
But how did we come to our current understanding? What was childhood like in the past without today's knowledge?
We can look at childhood from many different angles, which spins like a „marble ball” in space and time. The "Child Space" scientific conference aims to bring this colourful picture to life through the tools of history, archaeology and anthropology. We have recognised that children in the past were not invisible, they were creators of their own space through their existence, just as they are today. Their physical remains testify to the environmental and social factors that influenced their development and caused them to fail to reach adulthood. Beyond our perspective, an understanding of the attitudes of parents in the past and of children's family relationships is essential for understanding and improving modern human relationships.
Childhood research in our region is still in its infancy. Therefore, another important aim of the conference is to formulate new common research directions. In public lectures, the foremost researchers in the field will lead us into the archaeology of childhood. A related round table discussion with representatives of psychology, education and cultural anthropology aims to create a platform where the child of the past and the child of the present can meet, creating a new perspective not only on childhood but on human nature as a whole.
The three-day conference will cover the topic in four main sessions:
1) Rise of Children
2) Children in Society
3) Feeding with Love
4) Child in space and time
The themes cover social roles and functions, such as family/community relations, child care, the life cycle and its interruption. On the other hand, from a biological point of view, they explore the research potential of social and environmental changes influencing the most sensitive period of human life.
In connection with the conference, we are launching a children's art competition entitled Living in the past - The past through the eyes of children, open to children from pre-school to 15 years old.
On the opening day of the conference, the drawings of the art competition will be on exhibition and a round table discussion with representatives from psychology, pedagogy and cultural anthropology will look at the history of children across the whole spectrum of past and future.
The conference's public lectures will take us into the archaeology of childhood with some of the best-known researchers on this topic. The lectures will be streamed live and the recordings will be available on the HUN-REN RCH YouTube channel.
The organisers of the international scientific conference are the Institute of Archaeology HUN-REN RCH, Institute of Archaeogenomics HUN-REN RCH, Institute of Archaeological Sciences ELTE, Department of Human Studies Institute of Biology ELTE.
Orginising committee: Orsolya Mateovics-László, Gabriella Kulcsár, and Alexandra Anders, Szilvia Fábián, Viktória Kiss, Eszter Melis, Zsófia Rácz, Tamás Szeniczey, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy
Supported by NRDI MEC_SZ_24 149350, and MTA–BTK Lendület “Momentum” BASES Research Group, MTA–BTK Lendület "Momentum" Bioarchaeology Research Group.
For more information, programme and call for posters of the Budapest conference is now available:
https://www.childspacebudapest2025.com
Facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/1155275162734521/?active_tab=about
Registration: 25 April 2025
https://www.childspacebudapest2025.com/registration
Poster registration: 11 April 2025
https://www.childspacebudapest2025.com/posters/c14a6e47-8f27-413e-8c11-7fe90a0d1d98
We are looking forward to seeing you in Budapest, either in person or via our remote option!