Donna Varga

Background

Dr. Donna Varga is a Professor in the Child and Youth Study Department at Mount Saint Vincent University. Dr. Varga completed her BASc at Guelph in the area of Child and Family Studies. She received her MA and PhD in Toronto in the area of Sociology of Education including an emphasis on women’s studies and socio-cultural issues of child development, caregiving and play.

Currently, Dr. Varga is collaborating with Dr. Rhoda Zuk (English, MSVU) on a historical and contemporary study of portrayals of racism and innocence in children’s material culture.

Her teaching interests are in the areas of child development, early education, media, play, social issues of childhood, and women's studies.

2011 Look-Normal: The colonization of childhood through developmental science. History of Psychology, 14 (2) 137-157.

2009 Gifting the bear and a nostaligic desire for childhood innocence. Cultural Analysis, 8, 71-88.

2009.  Teddy's bear and the transfiguration of savage beasts into innocent children, 1890-1920.  Journal of American Culture 32.2; 98-113.

2009.  Babes in the woods: Wilderness aesthetics in children's stories and toys, 1830-1915.  Society & Animals 17; 187-205.

2005.  Bringing Vygotsky to story time: Facilitating literacy through symbolic play development.  Early Childhood Education  36.2; 52-7.

2003.  The implications of individualistic play pedagogy for the zone of proximal development.  European Early Childhood Education Research Journal  11.2; 141-57.

 2000.  Hyperbole and humor in children's language play.  Journal of Research in Childhood Education  14; 142-51.

2000.  History of early childhood teacher education.  In L. Prochner & N. Howe (eds.), Early childhood care and education in Canada: Past, present, and future (pp. 66-95). Vancouver, British Columbia: University of British Columbia Press.

1998.  The dynamics of children's alienated play.  The Canadian Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education  6.4; 313-26.

1998.  and Robert Lanning.  In support of working mothers?  Students of early childhood and issues of maternal employment.  Education and Society: International Journal in Education and Sociology  16.2; 17-30.

1997 Constructing the child: A history of Canadian day care.  Toronto: Lorimer Press.

1996.  Communicating the authority of child care expertise: Canada's School for Parents, 1942-1960.  Women's Studies in Communication  19.3; 335-353.