Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Digital Humanities Laboratory, Univ. of Warsaw, Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

Time: 27.11.-01.12.2017
Veneu: Warsaw
Proposals due: 30.03.2017

The international conference will focus on discussing the latest methods of working with women’s personal documents, biographies and letters written on their basis. We are interested in strategies developed in contemporary historiography and literature studies, in particular interdisciplinary women’s, gender and queer studies. We also have a strong interest in the experiences of researchers of herstory, oral history, and life writing.

As for historical periods, we are interested mainly in the 1800s and the 1900s up to World War II. However, the true chronology will emerge out of the documents themselves. We have decided to focus on journals, letters, diaries and autobiographies of women in that period because it is, in our opinion, unique: this is when among Western elites the discourse of women’s emancipation was articulated and started gaining popularity. Most women at the time responded with great reserve and even hostility, choosing instead to support the traditional understanding of gender roles. Read more … (PDF)