Call for papers: Working for Women Symposium
The Working for Women: Experiences, Relationships and Cultural Representation in Pre-Modern Europe is one-day multidisciplinary symposium that will explore the experiences, relationships and representation of work for women in pre-industrial Europe.
Papers are invited from across a range of disciplines including history, art history, cultural studies, literary studies and legal studies, with a focus on those that interrogate ideas about work and activities constituting work for and by women in the past from a range of chronological and geographical perspectives. Papers that engage with these themes in multidisciplinary contexts will be especially welcome.
Questions and issues which participants might like to address include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- How were different types of work gendered in the past?
- How have concepts and experiences of work for and by women varied across time and in different places?
- How did work by men and women function as cultural production?
- How did the physical location of women’s work, inside or outside the home, in rural or urban settings, affect the perceptions or experiences of their activity?
- How did different contexts – monastic, domestic, commercial or artistic – affect the nature of work by or for women?
- How did cultures of power influence women’s agency and experiences?
- How did men and women, and women and women, work together in shared endeavours?
- What historical factors have played a role in our modern understanding and experience of women and work?
Proposals should include an abstract of between 250–300 words, a short biography and full contact details. Final deadline is Friday 3 June 2011. Contributions are welcome from scholars at any stage of their career.
Inquiries and proposals should be sent to Tania Colwell (Tania.Colwell@anu.edu.au) or Merridee Bailey (Merridee.Bailey@anu.edu.au).
Read more about the Working for Women Symposium here.