Friday 9th June 2023
Hosted by Centre for Gender, Identity and Subjectivity
University of Oxford
Deadline: 3 April 2023, 5pm
Women have been involved in wars for thousands of years. Greek women fought in the Athenian and Spartan armies, and they have been present in various capacities in countless conflicts all over the world ever since. The relationships between women and war are many and multi-faceted. Women impact wars and are impacted by them. They participate in wars as soldiers and civilians, out of choice or out of necessity. Women survive wars and are killed in them. They subjectively experience war and share these experiences – or they don’t. Some are remembered and memorialised, and many are not. Women take political stances toward war and are involved in peacebuilding to avoid it and lead the way in cleaning up the chaos when conflict has concluded. War has long been considered a masculine realm, in which women remain peripheral and preserve the reality of home which the men are fighting and dying to protect. This conventional view of war, however, is outdated and problematic, and the gendered reality of war is far more detailed, varied and complex.
This one-day graduate student/early career researcher-led workshop will focus on the history of women and war through a wide lens, both examining and challenging existing and convention-bound theories, ideas, methodologies and approaches to the subject. Presentations can take any preferred format. The workshop is intended to be an ideal space for presenting works-in-progress, sounding out ideas and getting feedback and input from other junior researchers.
Submissions will be grouped into themed panels and workshops sessions, and participants will be asked to prepare a presentation or paper of up to 20 minutes. All presentations will be followed by time for questions and discussion. There will be no need to pre-circulate papers.
We invite presentations and papers focused on women and war in any historical period or location and encourage presenters to take a creative approach.
Please submit abstracts to both workshop organisers by 3 April 2023, 5pm
Participants will be notified of being selected by 1 May 2023
The workshop will be held in Oxford on the 9 June 2023.
Should you require further information, please contact Dr Sarah-Louise Miller sarah-louise.miller@history.ox.ac.uk or Emmi Joensuu emmi.joensuu@oriel.ox.ac.uk.
All submissions should include:
- The names and institutional affiliations of presenters
- A short bio (1-2 paragraphs)
- Title of the presentation/paper
- An abstract of the presentation/paper (up to 300 words)
- An indication of the presentation format (paper, PowerPoint presentation etc.) and any equipment that will be needed to deliver it
