Brian Sutton-Smith

Brian Sutton-Smith is a play theorist who has spent his lifetime attempting to discover the cultural significance of play in human life, arguing that any useful definition of play must apply to both adults and children. He demonstrates that children are not innocent in their play and that adults are indeed guilty in theirs. In both cases play pretends to assist them in surmounting their Darwinian struggles for survival. His forthcoming book is entitled, Play (As If) The Struggle For Survival.

Dr. Sutton-Smith's interdisciplinary approach has included research into play history and cross cultural studies of play, as well as research in psychology, education, and folklore. He has maintained that the interpretation of play must involve all of its forms, from child's play to gambling, sports, festivals, imagination, and nonsense.

Biography

Brian Sutton-Smith in the 70's

Brian Sutton-Smith was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1924. He trained as a teacher, completed a BA and MA, and was then awarded the first Education PhD in New Zealand in 1954. Following the completion of his PhD, Sutton-Smith travelled to the USA on grant from the Fulbright Program, where he began an academic career with a focus on children's games, adult games, children's play, children's drama, films and narratives, as well as children's gender issues and sibling position.

Dr. Sutton-Smith is the author of some 50 books, the most recent of which is The Ambiguity of Play (1997, Harvard University Press), and some 350 scholarly articles. He has been the President of The Anthropological Association for the Study of Play and of The American Psychological Association, Division 10 (Psychology and the Arts). As a founder of the Children's Folklore Society he has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Folklore Society. For his research in toys he has received awards from the BRIO and Lego toy companies of Sweden and Denmark. He has participated in making television programs on toys and play in Great Britain, Canada, and the USA, and has been a consultant for Captain Kangaroo, Nickelodeon, Murdoch Children's Television, and the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.

His academic life consisted of 10 years at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, 10 years at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, and 17 years at the University of Pennsylvania. He is now retired and lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Dr. Sutton-Smith has recently been engaged as resident scholar at the Strong Museum in Rochester, New York, where the play archives will be renamed the Sutton-Smith Archives.

In addition, the New Zealand Association for Research in Education has created the Sutton-Smith Doctoral Award, which will be awarded annually for an excellent Doctoral thesis by an NZARE member.

Key Works

• The Sibling (1970)
• The Study of Games (1971)
• Child's Play (1971)
• The Folkgames of Children (1972)
• Play and Learning (1979)
• The Folkstories of Children (1981)
• A History of Children's Play (1981)
• Toys and Culture (1986)
• Play and Intervention (1994)
• Children's Folklore Source Book (1995)
• The Ambiguity of Play (1997)

Works of Fiction

Dr. Sutton-Smith is also the author of a series of novels about boys growing up in New Zealand in the 1930's, entitled "Our Street", "Smitty Does A Bunk", and "The Cobbers". Initially published in serial form in 1949 in the New Zealand School Journal, the stories created controversy for their frank and unvarnished depiction of boys' life growing up in a British colony set in the barely tamed New Zealand countryside.

Links

• Strong - National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York
• Harvard University Press