Gender & Childhood

Dr. Carter has been studying the history of children, childhood, gender, the family since she was an undergraduate, when she investigated the cultural significance of sickness and death in doll play.  Her Winterthur MA thesis investigated private spaces designed for girls and young women, both at home and at school. Her current projects on object lessons and on the domestic narratives offered in historic houses rely on nuanced understandings of both age and gender as categories of historical analysis. She has reviewed books and exhibitions related to childhoodmaterial culture and gender.

Her freshmen seminar, “Archives of Childhood: Growing up with the United States” explores both children's experiences and representations of childhood (Fall 2011 & Fall 2012).  In 2010, she taught a research seminar on “Sexualities in Early America” at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. In 2007, at the request of Prof. Robin Bernstein, she co-authored A Guide to Researching and Writing a Senior Thesis in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. 

Outside of the classroom, she served as an editor for H-Childhood for four years.