Introduction:

Building on the premise that neither childhood nor science is universal, natural, or an essential entity, this Osiris volume examines the interrelation of these two categories from the Middle Ages to the present. The essays explore the role that science, technology, and medicine played in constructing different kinds of childhoods, how the various figures of the child shaped ideas about agency and scientific thinking and practice, and how the relationship between science and childhood influenced the formation of national identities and selfhoods, colonial rule and resistance, and ideas about progress and the future. In this introduction, we aim to spark a conversation between the history of science, the history of childhood, and childhood studies. Using childhood as an analytical category and considering children as fully fledged historical subjects allows us to rethink science through a wide range of sources and speak to broader questions relating to agency, governance, and what science owes children.