The Economic and Social Research Council is funding a series of six seminars over two years exploring the impact of violence on children's lives. The series is led by Birkbeck College in collaboration with the Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, The Open University and the University of St Andrews. It grapples with questions, such as: What is the relationship between violence and powerlessness? Do children experience more violence than adults and if they do is this because they are less powerful? How does violence enter into children's lives and how can they protect themselves from violence?

Childhood and violence: international and comparative perspectives Seminar 3: Aesthetics, ethics, politics: representations of violence against children

This seminar looks at violence and the visual in relation to childhood. It explores the different ways in which non-governmental organisations, the media and anti-war campaigns represent childhood suffering in the context of violence and how these representations intersect with discourses on childhood innocence to prevent the circulation of particular images of violence. It brings contemporary debate about the aestheticisation of suffering and the ethics and politics of representing “the body in pain” to the study of childhood.

Speakers: Sanna Nissinen, (The Open University)Anne Potter, Barnardos and Ian Coutts, Cafcass, Dr Khatidja Chantler (Manchester University)

This event has been recorded and is available as a podcast at the following URL: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2010/11/childhood-and-violence-international-and-comparative-perspectives-seminar-3-aesthetics-ethics-politics-representations-of-violence-against-children/