Presentations for theme sessions OR free papers
The conference has invited papers addressing questions of gender and history-writing both from theoretical aspects and/or with a reference to empirical questions and ongoing research projects. The papers should either fall within one of the conference theme sessions or address the conference theme "Gender and Knowledge" from other aspects:
A. Papers are welcomed to the following theme sessions
(See the descriptions and moderators below)
1. Ethics and the role of the researcher in history-writing
2. Postcolonial challenges for women's history
3. Nordic zealots - Gender and colonialism in Christian missions
and development aid
4. Women Writing History
5. Historical Knowledge and Masculinity
6. Gender and the history of childhood
7. Foucault and the Writing of Feminist History
8. Women, skill and employment
9. Gender and the public-sector in 19th and 20th centuries
B. Free Papers:
Papers that do not fit into the above mentioned sessions, but comment on the
main theme "Gender and Knowledge" from other aspects, have been proposed
as well. These papers will be grouped as parallel sessions by the organizers,
according to their topic.
General information on paper presentations
The conference papers may be written in any of the Nordic languages
or in English. When planning your presentation however, please consider your
choice of language from the viewpoint of the audience's language proficiency.
Note also that some of the sessions are organised exclusively in English. Each
of the sessions will consist of a few papers, comments and discussion. Complete
papers should be submitted to organizers before 15th June 2005. For further
information on the timetables and other practical arrangements concerning your
session, please contact the moderator of your session. If you like, you are
welcome to bring handouts about your presentations/ research project for the
audience. If you need any technical devises for your presentation, (for power
point presentations, videopresentations etc.) please inform the conference assistant
of your wishes (salla.peltonen@utu.fi). Overhead projectors will be available
in all of the conference rooms.
The abstracts of papers accepted can be found on the conference www-pages. A selection of the papers will most likely be edited and published on the internet after the conference in a collection of essays devoted to the VIII Nordic Women's and Gender History Conference.
For further information on specific theme sessions, please contact the moderators / contact persons of the session. About general arrangements concerning the parallel sessions, please contact Maarit Leskelä-Kärki (maales(at)utu.fi).
Please note that (at) is to be replaced with @
Please notice that amendments concerning the sessions may be done later on.
1. Ethics and the role of the researcher in
history-writing
Language: English
One of the most significant ways, in which feminist theorizing
has made an impact on
history-writing, is the way that it has directed attention to the epistemological
and ethical questions. This session focuses on the personal relation of the
researcher to his/her topic, sources and methods and the ethical consequences
of this relation. The session welcomes papers related to the role of the researcher,
methodological choices and ethical challenges from various aspects. Both papers
addressing more theoretical and epistemological questions and papers dealing
with concrete questions related to ongoing research projects and case studies
are welcomed.
Commentator: Prof. Liz Stanley, University of Newcastle upon
Tyne, UK
Contacts: Phil. Lic. Kaisa Vehkalahti, University of Turku / Cultural History
(kaisa.vehkalahti(at)utu.fi)
2. Postcolonial challenges for women's history
Language: English
During the previous decades, postcolonial theorizing has become
an ever more influential approach in the field of women's studies and history.
The growing awareness of the multifaceted questions of race, gender and power
has changed the way of writing history fundamentally. For example, our understanding
of "women" as a homogenous historical category has been called into
question, like many other western categories of analysis and methods of historical
research. With regard to the on-going debate on postcolonial theorizing and
it's implications for women's history, this session welcomes all contributions
addressing questions of gender and colonialism. Suggested themes include for
instance:
– nationalism/imperialism
– power/knowledge
– race/ethnicity
– definitions of the marginal, peripherical and the centre
Commentator: Prof. Clare Midgley, Metropolitan University, London,
UK
Contacts: M.A. Marika Kivinen, The Institute of Women's Studies at Åbo
Akademi University (marika.kivinen(at)abo.fi)
3. Nordic zealots - Gender and colonialism in Christian missions and development aid
Recent historical studies on western Christian missions have shown the complex relationship between colonialism and missionary effort around the world. Depending on the cultural, political and economic circumstances of both the missions and the mission fields colonialism has in most cases played part on some level. Especially postcolonial theorising has offered new ways to analyse the link between colonial thinking and missionary zeal.
In this session we would like to discuss the relations between gender, Nordic zealots and colonialism. In addition to Christian missions we wish to include also Nordic development aid in the discussions. Official development aid in many Nordic countries today is largely channelled through mission organisations. Non-religious development aid agencies, however, often face some of the same difficulties and moral and ethical questions as the missionary organisations. Both religious and non-religious development aid agencies now carry out a new kind of zeal for improving the material and spiritual wellbeing of the undeveloped nations, many of which are their former mission targets as well as former colonies of the greater colonial powers. Thus a discussion of parallels, similarities, and differences in the work, strategies, goals, and effects of the two forms of development aid activities could bring new insights in the field of research on development and colonialism/neo-colonialism.
So far there has been very little attempt to see the historical links between mission activity in the colonial period and the aid programs after 1960. Even so, civilizing and modernizing were a central part in the missionary agenda of the 19th and 20th centuries. Research on gender and development has mainly been dominated by theoretical and present-day approaches that to a large extent have been without a historical dimension. Our empirical and historical approach will thus contribute with new knowledge, which is necessary in order to understand not only the history of Western development activities in non-Western countries, but also the effects of these activities on men and women in the recipient countries.
We welcome papers that deal with, for example, the following
questions:
– What was the relation between colonial powers and mission organisations in
the development of the colonised peoples?
– Is development aid from religious and/or non-religious agencies (part of)
a neo-colonial enterprise?
– What are/were the gendered implications for the receivers of religious or
non-religious development aid?
– What strategies and assumptions about gender and development form the basis
of gender specific development work?
– What similarities and differences are to be found between religious and non-religious
development aid agencies? And what are the implications of the relations between
the two?
Moderators:
PhD. Inger Marie Okkenhaug, University of Bergen / Dept. of Culture, Language
and Information Technology (Inger.Okkenhaug(at)smi.uib.no)
Teaching assistant Anne Folke Henningsen, University of Copenhagen / Centre
for Gender and Women's Studies (folke(at)ruc.dk)
Phil.Lic. Seija Jalagin, University of Oulu / Dept. of History (seija.jalagin(at)oulu.fi)
The aim of this session is to explore how our understanding
of the past and of history as a discipline changes if the writers of history
are gendered. Internationally, studies on historiography from a gender perspective
have increased over the past few years. In this session we hope to contribute
to this discussion by comparing the situation in the Nordic countries. Suggested
topics for this session are:
– How have women, compared to men, established themselves as professional historians
from the 19th century to the present? What kind of strategies have women developed
in order to be part of the profession? How have women contributed to the national
historiographies in the Nordic countries?
– What kind of history have women - both amateurs and professionals - written?
Could we talk about feminine historiography in contrast to masculine one? Have
women not affiliated with academic hierarchies developed more innovative methods
and questions than male professionals?
– How could the development of women's history in the Nordic countries before
the 1970s and 1980s be characterized: what kind of women's history was written
"before" women's history and who constructed interpretations of women's
past?
Moderators:
Dr. Tiina Kinnunen, University of Joensuu / Department of History (tiina.kinnunen(at)
co.jyu.fi)
Phil. Lic. Maarit Leskelä-Kärki, University of Turku / Cultural History
(maales(at)utu.fi)
5. Historical Knowledge and Masculinity
Language: English
The focus of this session is on historical analysis on men. Whereas men as generic human beings have traditionally been in the focus of history writing, men as gendered beings have largely gone untheorized. Over the last two decades a critical approach on men and masculinities has been a growing area of academic inquiry. This session, chaired by Prof. Jeff Hearn, discusses the critical studies on men in relation to history writing with a special focus on the issues concerning historical knowledge on masculinity. Papers addressing the epistemological and methodological questions such as knowledge and power, partiality of knowledge, researcher-researched relationship, or reflexivity in the context of historical studies on men are invited. The session welcomes theoretical papers as well as papers with a case-study approach.
Commentator: Prof. Jeff Hearn, Swedish School of Economics /
Department of Management and Organisation
Contacts: M.A. Ilana Aalto, University of Turku / Cultural History (ilana.aalto(at)utu.fi)
&
M.A. Anne-Maria Marttila, University of Turku / Contemporary History (anne-maria.marttila(at)utu.fi)
6. Gender and the history of childhood / Genus i barndomens historia
We are pleased to announce a call for papers discussing the history of childhood with a special reference to questions of gender and knowledge. Papers addressing theoretical and methodological questions, such as questions concerning sources and their limitations, are particularly welcomed.
The history of childhood has overwhelmingly been written through adult lenses: adults reminiscing their past childhood or portraying children of their own time. With regard to the ongoing academic debate on "giving voice" for the hitherto unheard people of the past, the session aims to reflect on the possibilities - as well as problems - involved in seeking for the children's own voices. How to take the children into consideration as subjects of their own history? How to capture the evanescent sites and the subtle ways in which the processes of growing up are gendered? The session aims to discuss the gendered notions of childhood in a variety of contexts and from different perspectives, within institutions and socializing processes such as families, education and schooling, labour and leisure activities or peer groups. Where and how to trace the gendered experiences of children of the past?
Special program: The conference program includes a presentation
of a documentary "Children Drawing History" by director and scriptwriter
Rauni Järvilehto, which relates to the themes of the session "Gender
and the history of Childhood". The documentary will be released in December
2005 and it focuses on early 20th century children depicting and illustrating
their time. Original drawings and diaries by children are in the heart of the
documentary. In addition, the documentary includes present-day interviews of
old people reminiscing their childhood. The project has from the outset conflated
the aspects of art and academic research in order to find ways to attain the
world of past children and youth, as well as to bring the historical research
on childhood closer to the public.
Commentator: Dr. Ning De Coninck-Smith, Danish University of
Education, Copenhagen
Contacts:
Phil. Lic. Seija Jalagin, University of Oulu / Department of History
(seija.jalagin(at)oulu.fi)
Dr. Marianne Junila, University of Oulu/ Department of History (marianne.junila(at)oulu.fi)
Phil. Lic. Kaisa Vehkalahti, University of Turku / Cultural History (kaisa.vehkalahti(at)utu.fi)
7. Foucault and the Writing of Feminist History
/
Foucault och feministisk historieskrivning
The impact of Foucault has been enormous in feminist research
and history since the beginning of the 1990s. But can the works of Foucault
be reread and applied in new manners in the writing of feminist histories? The
session welcomes papers dealing with Foucauldian concepts and theories linked
to feminist history and historiography. Is Foucault relevant in regard to the
"feminist project" and if so, in which ways? Both theoretical and
methodological papers are welcomed. Suggested themes include:
– health, body, sexuality
– power/knowledge
– experience and subjectivity
– control, governmentality
Moderator: Jutta Ahlbeck-Rehn, The Institute of Women's Studies at Åbo Akademi University (jutta.ahlbeck-rehn(at)abo.fi)
Session addresses questions of work, gender and employment with a special reference to two main themes. On one hand the session pays attention to the processes, in which gender has played a role in defining the notions of skills in working life. On the other hand the session wishes to explore how the definitions on female and male skills have created and reproduced gendered pay differentials. The session welcomes also papers discussing the relationship between women and the challenges of working life from broader perspectives.
Moderator: Dr. Tapio Bergholm, University of Helsinki / Department of History (tapio.bergholm(at)helsinki.fi)
9. Gender and the public-sector in 19th and
20th centuries
Moderator & further information: Dr. Ann-Katrin Hatje (ann-katrin.hatje(at)historia.umu.se)