Category Archives: Category_Calls for Papers

CfP: Memory and democracy: Family socialisation, legacies, transnational influences & political attitudes (04/2027, Berlin); by: 15.10.2026

Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), ERC Starting Grant project „Moving Russia(ns): Intergenerational Transmission of Memories Abroad and at Home (MoveMeRU)“ (Web)

Time: 21.-23.04.2027
Venue: Berlin
Proposals by: 15.10.2026

The questioning of established historical narratives and the instrumentalisation of history have been central features of the democratic backsliding witnessed in many countries over the last two decades. Contested narratives about the past circulate within Europe and beyond, and they have received growing scholarly attention for example in the context of the overt use of historical claims in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the rise of populist radical right parties across Europe, and changes in US politics under the Trump administration. Illiberal memory norms gain social traction, as authoritarian leaders and challengers can instrumentalise history in a way that also points to deeper shifts in collective memory. Shifts in what and how events are remembered are now strikingly visible across many countries. All of this is contributing to the profound crisis of legitimacy and capacity that characterises many democratic systems. The ways in which interpretations of the past relate to political attitudes and views on democracy remain, however, poorly understood.
In this concluding conference of the ERC Starting Grant project MoveMeRU, we aim to focus on the societal dimension in the relationship between memory and democracy. Specifically, we invite contributions that devote attention to three elements that help explain how perspectives on the past are transmitted and translated into political attitudes.
First, while memory and political attitudes are intuitively interlinked, the evidence of what kind of memory is conducive to democratic practices and attitudes remains scant. How societies engage with history is indicative of the quality of their democracy, while the capacity to self-critically deal with one’s past might be one factor in building resilient and inclusive democratic societies. We are particularly interested in how engagements with the past relate to attitudes towards democratic institutions, political participation, and democratic norms. Such dynamics depend, second, on family socialisation and legacies, which shape how an individual – or group – relates to history and politics. Such legacies may emerge from traumatic experiences such as Continue reading →

CfP: Dis_abling Politics: Die anwesende Abwesenheit von Behinderung in der Politik(wissenschaft) | On the absent presence of disability in politics and Political Science (Publikation); bis: 30.11.2026

Femina Politica – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft; Mai-Anh Boger, Gundula Ludwig und Carolin Zieringer (Web)

Einreichfrist: 30.11.2026

Bislang sind Auseinandersetzungen mit Behinderung in der deutschsprachigen Politikwissenschaft rar: Menschen mit Behinderungen und/oder chronischen Erkrankungen werden wenig in politikwissenschaftlichen Analysen und Theoretisierungen berücksichtigt. Ebenso verhält es sich mit der kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit Konstruktionen vermeintlicher körperlicher oder intellektueller ‚Normalität‘. Ableismus und Saneismus als gesellschaftliche Ordnungsmuster, die Rolle von Behinderung als Differenz- und Identitätskategorie und die damit einhergehenden historischen und gegenwärtigen politischen Kämpfe werden selten systematisch betrachtet. Abwesend ist Behinderung auch als Name für etwas, das sich den Konzeptionen von politischem Handeln und von Institutionen in der (feministischen) Politikwissenschaft entziehen kann. Dennoch ist Behinderung in der beschriebenen Abwesenheit anwesend, nämlich als Verandertes, Verdrängtes, Verworfenes, Bedrohliches in der bestehenden herrschaftlichen politischen Ordnung und ihrer Analyse. Weiterlesen … (PDF)

Version in English: Thus far, engagement with disability has been limited in German speaking political science: people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses have received little attention in political science analyses and theorizing. This applies, too, to critical engagement with constructions of what supposedly constitutes bodily or intellectual ’normality‘. Ableism and sanism as systems of social ordering, and the role of disability as a category of difference and identity have been rarely examined in a systematic manner, especially in a German speaking, political science context. This results in a lack of understanding of its resistance to established conceptions of political action and institutions within (feminist) political science. Yet, in its absence, disability is present – manifesting as the ‚Other‘, as that which is repressed, discarded or even threatening, given the dominant political order and its hegemonic mode of analysis. Read more … (PDF)

Quelle: female-l@jku.at

CfP: Citizenship, belonging, and emancipation in the 19th and 20th centuries (05-06/2027, Prague); by: 15.12.2026

Prague Center for Romani Histories, Charles Univ. (Web) and ERC project “Inclusive History of East-Central Europe: Mid-19th Century to Present” (Web); Dalen Wakeley-Smith (Washington Univ. in Saint Louis); Vita Zalar (Charles Univ.); and Marko Pecak (Central European Univ.)

Time: 31.05.-02.06.2027
Venue: Villa Lanna, Prague
Proposals by: 15.12.2026

Questions around citizenship and belonging have marked the emancipatory struggles of marginalized communities in the 1800s and 1900s. Citizenship was (and still is) a deeply personal and embodied experience. A dizzying amount of paperwork, visual evidence, and documentation acted as a gatekeeper to healthcare, work, property, education, welfare, and political representation. At times claiming citizenship exposed marginalized individuals to repressive measures of the state. In other cases citizenship enabled mass participation and expansion of protections for communities formerly excluded from national belonging. This complicated dance of belonging has shaped the way formal and informal citizenship has expanded and contracted throughout the 1800s and 1900s.
This conference brings together histories of citizenship impacting different marginalized populations. As three core populations which have been left out of full citizenship across central and eastern Europe, we especially encourage submissions on the interrelated struggles of Roma, Jews, and people with disabilities. Papers should explore the material and discursive connections between multiple groups, and the different strategies utilized by states, organizations, and individuals to advocate for citizenship access, and the change in statuses throughout time. We also invite scholars who explore personal histories and the bottom-up agency of members of marginalized communities advocating for their rights as citizens. While we welcome scholars exploring questions around citizenship, belonging, and emancipation globally, we will prioritize case studies from Central and Eastern Europe.
The aim of this conference is to bring multiple fields of historical inquiry into conversation with one another: including, but not limited to Romani histories, Jewish histories, and histories of people with disability. While we will prioritize papers that address one or more of these three fields, we remain open and welcoming to papers that address other underrepresented populations. Continue reading →

CfP: Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade (05/2027, Edinburgh); by: 20.12.2026

Univ. of Edinburgh; Elise Watson (Web)

Time: 06.-07.05.2027
Venue: Univ. of Edinburgh
Proposals by: 20.12.2026

Over the past two decades, feminist bibliography and women’s book history have firmly established female active participation across the early modern European book trade (1450-1800) — from widow printers operating presses for decades to wives and daughters sustaining household print economies and securing printing dynasties. However, female trade workers are still frequently treated as singular exceptions. Organized by Elise Watson, this hybrid conference seeks to contextualize these figures within their broader collaborative and competitive networks, applying explicit gender analysis to early modern print culture.
The conference will also host the official launch of a new collaborative database mapping women in the early modern book trade. Core Themes:

  • Gendered Networks: Intersections of trade networks with familial, friendly, religious, political, and intellectual ties.
  • Identity & Representation: Female solidarity, self-representation in imprints, and gendered paratextual strategies.
  • Legal & Structural Frameworks: Guild participation, inheritance laws, economic structures, and class dynamics.
  • Digital Approaches: Leveraging digital humanities tools to map and document historical female networks.

Submit paper proposals (maximum 20 minutes) consisting of a title, 300-word abstract, and 150-word biography to elise.watson@ed.ac.uk by 20 December 2026. The conference will be held in person at the Univ. of Edinburgh with online attendance options available. Accepted papers will be published in a volume of conference proceedings (submission target: end of 2027).

Klicktipp: In February 2024, Elise Watson appeared on an episode of BBC Free Thinking (Radio 3) on „The Dutch Connection: The early days of the printed book“, available online (46 minutes) (Web)

Source: Facebook: Gender History of Central and Eastern Europe’s page

CfP: Geschlechter und Geschlecht. Heraldik, Genealogie und Gender vom 15. bis 21. Jahrhundert (06/2027, Würzburg); bis: 31.10.2026

Forschungsatelier des interdisziplinären Forschungsnetzwerks „Geschlecht · Macht · Staat“ (Web); Lea Reiff (Deutsche Philologie, Julius-Maximilians-Univ. Würzburg) (Web) und Sigrid Ruby (Kunstgeschichte, Justus Liebig Univ. Gießen) (Web)

Zeit: 17.-18.06.2027
Ort: Würzburg
Einreichfrist: 31.10.2026

Bei der Repräsentation und Legitimation dynastisch strukturierter Herrschaft spielt das multimediale und multimodale Zusammenspiel verschiedener Zeichensysteme eine zentrale Rolle. Zu diesen gehört auch und insbesondere das der Heraldik. Wappen und andere heraldische Zeichen können abwesende Körper und Geschlechter sowohl bezeichnen als auch vergegenwärtigen, genealogisch verankern und konkretisieren, zueinander in Beziehung setzen und verbinden. Insofern heraldische Zeichen der Medialisierung eines „transkörperliche[n] Erbrecht[s]“ (Belting 2001, 121) dienen, geben sie der genealogischen Ordnung sichtbare Gestalt. Auf Schriftdokumenten, Bildern und kunsthandwerklichen Artefakten ebenso wie auf Gebrauchsgegenständen, in der Architektur und literarischen Texten kennzeichnen, umreißen und ordnen sie familiäre bzw. dynastische Herrschaftsräume. Heraldische Zeichen und bildhafte Porträts verweisen „kontrapunktisch aufeinander, wenn sie beide Male ein und dieselbe Person bezeug[en]“ (Belting 2001, 122; siehe dazu auch Schmidt-Voges 2026). Diese Person ist der leibhaftige ‚body natural‘ als temporärer Träger des Erbrechts, der mit einem fortdauernden Familienverband bzw. ‚body politic‘ verbunden ist. Heraldische Logiken können auch die relative Positionierung von Körpern im Raum bedingen und somit die Stände-, Geschlechter- und Genderordnung (de)stabilisieren. Infolge ihrer grundsätzlichen Mobilität verfügen heraldische Zeichen und Symbole über keinen primären Kontext. Sie können sich aber aus den ursprünglichen historischen Bezügen lösen und – gemeinsam mit den genealogischen Legitimationsmustern, mit denen sie korrespondieren – ein reiches, transmediales Nachleben führen, das sich von der Theaterbühne über den Roman bis zu Film- und Serienproduktionen der Gegenwart erstreckt (zur mittelalterlichen Literatur sowie allg. zur „literarischen Heraldik“ bzw. zu einem „heraldischen Code“ s. Hoder 2025; zu einzelnen Filmen und Serien des 20. und 21. Jh. siehe beispielhaft Birkle/Hergenhan 2026; Reiff 2026, 220–224).
Fragen der Repräsentation, Körperlichkeit und Medialität im Continue reading →

CfP: Women Between Nation and Emancipation: Voluntary Associations in Multi-ethnic Societies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (03/2027, Ljubljana); by: 30.11.2026

Institute for Ethnic Studies; Ljubljana (Web)

Time: 10.-11.03.2027
Venue: Ljubljana
Proposals by: 30.11.2026

The “long nineteenth century” witnessed many transformative developments that shaped modern Europe, among which the rise of nationalism and the emergence of women’s emancipation movements were particularly significant. Although often studied separately, these processes were deeply interconnected. Across Europe, women participated actively in national movements and in a wide range of voluntary associations, including cultural, educational, charitable, and national organisations. These associations provided important spaces for civic engagement, sociability, and public action, while also contributing to the strengthening of national communities. In many cases, engagement in national activism provided women with one of their first opportunities for public participation, important organisational responsibilities, and political action.
At the same time, the relationship between nationalism and women’s emancipation was complex and often contradictory. National movements opened new spaces for female agency while simultaneously assigning women specific roles as cultural transmitters, educators, guardians of national traditions, and symbolic representatives of the nation. Women thus occupied a unique position at the intersection of national, social, and political transformation.
This international conference seeks to explore the diverse ways in which women contributed to the construction of national communities and how participation in national movements and voluntary associations became key arenas for social, political, and cultural emancipation. Particular attention will be devoted to associations as spaces of mobilisation, political socialisation, education, and public engagement, where women acquired organisational experience, built social networks, and negotiated their place within emerging national communities. The conference will also explore borderlands, multilingual environments, and multinational societies, where national competition, cultural exchange, and social change created distinctive opportunities and challenges for women’s public engagement. Read more … (PDF)

Source: Facebook: Gender History of Central and Eastern Europe’s page

CfP: Konsum und Individuation. Zur Herausbildung konsumgesellschaftlicher Subjektformen (Publikation); bis: 15.10.2026

WerkstattGeschichte; Dirk Schuck, Elisabeth Weiß-Sinn und Fabian Zimmer (Web)

Einreichfrist: 15.10.2026

Dass sich Menschen in westlichen Gesellschaften der Gegenwart über ihre Konsumpraktiken als Individuen erfahren, entwerfen und darstellen, ist historisch verhältnismäßig jung. Die enge Kopplung von Konsumhandeln und individueller Selbstwerdung ist keine anthropologische Konstante, sondern das Ergebnis spezifischer sozialer, ökonomischer und diskursiver Konstellationen. Wie es dazu kam, dass Konsum zu einem zentralen Medium der Subjektbildung wurde – mit welchen Deutungsmustern, in welchen Ungleichheitsverhältnissen, gegen welche Widerstände –, ist die Leitfrage des geplanten Themenhefts.
Das Heft rückt die historische Herausbildung konsumgesellschaftlicher Subjektformen ins Zentrum. „Individuation“ verstehen wir dabei nicht als Synonym für die soziologische Individualisierungs-Diagnose Ulrich Becks oder für Prozesse der Ausdifferenzierung eines vorgängigen „Selbst“, sondern als analytischen Begriff für die psychosoziale Herausbildung von Selbstverhältnissen in ihrem historischen und (konsum-)gesellschaftlichen Kontext. Zugleich fragt das Heft nach den historischen Wissensbeständen selbst – nach zeitgenössischen Vorstellungen von „Selbst“, „Persönlichkeit“, „Geschmack“ oder „Freiheit“, die diese Verschränkung begleiten, legitimieren oder kritisieren. Methodisch verbindet das Heft dazu Praxis-, Wahrnehmungs- und Begriffsgeschichte.

Drei ineinander verwobene Dimensionen strukturieren dieses Programm:
Konsum als Praxis der Subjektivierung. Wie wurden Individuen im Vollzug des Kaufens, Besitzens und Gebrauchens von Waren zu Subjekten spezifischer Art – zu Eigentümer:innen, Bürger:innen, Konsumentinnen, Sich-Selbst-Verwirklichenden? Welche Handlungsspielräume eröffneten sich, welche wurden zugleich verschlossen?
Wahrnehmungs- und Begriffsgeschichte des Konsums. Welche Semantiken – Komfort, Behaglichkeit, Geschmack, Bedürfnis, Luxus, Authentizität – begleiteten die Verankerung des Konsums im Selbstverhältnis moderner Subjekte? Welche neuen Regime des Sehens, Fühlens, Genießens und Vergleichens entstanden mit ihm? Wie wurden Wahrnehmungsroutinen des Konsums selbst zu Trägern von Individuation? Continue reading →

CfP: Kämpfe um Demokratie – Geschlechterforschung als Demokratieforschung (Publikation); bis: 18.10.2026

GENDER. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft; Christina Brüning, Funda Hülagü, Mike Laufenberg, Johanna Leinius und Inga Nüthen (Web)

Einreichfrist: 18.10.2026

Analysen zum Zustand der liberalen repräsentativen Demokratie diagnostizieren seit längerem eine tiefgreifende Krise. Spätestens seit dem unübersehbaren Aufstieg rechts-autoritärer Kräfte wird zivilgesellschaftlich und institutionell zum Schutz der Demokratie aufgerufen. Das wirft aus der Perspektive einer (intersektionalen) Geschlechterforschung die Frage auf: Was bedeutet eigentlich in welchen Kontexten Demokratie?
Für das Sonderheft der Zeitschrift GENDER werden theoriefokussierte und empirische Beiträge zu diesen Fragen gesucht. Weiterlesen … (PDF)

Quelle: HSozKult (Web)

CfP: Visual Cultures of Sexuality in Postwar Europe (05/2027, Birmingham); by – extended: 30.09.2026

Birmingham City Univ.: Research project „The Europe that Gay Porn Built, 1945–2000“; John Mercer (Birmingham City Univ., UK), João Florêncio (Linköping Univ., SE), and Isabell Dahms and Piotr Maron (Univ. of Exeter, UK) (Web) | (PDF)

Time: 19.-20.05.2027
Venue: Birmingham City Univ.
Proposals – extended (from 01.09.2026) by: 30.09.2026

Images have accompanied and deeply shaped political, social, and cultural understandings and experiences of sexuality in postwar Europe. From Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972) to Tracey Emin’s Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 (1995); from Ingmar Bergman’s Summer with Monika (1953) to Party, the Spanish magazine that marked „el Destape“ („the undressing“)—the period of cultural frenzy and sexual freedom that allowed soft porn to enter the Spanish cultural mainstream immediately following the death of Franco—postwar visual cultures of sexuality have played a fundamental role in documenting and informing, not always in the most ethical or uncontroversial manner, how people across Europe lived their sexuality, as well as how Europe got to be perceived, from abroad, as a continent of sexual freedoms and/or dangers (Barr 1983; Rugoff 1999; Beattie 2016; Paasonen 2017; Labrador Méndez 2020; Florêncio & Mercer 2025). At the same time, many photographers, filmmakers, and pornographers continued fuelling a long European colonial tradition of orientalist and exploitative image-making fetishising racialised and often younger bodies, a visual corpus that affirms and at times also troubles the borders of Europe understood as a sexual-geographical imaginary (Shepard 2017; Dahms forthcoming; Florêncio & Mercer forthcoming).
Images, too, helped shape postwar European imaginaries of sexuality as it intersected with health and illness, especially as the AIDS crisis hit the continent. From Sweden’s Revolt Press’s 1985 publication of a safer-sex gay porn magazine funded by the State Bacteriological Laboratory—the precursor to the Swedish Public Health Agency—to the UK government’s infamous 1986 public health campaign „AIDS: Don’t Die of Ignorance“; from the Portuguese National Commission for the Fight Against AIDS’s 1993 campaign „SIDA: Sabe que se pode morrer de solidão“ („AIDS: Do You Know Loneliness Can Kill?“) to the articulation of sexuality, health, and post-Communist masculine body ideals in Polish gay magazines like Filo, Men and Nowy Men, visual culture helped frame sex and sexuality as contested sites overloaded with conflicting meanings hovering between pleasure and liberation on the one hand, and death and disease on the other (Florêncio 2020; Florêncio forthcoming; Maron forthcoming). Continue reading →

Klicktipp and CfP: visualhistory.info: Photo and Video Essays in Rural History

The Archives of Rural History in Bern, the European Rural History Organisation (EURHO), the Agricultural History Society in the USA and the European Rural History Film Association (ERHFA):  visualhistory.info (Web)

Images are important sources for historical research. Today, they also play an increasingly important role in historiography because numerous photographic and film sources have been secured, collected, indexed, and made available to researchers in recent decades. Many of these sources have now been digitized and are available online. At the same time, ‚visual history‘ has established itself as an important field of historical research. The visuality of history as much as the historicity of the visual have become crucial subjects of historiographical research and history teaching. The Archives of Rural History in Bern publishes in cooperation with the European Rural History Organisation (EURHO), the Agricultural History Society in the USA and the European Rural History Film Association (ERHFA) the series Photo and Video Essays in Rural History (Web).
Researchers are invited to submit manuscripts for publication in this series. The length of a Photo Essay can range from 1’000 to 5’000 words. Manuscripts must include the photo(s) and biographical information on the author. Read more … (PDF)

Klicktipps

Grey Osterud: Rural Women’s Bodily Labor Photographed by Professionals and Amateurs
Photographs are among the most valuable sources we have to explore the social construction of gender through bodily labor in early twentieth century Europe. Read more … (Web)

Peter Moser and Andreas Wigger: What a life! Mina Hofstetter – an ecofeminist pioneer of organic farming
The female farmer Mina Hofstetter worked on the Stuhlen farm on Lake Greifensee near Zurich from 1915 until the 1950s. Hofstetter became famous because she adopted a vegan diet from the early 1920s … read more (Web) | Deutsche Version: Weiterlesen … (Web)

Peter Moser and Andreas Wigger: Working Animals: Hidden modernisers made visible
Working animals are often conceptualised as a phenomenon of the pre-industrial age. Historians often assume, that they became obsolete in the process of industrialisation. Read more … (Web) | Deutsche Verion: Weiterlesen … (Web)