Workshop: Working with ‘the biographical archive’: the uses of life-writing from a gender perspective, 13.06.2016, Groningen/NL

Centre for Gender Studies, University of Groningen (Web)
Time: 13 June 2016, 09:45-18:00
Venue: University of Groningen
The aim of this workshop is to discuss how gender historians can utilize and work with the biographical archive, specifically looking at the wide variety of (personal) sources or life-writing within personal archives, and how these can be used in (historical) biographical research.
Most often biographical research is based on personal archives in which those sources that shed light on subject and identity formation are central. Indeed, sources function not just sites of knowledge retrieval but also sites of identity formation and performance. In this workshop we will focus on these life-writing sources within and outside personal archives (summarized as the biographical archive) and their role in the biographical narrative. The concept of ‘the biographical archive’ used in this workshop refers to the great variety of life-writing sources that are of crucial importance for biographical research as they give evidence of how a person or an individual presents him or herself, and how this person or individual is perceived by others. Read more and program … (PDF).