It was Dr. Carolyn Kay’s first time speaking as an expert panelist at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa this past month. The Trent history professor was featured as an expert panelist on the museum’s symposium on Children, Youth and War, and subsequently interviewed on CBC Radio One about her unique research into the effects of war on children from WWI.

There were about 80 people in attendance at the ticketed event, including some of Professor Kay’s students who surprised her by coming to hear the talk. “I have exceptional students who are passionately interested in the study of history,” says Prof. Kay. “I am so proud to have these students at Trent because they push me to be a better teacher and encourage new ideas in my research.”

Prof. Kay’s current research focuses on children and war, and uses art as a way to understand what children were thinking during wartime. To date, her major finding has been the recent discovery of 270 pristine children's drawings from 1914-1915 in a museum in Hamburg, depicting romantic notions of war by 10-12 year old boys and girls.

“It’s really hard to know what children thought. People who write childhood memoirs write them as adults – so you have to be skeptical. So, really, only diaries or artwork – which you must be careful in interpreting – are true sources,” explains Prof. Kay.

Ella Ruth ‘08 is a former student of Prof. Kay’s who attended the symposium, who said the presentation at the Children, Youth and War Symposium was a chance for her to step back into Prof. Kay’s classroom once more.

“The moment I heard that Carolyn Kay was presenting some of her research at the Canadian War Museum, I could not print my symposium ticket fast enough. There is, and has always been something in Carolyn’s manner of teaching, in her process of discovery, and in her way of sharing those discoveries with others that compels the mind and brings people together,” explained Ms. Ruth who graduated from Trent with a joint honours major in Biology and History in 2012. “From my very first year at Trent until my last, her lessons stood out because they offered much more than just a history lesson.”