The Popular and The Middlebrow: Women’s Writing 1880 -
1940

12 April 2012, Newcastle University

Keynote Speaker:

Professor Nicola Humble (Roehampton)

This event aims to bring together postgraduate researchers from across the UK and beyond
to discuss the growing interest in and importance of the categories of the middlebrow and
the popular as ways of engaging with women’s writing in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Both of these terms have become crucial ways of exploring the work
of more marginalised female writers who were not directly involved in larger intellectual
discourses such as Modernism or social realism, but who enjoyed a great deal of success
during their own time. From the regency romances of Georgette Heyer to the crime fiction
of Agatha Christie, from the muted socialist politics of Winifred Holtby to the witty asides
of Molly Keane, the conference reasserts the importance of these women’s writing as part
of a wider literary tradition. It encourages papers which both work with and interrogate the
terms ‘popular’ and ‘middlebrow’ as well as those which choose to apply them to the work
of a specific woman or group of women in order to challenge or consolidate their usage.
It asks: do the terms still contain inherent value judgements? Are they problematic when
applied to women’s literature? Or do they engender a challenge to preconceptions about
women and literary history, allowing for a reconceptualization of notions of canonicity?

Women writers and the popular
Women
writers
and
the
•
middlebrow
Domesticity and the home
Place and landscape
War and politics
Queer fictions

Proposals of no more than 300 words should be emailed to middlebrow-
conf by 30 November 2011.
For more information: www.pop-
middlebrow.com

In association with the Long Nineteenth Century Research Cluster (School of
English) and the Gender Research Group (Newcastle Institute for the Arts, Social
Sciences and Humanities) and supported by a grant from the Catherine Cookson
Foundation.

Organized by Katherine Cooper and Jodie Laird

**This conference will run in conjunction with another event, ‘Gender,
Travel and Modernity, 1850-1950′ taking place on 13th and 14th April 2011.
Delegates may wish to attend both events. For more information: http://
movingdangerously.wordpress.com/.

Keynote Speakers:
Rebecca Coleman (Sociology, Lancaster University) & Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck)

There has been an emergent call within the field of gender and feminist studies to consider themes
that might be broadly situated under the umbrella term of “temporality”. Nostalgic and apocalyptic
narratives of feminism abound in both popular culture and academic writing, with feminism’s death or
out-datedness being the dominant narrative. Countering these narratives is crucially about unravelling
the logic that makes them viable as well as interrupting their production. Explorations of alternative
narratives have productively emerged from work in the field of collective and personal memory, new
technologies as they impact feminist organizing, and creative activism and archival practices. There
is a continued political need to explore alternative mechanisms of telling feminist time, alternative
relationships to be forged with the recent and historical past and alternative means for considering how
feminism might forge a future for itself both in and out of the academy.

This colloquium aims to provide the opportunity for an interdisciplinary, creative and exploratory
approach to time and history in feminism. We welcome contributions from academics, artist and
activists working in the area. Contributions could include but are not limited to, paper presentations,
digital media, photography, film, poetry and performance. Contributions could consider, but are by no
means limited to, some of the following questions:

- How does the personal, social and collective memory of the feminist past create, sustain, or
challenge feminism in the present?

- How might we forge relationships between temporal periods that resist generational affects of
duty or shame?

- How might remembering and forgetting occur not only within the spaces of activism and the
institution, but also between them?

- How can we think critically about how, for example, citing, course building, and curating are
practices of remembering and forgetting?

- How might feminist activists, artists and theorists respond to the narratives of ‘the death of
feminism’ or the ‘post-feminist’ era?

- How does time, and the various ways we think of it, both enable and constrain politics?

- Is the time of activism the same as the time of the institution?

- What are the theoretical and methodological challenges of working within feminist archives?

- How can we account for the multiple and diverse voices that comprise ‘feminism’ and the
relationships between these voices? How can the use of creative methodologies enable the
exploration of these issues?

Please submit a 200 word abstract by 25 November 2011 to Carly Guest and Sam McBean at
bisrcolloquium2012. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Conference Website: http://movingdangerously.wordpress.com/
For the latest updates, follow Moving Dangerously on Twitter: @moving2012

Moving Dangerously: Women and Travel, 1850-1950

13-14 April 2012, Newcastle University

Conference Call for Papers

Keynote Speakers:
Alexandra Peat (University of Toronto)
Avril Maddrell (University of the West of England)

The period between 1850 and 1950 is widely acknowledged to have been one of dramatic societal and cultural change, not least in terms of women’s experience of and relationship to travel. The rapid expansion of the travel networks both nationally and internationally towards the end of the nineteenth century coincided with the impact of first wave feminism, as the suffragette movement gathered momentum and the figure of the New Woman appeared. By 1950, new forms of technology and transport, and their widespread availability, had substantially altered women’s perception of and ability to travel.

This two-day international and interdisciplinary conference invites papers that explore the changing relationship of women and travel across key moments in modernity, such the First World War and its effects on women’s independence, the developments in British Imperial activity, and the boom in rail, air and sea travel. The conference aims to stimulate academic discussion on a range of topics relating to women and travel in the period ranging from 1850-1950. These topics include representations of women and travel in fiction and film, non-fictional portrayals and documentations, as well as archival work on first-hand accounts of women travellers. As such, we welcome papers from those working in the fields of Literature, History, Geography, Film and Media, Modern Languages, Gender/Women’s Studies, and Politics.

Potential paper topics might include considerations of: both published and unpublished travel-writings by women of the period; fictional accounts of travel written by women throughout the period; representations of women travellers in contemporary biography; representations of women and travel during the period in fiction and film, and the benefits of archival research into women and travel on contemporary understandings of women’s role in modernity.

Please send abstracts of 250 words for 20 minute papers to: moving<mailto:moving> by 30 November 2011. For further details, visit: http://movingdangerously.wordpress.com/

This event is presented in association with the Gender Research Group and the Long Nineteenth Century Research Cluster at Newcastle University, and is supported by a grant from the Catherine Cookson Foundation.

** This conference will run in conjunction with another event, ‘The Popular and The Middlebrow: Women’s Writing 1880 – 1940′ taking place on 12 April 2011. Delegates may wish to attend both events. For more information, see: http://www.pop-middlebrow.com<http://www.pop-middlebrow.com/>.

Aim: Develop and deliver an exhibition which celebrates the 10th anniversary of
the opening of The Women’s Library.

February 2012 sees the 10th anniversary of the opening of The Women’s Library on
its current site at London Metropolitan University. This anniversary exhibition offers an
exciting opportunity for the Library to showcase its exceptional collections by celebrating
the diverse stories they tell and highlighting the unique role the Library has played – and
continues to play – in recording the histories and experiences of women.

The Women’s Library collections vividly capture changes in British women’s social and
political circumstances from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. At their heart they tell
stories of how women – collectively, and as individuals – have campaigned, harried,
lobbied and fought to expand opportunities for women and in so doing have indelibly
shaped contemporary society.

Using the rich resources available at The Women’s Library the intention is to
bring to life the stories of these women – their lives, experiences, struggles and campaigns
- and to make their often hidden contributions known and accessible to non-specialist
audiences.
To realise the project, the Library seeks to appoint a freelance Exhibition Researcher
to curate the exhibition project, source material, select content, and deliver exhibition
interpretation in collaboration with the in-house exhibition team.

For further information please call 020 7320 3511, and for specification and application
details email: b.benge-abbott

*March 30-31, 2012*

*Call For Proposals*

The Graduate Committee for Research on Women/Gender (Grad-CROW) at The
University of Akron, located in northeast Ohio (40 miles south of
Cleveland), is pleased to announce an upcoming symposium showcasing graduate
students’ original research in all fields of women’s and/or gender studies.
Our theme, “Gendered Worlds” is purposively a broad and inclusive one, in
order to provide opportunities for graduate students working on a variety of
topics and within many disciplines to explore women’s lives and/or the
various and often contested meanings of gender, past and present. This
symposium is open to any student enrolled in a graduate program whose work
centers on women and/or gender. While we expect most women’s and gender
studies applicants will be contributing to fields associated with the
Humanities and Social Sciences, we especially want to encourage those
graduates enrolled in MFA and performance art programs to apply and will
work with them to find appropriate ways to present their creative work.

The symposium will kick off at 6 pm on Friday, March 30 with a complimentary
dinner for participants, followed by a full day of presentations and
discussion on Saturday, March 31.

There is no participation fee. Presenters whose proposals are selected
will be treated to two nights (March 30-31) of hotel accommodations at the
historic Quaker Inn in downtown Akron, as well as dinner on Friday night and
breakfast/lunch on Saturday. Presenters coming from out of state may also
apply for a grant to help offset the cost of air travel.

Proposals should be 300 words or less, and should include title of
presentation, presenter’s name, university and department affiliation,
email, phone number, and mailing address. Also please be sure to indicate
whether you intend to apply for our air travel subsidy (if so, a grant
application will be sent to you).

Proposals are due December 31, 2011.

Email proposals to Natalie Hall, Vice-President of Grad-CROW, at
nah28.

Those selected will be notified via email by February 1, 2012.

REVISITER LA QUERELLE DES FEMMES

4. Les Discours sur l’égalité/inégalité

des femmes et des hommes,

à l’échelle européenne, de 1400 à 1800

24, 25, 26 novembre 2011,

Université de Columbia,

Centre Reid Hall,

4 rue de Chevreuse 75006 Paris

Avec le soutien de l’Institut Emilie Du Châtelet, l’Institut Universitaire de France, la Région Île de France, la Columbia University, L’Université d’Augsburg (UNA), le Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle.

La SIEFAR (Société Internationale pour l’Étude des Femmes de l’Ancien Régime) et l’Université de Columbia à Paris organisent le troisième colloque international consacré aux discours sur l’égalité/inégalité des femmes et des hommes sous l’Ancien Régime.

Ce colloque s’inscrit dans un programme scientifique pluriannuel et pluridisciplinaire visant à faire progresser nos connaissances sur l’abondante production de discours sur les femmes, les hommes et leurs relations, depuis la Renaissance jusqu’aux lendemains de la Révolution française. Le premier colloque, organisé avec la collaboration de l’IHMC-CNRS/ENS (Paris), tenu en novembre 2008, était consacré à la période 1750-1810. Le second colloque, organisé avec la collaboration de l’IHMC et de l’Université Columbia à Paris, tenu en novembre 2009, était consacré à la période 1600-1750. Le troisième colloque, organisé avec la collaboration de l’Université Columbia à Paris, tenu en novembre 2010, était consacré à la période 1400-1600. Le programme se conclut en 2011 par ce colloque à visée comparatiste, englobant l’ensemble de l’Europe et mettant l’accent sur la circulation des idées dans cet espace. Ces rencontres s’accompagnent de diverses publications (traditionnelles ou en ligne) d’articles, de textes et de documents témoignant de l’ampleur de la «querelle des femmes».

L’ensemble permettra de mieux comprendre l’évolution d’un débat qui a accompagné, justifié, préparé les transformations politiques et idéologiques de cette longue période, et marqué de son sceau une grande partie de l’histoire contemporaine.

Jeudi 24 Novembre 2011

APRÈS-MIDI

13 h 30 Accueil des participant-es et café

13 h 45 Accueil par Marie-Élisabeth Henneau, Présidente de la Siefar

14 h 00 Introduction, par Marie-Élisabeth Henneau et Rotraud von Kulessa.

La Querelle entre la France et l’Europe

Présidence : Raphaelle Legrand

14 h 30 Mathilde Aubague (Université de Bourgogne), « Éléments pour une représentation diachronique des discours sur la femme dans le récit comique en Europe. »

15 h 10 Catherine Deutsch (Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne), « Musique et "excellence des femmes" entre Renaissance et Baroque »
15 h 50 Pause-café
16h 30 Verushka Lieutenant-Duval (Université Concordia, Montréal), « L’equus eroticus ou l’image de la femme qui chevauche l’homme dans la gravure européenne au XVIe siècle »
17 h 10 Rotraud von Kulessa (Universität Augsburg), « Querelle des femmes et Querelle du roman à Venise au 18e siècle »

Soirée libre

Vendredi 25 Novembre 2011

MATIN

La Querelle dans le Nord de l’Europe

Présidence : Margarete Zimmermann

08 h 45 Accueil des participant-es et café

9 h 00 Marina Allal (Freie Universität Berlin), « L’impact de la Révolution française sur le discours sur l’inégalité des femmes et sur l’émancipation juive en France et en Allemagne – une analyse comparative. »

9 h 40 Juergen Siess (Université de Caen), « L’égalité des sexes au temps de la Révolution. Le discours et l’imaginaire des femmes en France et en Allemagne. »

10 h 20 Pause-café

11 h 00 Monika Malinowska (Université de Varsovie), « La Querelle en Pologne. »

11 h 40 Pause Déjeuner

APRÈS-MIDI

Présidence : Armelle Dubois-Nayt

14 h 00 Claire Gheeraert-Graffeuille (Université de Rouen), « La réception du traité Declamatio denobilitate et praecellenti foeminei sexus de Corneille Agrippa en Angleterre aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. »

14 h 40 Natascha Lee (Princeton University), « Les femmes et leur image »

15 h 20 Pause-café

16 h 00 Table Ronde, avec Monica Bolufer (Université de Valencia) et Montserrat Cabré (Université de Cantabria), Daria Perocco (Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia), Margarete Zimmermann (FU Berlin) : « La recherche au sujet de la Querelle en Europe et dans le Monde. »

19 h 30 Repas de Gala : Restaurant Le Coupe-Chou

Samedi 26 Novembre 2011

MATIN

Les Lieux de la querelle en Europe

Présidence : Patrick Snyder

08 h 45 Accueil des participant-es et café

9 h 00 Juliette Dor et Marie-Élisabeth Henneau (Université de Liège), « Aventurières de Dieu sous le regard des clercs : la Querelle des femmes dans l’Église du XVe siècle entre Angleterre, France et Pays-Bas. »

9 h 40 Derval Conroy (University College Dublin), « La politique de l’image dans les livres-galeries des années 1640 : enjeux et destins de gravures. »

10 h 20 Pause-café

11 h 00 Danielle Haase-Dubosc (Columbia University in Paris), « Lady Montagu. »

11h40 Discussion finale / Clôture du colloque

12 h 40 Autour d’un verre de l’amitié

* Chaque intervention prévoit une communication de 30 minutes suivie d’un temps de discussion de 10 minutes.

En savoir plus sur le programme "Revisiter la Querelle des femmes"

SIEFAR

Société Internationale pour l’Étude des Femmes de l’Ancien Régime

www.siefar.org

contact

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/humanities/staff/index.html

Salary: Home/EU fees

The Department of Humanities has two full fee Research Studentships for April 2012. They will be awarded in one of the following areas:

• Classical Civilisation
• History
• Theology and Religious Studies

These studentships provide a valuable opportunity to study at an institution in a period of rapid evolution with a strong commitment to research. Roehampton University is driven by an ambitious academic strategy aimed at embedding a culture of excellence, innovation and aspiration in both teaching and research. The Department of Humanities supports this strategy by providing a stimulating environment for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research.

To find out more information, contact the Graduate School on 020 8392 3460 / 020 8392 3631 or via email research

Application packs are available on the Graduate School’s webpage, and the link is below:

http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/graduateschool/prospectiveresearchstudents/howtoapply/index.html

Please note that CVs alone will not be considered.

Closing date, no later than 5.00pm: Friday 27 January 2012

Women, The Arts, and Activism
a Conference at Sarah Lawrence College (15 minutes north of Manhattan)
Friday-Saturday, March 2-3, 2012
Free and Open to the Public

Historically, women have been seen and represented as protectors and
transmitters of culture, yet, although some women gained recognition as
artists, many more struggled to be seen, heard, and taken seriously. As in
other disciplines, women bring their own diverse voices and points of view
to the canvass, writing table, music stand, stage, and street. From
Renaissance painters to contemporary hip hop and performance artists, women
represent their particular journeys as singular personalities and as members
of various groups. Whoever they are and from wherever they hail, their
expression expands our global understanding of women’s history.
Additionally, The women’s history conference at its core is about women’s
activism. Throughout time, women have used their artistic expression as a
method of activism. This year we will explore the ways in which women have
used their art as means of liberation.

We invite the submission of proposals for papers, panels, workshops and
performances that express the extremely diverse nature of the story of women
in the arts and their activism, from ancient to modern/postmodern from all
areas of the arts.

Specific topics may include, but are not limited to:

Women in the Black Arts Movement

Women’s Social Protest Expressed Through the Arts

Arts and Race

Women, Art and Sexuality

The Role of Women’s Artistic Expression in War and Revolution
Women’s Artistic Expression Across Cultures

Debating Canon

Women in Literature

Please include a short description of each presentation and a one-page c.v.
for each presenter. Proposals for whole panels or workshops are especially
welcome, but we will also consider individual papers.

Deadline: Monday, December 5, 2011

Send proposals to: tjames<mailto:tjames>
(email submissions are preferred)
Tara James, Associate Director
Graduate Program in Women’s History
Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way, Bronxville, New York 10708
914-395-2405