Interdisciplinary childhood research explores childhood and the changing role and place of children in society. The specialization relates to theories and methodologies grounded in social studies of children and childhood, expanded through ongoing cross-fertilization of ideas from various disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, geography, and education. The research field takes children’s perspectives seriously and understands how they navigate their everyday lives and relationships with other people/generations and institutions across space and over time.

Interdisciplinary childhood research involves analyzing structural processes that affect children’s lives, changing values on children and childhood, and children’s contributions within these processes. The specialization qualifies doctoral candidates to undertake original research that recognizes childhood as a social and cultural phenomenon and children as social actors while locating them in diverse institutional, social, cultural, historical and political-economic contexts. The specialization has an international profile in which doctoral candidates play a significant role in advancing critical knowledge in this relatively young field.