Bente Ooms MA
PhD candidate
E-mail: b.ooms@rug.nl
Area(s) of interest: History of the Body
Cohort/Start PhD: 2024-2025
Pedagogies of the naked child
University of Groningen
Supervisors: Prof. dr. H.T.A. Amsing, dr. S. Parlevliet en dr. B.E. Bartelink
Start date: 01-01-2025
My project investigates the history of child nakedness as a specific pedagogical approach in the first half of the twentieth century, after progressive education was introduced, with its emphasis on a romantic image of the child. It aims to determine the contexts in which the naked child body could be shared, i.e. legitimately gazed at (Grosz), for pedagogical purposes. It researches what the naked child in these contexts represents. Using the Foucauldian frame of biopolitics and biopower (Lemke), it will also show what pedagogies of the naked child intended, in terms of transmission (also including resistance and transformation) of cultural and political norms and ideologies. Therefore, the research question of this project is: What role did child nudity play in the discourses of education in the first half of the twentieth century?
To investigate early twentieth-century pedagogies of the naked child, this study explores the contexts of education for young children (0-12 years) and for teenagers (12-17 years). I will focus on four ‘protected spaces’ (Grosz, Cover)—contexts in which the body of the naked child could be legitimately displayed and was connected to specific ideas about the pedagogical function of the naked body.