Katharina Seibert, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Univ. Wien (Wien); Barnabas Balint, Department of History, Magdalen College, Univ. of Oxford

Time: 25.-27.03.2021
Venue: Vienna
Proposals by: 15.12.2020

This workshop seeks to approach the interwar and Second World War period by looking through the lens of age and gender. In doing so, the organizers hope to reveal how adult perceptions of youth and gender framed young men and women’s lives and their roles in society. Furthermore, they want to explore how these perceptions collided with youth agency, probing the specific age- and gender-related dynamics of empowerment and organization.

From the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War to the Hitler Youth to the Jewish Youth Movements in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the turmoil of the mid-twentieth century saw young people of all political, ideological or social affiliations rallying for action across Europe. The organizers welcome proposals for original research articles that explore the themes of youth and gender from a variety of perspectives and methodologies from historians of all career stages, though we would particularly encourage early career researchers to submit proposals. Subsequent to this workshop a special issue of a Journal on this topic is planned.

The categories of historical analysis of youth (Lovett/Lasonde/Mintz/Paris 2008) and of gender (Waxman 2017, Scott 1986) provide a framework for studying individuals, society, and power relations and distribution. Youth is often perceived as referring to the grey zone between childhood and adulthood: as citizens-to-be in adult spaces, young people were simultaneous recipients of disciplinary measures and politics as well as actors in their respective societies. Impacted by their age, young people experienced life differently to adults, often enacting energetic, creative or self-confident pursuits that mobilized groups of youth. Read more and source … (Web).