Constructor Univ. Bremen; Julia Secklehner (Web)

Time: 15.-16.05.2025
Venue: Constructor Univ., Bremen
Proposals by: 15.12.2204

Central Europe’s modernist movements in the twentieth century have widely been accepted as middle-class phenomena, driven by figures with the education, time, and financial resources to devote themselves to creative production. Yet, as the First World War shook up the social and economic stability of many, comfortable backgrounds no longer guaranteed support. Women, in particular, found themselves in a new situation, not only gaining new liberties in the post-imperial successor states but often also facing the need to make a living. How did this affect their creativity and access to artistic education and production? From privately sold goods made in the home to administrative work and wage labour, women artists in the 1920s and 30s followed various professions to support themselves, their (artist) partners, and their dependents. While some of this work was to make ends meet, other activities, such as journalism and editorial work, craftwork, teaching and photography, also played an essential role in developing their artistic practice.
Taking this as a point of departure, this workshop addresses the invisible (wage) labour of modernist women artists and how it affected their creative work in different fields. It seeks to examine the ambivalences of paid and creative work faced and negotiated by individuals and their impact on our understanding of modernist artistic production. The workshop invites proposals for papers exploring examples and case studies that analyse the role of paid work in women’s artistic production. Studies can be comparative and historical analyses that take into account questions of gender, class, and race and approach the subject through, for example, art history, visual culture, labour history, or gender studies. While the main focus is on central Europe, contributions that examine examples from other geographies from the 1920s to the 1940s are welcome. Specific questions that might be addressed include, for example:

• To what extent did the necessity to follow a profession to make a living foster and develop women’s creative practice in the first half of the twentieth century?
• Which kinds of professions were particularly important in helping to develop women’s artistic practice? Which ones remained invisible?
• How did questions of class impact women artists and designers‘ opportunities and skills in relation to both wage labour and creative work? Continue reading →

Fandom | Culture | Research 2/25; Philipps-Univ. Marburg (Web)

Proposals by: 01.12.2024

Fandom | Cultures | Research is the first international journal based in Germany for scholarship in the fields of Fan, Audience, Media, and Cultural (Data) Studies. With its different formats – ranging from full papers to reviews, conference reports, and data papers – the journal fosters academic discussion across these disciplines, especially regarding methodological questions: Each issue will consist of double-blind peer-reviewed full papers, alongside with an editorially reviewed section consisting of data papers (data sets and complementary text), reviews, conference reports, and a „Method Lab“ section with shorter papers and interviews that provide insight into work-in-progress, methodological challenges, as well as best practices. Other creative format suggestions are also welcome. Furthermore, we invite themed guest sections for every issue.
Cultural interaction and participation in their myriad forms – from critical and affirmative audience responses to civic engagement and consumer activism – have become highly mediatised phenomena taking place in both analogue and digital spheres. Accordingly, doing research in the fields of Participation and Fan Studies requires a sensibility for media-specific contexts and a diverse set of methodological tools adapted to them. It also benefits a lot from interdisciplinary cooperation and discourse. The journal aims to foster synergies between all disciplines interested in fan phenomena, e.g., Media and Communication Studies, Sociology, and Digital Humanities among others, and invites contributions focusing on a wide range of fan cultural and civic practices, mainstream as well as niche identities and media. It is especially interested in digital platforms and infrastructures as frameworks for a diverse range of cultural practices and as a home to many fan, brand, and other communities.
Fandom | Cultures | Research is an openly accessible, bilingual online journal (English/German), published via the open access repository media/rep/ aiming to establish an innovative platform to further develop the understanding of situated cultural practice and ultimately, to negotiate the methodological foundations of their investigation. Continue reading →