THEMESESSIONS AND FREE PAPERS
Each of the sessions will consist of a few papers, comments and discussion. Complete papers should be submitted to organizers before 15th June 2005. A selection of the papers will be edited and published 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).
NB Please note that (at) in the e-mail addresses is to be replaced with @. Note also that changes are possible and that the final program and timetable of each session is available during summer.
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 epistemological and ethical questions. This session focuses on the analytical relation of the researcher to his/her topic, sources and methods and the ethical consequences of this relation.
Commentator: Prof. Liz Stanley, University of Edinburgh, UK
Contacts: Phil. Lic. Kaisa Vehkalahti, University of Turku, Cultural History
(kaisa.vehkalahti(at)utu.fi)
12.8.2005: 16.30–18.00.
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
Suggested readings. Papers (see abstracts):
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 its implications for women's history, this session discusses questions of gender and colonialism.
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)
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
Papers (see abstracts):
3. Nordic zealots - Gender and colonialism in Christian missions and development aid
Language: Nordic
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.
Commentator: PhD. Inger Marie Okkenhaug, University of Bergen
/ Dept. of Culture, Language and Information Technology
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)
12.8. 2005: 16.30-18.00
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
Papers (see abstracts):
Language: Nordic and English
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.
Commentators:
Dr. Tiina Kinnunen, University of Joensuu / Department of History
Prof. Ann-Sofie Ohlander (University of Örebro, Dept. of History. Chair
of the board for the Swedish secretary for gender studies)
Senior Scholar Karen Offen (Stanford University, Institute for Research on Women
and Gender)
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)
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
14.8 2005: 09.30-11.00 & 11.30-13.00
Papers (see abstracts):
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 and Prof. Jonas Liliequist, discusses the critical studies on men in relation to history writing with a special focus on the issues concerning historical knowledge on masculinity.
Commentator: Prof. Jeff Hearn, Swedish School of Economics /
Department of Management and Organisation
Prof. Jonas Liliequist, Umeå University, Dept of Historical Studies
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)
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
14.8 2005: 09.30-11.00 & 11.30-13.00
Papers (see abstracts):
6. Gender and the history of childhood
Language: Nordic and English
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)
14.8 2005: 11.30-13.00 & 11.30-13.00
Papers (see abstracts):
7. Foucault and the Writing of Feminist History
Language: Nordic and English
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? Is Foucault relevant in regard to the "feminist project" and if so, in which ways?
Moderator: M.Sc Jutta Ahlbeck-Rehn, The Institute of Women's Studies at Åbo Akademi University (jutta.ahlbeck-rehn(at)abo.fi)
12.8.2005: 16.30–18.00.
Papers (see abstracts):
8. Women, Skill and Employment
Session addresses questions of work, gender and employment with a special reference to two main themes. On the 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.
Moderator: Dr. Tapio Bergholm, University of Helsinki / Department of History (tapio.bergholm(at)helsinki.fi)
13.8 2005: 16.30-18.00.
14.8 2005: 09.30-11.00 & 11.30-13.00.
Papers (see abstracts):
9. Gender and the public-sector from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century
Language: Nordic and English
The public sector is often associated to the welfare society. From a historical perspective, however, this is a rather late phenomenon. Nursing and care organized as public welfare and the feminization of public sector started in the 1950s and 1960s. Earlier in the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century public employees were mainly men of the State as military personnel and civil servants. The suggested themes of this session include gendered activities of the public sector and the processes of gendering, differentiation, specialization and professionalization.
Moderator and commentator: Dr. Ann-Katrin Hatje (ann-katrin.hatje(at)historia.umu.se)
14.8 2005: 09.30-11.00 & 11.30-13.00.
Papers (see abstracts):
Modarator: Kirsi Tuohela University of Turku / Cultural History, (kirsi.tuohela@utu.fi)
12.8.2005: 16.30–18.00.
13.8 2005: 14.30-16.00 & 16.30-18.00
14.8 2005: 11.30-13.00. (see abstracts).