Category Archives: Topic_1968

CfP: Sexual Violence in Militaries and Wars: Comparative and Long-term Perspectives (01/2027, Potsdam); by: 31.03.2026

The third international conference organised by the Research Network on Military, War and Gender/Diversity (MKGD) and the Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw) (Web)

Time: 20.-22.01.2027
Venue: ZMSBw, Potsdam
Proposals by: 31.03.2026

Theme and Goals: In recent decades, sexual violence has become an increasingly important topic for historians and social scientists researching gender, the military and war. Current studies emphasise that sexual violence in military and war contexts encompasses a wide range of behaviours. Next to rape, these include sexual mutilation, sexualised torture, sexual humiliation, forced prostitution as well as coerced pregnancies and abortions. Although victims of sexual violence are primarily women, commonly portrayed as civilians, they can also be men of any age and may belong to the military themselves. Sexual violence is not only practised by men in the military, but by women too.
Research also indicates that sexual violence can fulfil various context-specific functions. Rape has not only been a common practice of victorious soldiers and officers, but also was used by army leaders as a weapon of war or a war strategy. The motives and functions depend on the specific historical context. Also the frequency with which civilians are raped by military personnel has varied considerably over time and in different regions during armed conflicts, as has the way in which it is perceived and remembered. This is why it is crucial to understand the historically changing conditions of violent practices, and to carefully distinguish between public discourse on rape, its representation in art and culture, the use of rape in war propaganda, its regulation in military and state laws, and its place in everyday war practices.
The third international conference organised by the Research Network on Military, War and Gender/Diversity (MKGD) and the Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw) will examine the issue of sexual violence perpetrated by military and paramilitary forces, taking a comparative approach across regions and time periods. Our aim is to explore conflicts in Europe, North America and beyond from the Early Modern period to the present day. We appreciate contextualised case studies, as well as diachronic and synchronic comparisons. In particular, we welcome proposals on the … read more and source (Web).

Source: HSozKult

CfP: Women in Late Socialism: Gender Orders, Agency, and Transnational Entanglements (09/2026, Berlin); by: 31.03.2026

Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften, Humboldt Univ. of Berlin, Anna Ivanova, Irina Makhalova, and Oksana Nagornaia (Web)

Time: 17.-19.09.2026
Venue: Berlin
Proposals by: 31.03.2026

The Chair of East European History at Humboldt Univ. of Berlin is pleased to invite paper proposals for the conference “Women in Late Socialism: Gender Orders, Agency, and Transnational Entanglements,” sponsored by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung). At the core of the conference are women as historical actors in late socialist societies, whose spheres of action oscillated between state control, institutional participation, and everyday self-assertion. The conference aims to examine how female agency under late socialism was shaped and enacted in the domains of political engagement and withdrawal, transnational Cold War spaces and networks, knowledge production, and the politics of the body.
The conference examines how the broader problem of subjects’ incorporation into socialist political regimes was articulated in women’s lives, and how gender reshaped the dynamics of integration, regulation, and resistance. Moreover, it aims to examine transnational women’s activities and networks during the Cold War, particularly within the framework of international women’s organizations, academic exchange programs, state-organized forms of tourism, and networks of cooperation between socialist countries. Women’s expertise and knowledge production under late socialism – particularly in fields traditionally defined as male domains – constitute another key area for examining female subjectivity. Finally, the focus on the politics of the body amidst demographic concerns, anxieties about labor productivity, and proclaimed commitments to gender equality allows to examine how women’s bodies were turned into a political project. Analyzing similarities and differences across discourses, institutions, lifeworlds, and female subjectivities in various socialist countries highlights both the specificities of individual cases and the broader dynamics they share. Read more and source … (Web)

Source: HSozKult

CfP: Divided in Partitions, United in Demands? Women’s Movements in the Habsburg, Prussian and Russian Partition Areas in the 19th and 20th Centuries (09/2026, Warsaw); by: 15.03.2026

Paula Lange (Univ. of Vienna) (Web) and Michael Zok (German Historical Institute Warsaw – GHI Warsaw) (PDF)

Time: 17.–19.09.2026
Venue: GHI Warsaw/Univ. of Warsaw
Proposals by: 15.03.2026

From the mid-19th century onward, women’s associations of all nationalities began forming in the Habsburg, Prussian and Russian Empires. Polish women’s activism was particularly divided by the three partitions which also had their own imperial and national logics influencing the agency of women in the given territory. Political activism was affected by increasing female working power and expanding educational opportunities for women in the second half of the 19th century. Women following socialist and egalitarian ideas organized themselves just as bourgeois women did. Activism was influenced by factors such as class, religious affiliation and ethnicity. Some associations explicitly advocated for women’s suffrage, while others were mainly involved in charitable causes. Many associations were committed to improving educational opportunities and working conditions for women and girls. Some associations also explicitly campaigned for improvement in the areas of maternity protection, sexual reform or moral issues. This activism was often connected to processes of industrialization and migration of women to newly-built factories and growing cities, but women organized themselves also in rural areas.
To date, research on Polish and other women’s movements in the three partitioned areas has mainly focused on individual associations and activists. This research often remains within the context of national history, situated solely within the given imperial context. However, transnational, resp. transimperial perspectives focusing on the connections between Polish women’s associations or between Polish and other women’s movements (e.g. Austrian, German, Jewish, Ukrainian/Ruthenian) within and across the borders of the partitioned territories are rare. Our aim is to address this research gap and invite scholars who focus on (cross-border) contacts and transimperial networks within the women’s movement(s) of diverse origin or political affiliation to take part in our conference Continue reading →

CfP: Subverting Hierarchies through Women’s Intellectual History in Eastern Europe in the Long Twentieth Century (Publication); by: 17.04.2026

The journal „History of European Ideas“ (Web); Isidora Grubački (Institute of Contemporary History, Ljubljana), Zsófia Lóránd (Univ. of Vienna), and Emily Steinhauer (independent scholar) (Web) 

Proposals by: 17.04.2026

In Eastern Europe, the long twentieth century—the period roughly between the 1890s and the 2000s—was marked by struggles for women’s rights, abruptly changing gender regimes, and a maelstrom of diverse as well as often monolithically dominant -isms. In these various contexts, women intervened into various male-centered discourses from a women-centered position, while writing, thinking, and arguing about processes of emancipation, education, (forced) modernization, the break with the traditional rural community, and many other themes which speak not only toward European but global processes too. As a recent collection of texts and contexts from the history of feminism and women’s rights in East Central Europe has shown, women’s interventions in the public sphere encompassed topics including war, sexuality, and the politicization of motherhood, to name only three. Yet, women from Central and Eastern Europe still remain marginal in the fields of European and global intellectual history, falling between the cracks of studies on the Western part of the Northern hemisphere, but also those, still largely male-dominated, of Central and Eastern Europe and even of the Global South. This omission means that the contributions of women from Eastern and Central Europe remain largely absent—not only in relation to the experience of the decades-long emancipation project of real existing socialism, but also in terms of longer-term negotiations with other ideologies such as agrarianism, nationalism, and anarchism, as well as the ways in which identity and belonging have been shaped by migration and shifting borders in this post-imperial space. These dynamics make the region specific and relevant as a region on a global scale.
This special journal issue examines women’s intellectual history in Central and Eastern Europe throughout the long twentieth century. However, rather than merely addressing an existing gap, it seeks to challenge and redefine the field as such by engaging with carefully selected case studies of women’s political thought in the region. The inclusion of women from Central and Eastern Europe into intellectual historical investigations means revisiting the gender of who produces intellectual discourses worthy of attention, from where they Continue reading →

CfP: Conservative Women: Politics and Gender from 19th-21th century (07/2026, Antwerp); by: 01.02.2026

Josephine Hoegaerts and Matthijs Lok (Univ. of Amsterdam); Henk de Smaele (Univ. of Antwerp)

Time: 02.-03.07.2026
Venue: Univ. of Antwerp
Proposals by: 01.02.2026

In our workshop we will explore the role of women in conservative political movements since the nineteenth century. To what extent is female involvement in right wing, nationalist and conservative movements a new phenomenon or can longer patterns and lineages be discerned? What were and are the motivations of women to take part in these movements and what are their strategies? Do they participate despite or because of the often explicitly patriarchal and masculinist rhetoric of these movements? How should we evaluate the impact female involvement has on right wing political movements?
All over the world the rise of conservative, hard right and illiberal politics seem to threaten the progress in gender equality in the past decades and the return of traditional gender hierarchies. ‘Traditional’ female roles (‘tradwives’) and masculine role models are ubiquitous on social media and other internetfora. On first sight, it is all the more surprising that many women are active in these hard right movements and ideologies, be it as party leaders (for instance Georgia Meloni, Marine LePen, Kemi Badenoch) or influencers (Eva Vlaardingenbroek). In our workshop we will explore the role of women in conservative political movements since the nineteenth century. To what extent is female involvement in right wing, nationalist and conservative movements a new phenomenon or can longer patterns and lineages be discerned? What were and are the motivations of women to take part in these movements and what are their strategies? Do they participate despite or because of the often explicitly patriarchal and masculinist rhetoric of these movements? How should we evaluate the impact female involvement has on right wing political movements?
In this workshop we aim to bring together approaches from the study of conservatism and the (radical) right with insights from gender and women’s history and politics. Our main focus is Europe and the countries that form today the European Union, but global perspectives are also welcome.

Specific topics (not limitative) Continue reading →

CfP: Queer Ecologies Across Socialisms (10/2026, Regensburg); by: 15.02.2026

Univ. of Regensburg; Martyna Miernecka (Web) and Paweł Matusz (Web)

Time: 15.-16.10.2026
Venue: Univ. of Regensburg
Proposals by: 15.02.2026

In literary and arts research on socialist worlds, both queer studies and environmental histories have been expanding – yet we still lack approaches that would systematically integrate these strands across global state socialisms. This conference responds to that gap by inviting work that reads queer practices alongside institutional and environmental policies and traces the queer ecological impulses emerging from socialist contexts across the globe.
As a conceptual starting point, we draw on queer ecology as an interdisciplinary field that explores how environmental thinking and queer critique inform each other, and how ideas of “nature” and sexuality are co-produced in culture, politics, and everyday life. Mortimer-Sandilands and Erickson describe its central task as to “probe the intersections of sex and nature,” in ways that reshape both sexual politics and environmental politics (Mortimer-Sandilands and Erickson 2010). Following Nicole Seymour, we ask: “What counts as ‘natural’ – and why?” – not only in relation to gender and sexuality, but also to environment, race, immigration status, health status, ability, and class (Seymour 2013). In this view, environments can both naturalize norms and become sites for challenging them, opening space to read LGBTQIA2S+ histories and cultures as entangled with more-than-human worlds.
Why focus on global state socialisms? First, we want to move beyond the moralizing narrative that treats socialism as a single story of ecological catastrophe, and instead compare how environmental damage and ecological governance were produced within broader twentieth-century modernizations. (Engel-Di Mauro 2021) Second, socialist worlds also generated early debates about the environmental and social costs of economic growth – debates that resonated across both capitalist and socialist states, complicating the image of a monolithic socialist public sphere. (Parfianowicz 2022) Third, these contexts invite new questions about the entanglements of human and non-human in socialist states – opening space for eco-socialist and proto-degrowth genealogies, as well as for environmental-justice perspectives attuned to inequality.
Placing queer scholarship on state socialist worlds in dialogue with Continue reading →

Vortrag und Zeitzeug*innengespräch: Maria Bühner, Bärbel Klässner und Elke Prinz: „Auf- und Umbrüche im großen Strudel“. Lesbisch-feministische Perspektiven auf die Transformation, 13.03.2026, Berlin

Auftaktveranstaltung L*Ost 2026; Sonntags-Club Berlin e.V. (Web) in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv und Bibliothek e.V. (Web) und dem EWA (Erster Weiblicher Aufbruch) Frauenzentrum e.V. (Web)

Zeit: Fr., 13.03.2026, 19.00 Uhr
Ort: EWA Frauenzentrum, Prenzlauer Allee 6, Berlin

„Dann aber überschlugen sich die politischen Ereignisse und wir gerieten mit in den großen Strudel… Es war faszinierend und beängstigend zugleich.“ Mit diesen Worten erinnerte sich Bärbel Klässner, die Mitherausgeberin des Jenaer Samisdats frau anders, 25 Jahre später an 1989/90. Im Herbst 1989 begann in Ostdeutschland eine Umwälzung, die weit über das Ende des bisherigen politischen Systems hinausging. Der Mauerfall war ein Moment der Politisierung und Mobilisierung der feministisch-lesbischen Bewegung in Ostdeutschland. Doch bereits früh zeichnete sich ab, dass in dieser Umwälzung die Forderungen und Rechte von Frauen wie auch von Queers und anderen Minderheiten marginalisiert wurden und sie besonders stark von der Massenarbeitslosigkeit betroffen waren. Der Vortrag spürt den Veränderungen im Großen wie der Gründung des ostdeutschen Unabhängigen Frauenverbandes ebenso nach wie dem veränderten Alltag und den sich daraus ergebenden ganz praktischen Problemen.
Im Zeitzeug*innengespräch wird es unter anderem um die Auflösung der Strukturen der inoffiziellen Frauen*Lesbenbewegung der DDR, der Entstehung neuer offiziell arbeitender Zentren sowie den Begegnungen zwischen den Frauen*Lesbenbewegungen aus Ost und West während der Umbruchszeit gehen. Wir freuen uns sehr für dieses Gespräch Elke Prinz und Bärbel Klässner begrüßen zu können.

Die Veranstaltung ist der Auftakt der Reihe L*Ost 2026 und wird vom Kulturfond des Berliner Senats und der Hannchen-Mehrzweck-Stiftung gefördert. L*Ost 2026 wird veranstaltet vom Sonntags-Club Berlin e.V. in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv und Bibliothek e.V. und dem EWA (Erster Weiblicher Aufbruch) Frauenzentrum e.V. Continue reading →

CfP: Studies in Gender, Violence, and Wars (New Book Series); by: –

New Berghahn Book Series; Editors: Karen Hagemann, Isabel Heinemann, Jasper Heinzen,Thomas Kühne, and Elissa Mailänder

Proposals by: –

Wars and Military Violence cannot be understood without the analytical category of ‘gender’. The same is true for the masculine corporate culture of armed forces, and of the sexual violence perpetrated by soldiers and officers, both within and outside the military. The difficult debates about ‘gender-neutral’ military service triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in several European NATO powers, the still contested involvement of women in combat in an increasing number of armed forces, and the disproportionate number of casualties among women and children in the current wars in Ukraine and Sudan and the Israel-Palestine conflict all make this clear. Therefore, research into the subject of gender, military culture, violence, and war holds not just academic but also social and political importance. The relevance of gender is particularly evident in the current culture wars about diversity, equality, and inclusion, and the efforts of the Republican-led government in the United States to curb the profile of women and LGBTQ+ service members in their armed forces.
Despite a tradition of international and interdisciplinary women’s and gender studies on the military and war dating back to the 1980s, the state of research in various disciplines continues to reveal significant gaps. This new book series initiated by the research network on Military, War and Gender/Diversity seeks to create new opportunities for international and interdisciplinary dialogue by promoting the systematic study of the relationship between gender/diversity, the military, war, and violence as a methodology and subject of research. We understand ‘gender’ as a crucible of intersectional diversity that, in conjunction with social origin, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, sexuality, disability, religion, and ideological orientation shapes individual and collective identities. Gender is therefore of great relevance for the study of armed forces, military conflicts, and (il)legitimate violence, including sexual and sexualized violence.
We invite submissions for monographs and edited volumes from cultural studies, history, international relations, and the social sciences that address the broadly defined subject of gender, violence, and war across a broad chronological arc spanning early modern, modern, and contemporary history. The geographical remit of the series is global. Continue reading →

CfP for The Handbook of Ecofeminism (Publication); by: 13.02.2026

Nicole C. Dittmer and Douglas Vakoch

Proposals by: 13.02.2026

In 1974, Françoise d’Eaubonne coined the term ecofeminism in Le féminisme ou la mort, foregrounding the intertwined domination of women and nature and calling for the liberation of both from systems of exploitation. Since its emergence, ecofeminism has inspired scholars and activists across disciplines and global contexts.
The Handbook of Ecofeminism (hereafter The Handbook), edited by Douglas Vakoch and Nicole C. Dittmer, seeks to honor and advance this dynamic movement through a collection of original essays on leading ecofeminist thinkers and practitioners from six continents. The volume opens with foundational ecofeminists and environmental activists such as Vandana Shiva, Wangari Maathai, and Dolores Huerta, and concludes with posthumanist theorists including Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, and Stacy Alaimo. Between these sections, contributors examine how ecofeminist perspectives foster more holistic scientific paradigms, promote ethical responsibility toward nonhuman animals, and cultivate affirmative spiritual practices. Collectively, the volume demonstrates that ecofeminism is not only a critical framework for exposing injustice but also a generative force for imagining and enacting emancipatory futures. This comprehensive handbook will be of significant interest to scholars and students in ecofeminism, women’s and gender studies, and the environmental humanities.
Additional chapter proposals are invited to complement more than 40 confirmed chapters for The Handbook of Ecofeminism, scheduled for publication in 2027. Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract outlining the proposed influential figure, their impact on the field of ecofeminism, and their primary areas of specialization. Abstracts should articulate a clear and compelling thesis that highlights the purpose and contribution of the proposed chapter. Submissions should also include a 200-word contributor biography, a list of keywords, and five key references.
All contributors must have completed a PhD. Only previously unpublished work will be considered, and the editors seek a broadly international and diverse group of scholarly contributors. This CFP welcomes contributions from a wide range of scholarly disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and other professional fields. Read more and source … (Web)

CfP: Populärkultur transnational – Europa in den langen 1960er Jahren (04/2026, Luxembourg); bis: 31.01.2026

Andreas Fickers, Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, Univ. du Luxembourg; Dietmar Hüser, Univ. des Saarlandes; Popkul60-Forschungsgruppe (Web)

Zeit: 15.-17.04.2026
Ort: Univ. du Luxembourg
Einreichfrist: 31.01.2026

Eine Geschichte der Populärkultur hat lange einen schweren akademischen Stand gehabt. Auch wenn sich dies seit den 1990er Jahren in vielen europäischen Ländern langsam zu verändern begann, blieben doch die gesellschaftlichen und politischen Bedeutungsgehalte populärkultureller Phänomene, Produkte und Praktiken oftmals weiterhin verkannt, gerade unter transnationalen Gesichtspunkten. Vor diesem Hintergrund haben sich 2014 Historiker:innen der Univ. des Saarlandes und der Univ. Luxemburg zusammengetan, das Problem diskutiert, Tagungen veranstaltet und Bücher publiziert, um bei der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft und dem Fonds National de la Recherche das Einrichten einer binationalen Forschungsgruppe „Populärkultur transnational – Europa in den langen 1960er Jahren“ (Popkult60) zu beantragen. Das Ende 2017 bewilligte Vorhaben umfasste in Förderphase I (2018-2021/22) zunächst sieben, mit Beginn der Förderphase II (2022/22-2026) dann zehn weitere Doktorand:innen- bzw. Post-Doc-Projekte, die sich mit grenzüberschreitenden Transfers populärer Kulturformen zwischen mehreren westeuropäischen Gesellschaften beschäftigen.
Zentrale Ziele bestehen darin, die besonderen Erklärungspotenziale grenzüberschreitender, häufig asymmetrischer populärkultureller Transfers für gesellschaftliche und politische Umbrüche auszuloten, zugleich gängige Vorstellungen einer Amerikanisierung europäischer Gesellschaften zu relativieren und mit damals ebenfalls anschwellenden Europäisierungsprozessen abzugleichen. Das Themenspektrum reicht von deutsch-französisch-europäischen Musikverflechtungen und kommerziellen Radioformaten, über TV-Kinderserien, Unterhaltungsshows, Comicliteratur, postkoloniale Popkulturen und populäre Tourismusdiskurse bis hin zum Bewerben von Radios, Fernsehern und Plattenspielern; weitere Studien behandeln Kulturpraktiken in Jugendkulturen, in Landkommunen, im Rahmen von Gesellschaftsspielen und Amateurfilmclubs, von Jahrmärkten, Tanzbällen und Fußball-Fankulturen. Continue reading →