Svenja Bethke (Univ. of Leicester) and Eliza McKee (New York Univ.) (Web)

Time: 29.-30.11.2024
Venue: Leicester – and virtual space
Proposals by: 21.06.2024

This online workshop will explore the history of migration through the lens of dress in a global dimension. At the functional and intimate level, dress allows for the protection of the body from changing climate conditions as well as from the gaze of others. At the societal level, dress allows one to express feelings of belonging and identities. What is deemed ‘fashionable’ or ‘suitable’ to wear, depends on the geographical, social, political and cultural context and is subject to change. During and following migration, significant changes occur. Migrants are confronted with previously unknown climate conditions that require them to dress differently from what they are used to. With dress habits and norms differing between the countries of origin and the new ‘homeland’, dynamics of inclusion and exclusion are often expressed, felt and perceived in the sphere of dress and appearance.
Throughout history and up to contemporary times, people have migrated for a variety of reasons, to seek economic stability, educational and professional opportunities, to accompany their spouses and families, or to flee natural disasters, discrimination, persecution and violent conflicts. Experiences are as diverse as the migrants’ backgrounds and motivations but always marked by hierarchies between the Global North and the Global South, rural and urban spaces, and according to social class, gender, and definitions of race and ethnicity. The migrants’ experiences upon their arrival marked by dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, integration and adaptation are equally diverse and differ along the criteria mentioned.
With this workshop, the organizers aim to explore these themes and dynamics through the lens of dress in historical and global perspective. They invite proposals for paper presentations with a broad geographical and chronological focus on the following themes (but not limited to these):
– Skills and knowledge: How have migrants’ skills and knowledge in the making of dress influenced the design and production of dress? Continue reading →

Jaarboek Vrouwengeschiedenis | Yearbook of Women’s History; guest editor Irene Jacobs (Web)

Proposals by: 01.06.2024

Ports have played an important role in history as spaces of transit and transitions, of encounters and exchanges, of comings and goings. As nodes in trading networks and hubs of economic activity, ports serve as dynamic meeting spaces for peoples and cultures throughout time. Ports were also zones of conflict, spaces where wars and battles were fought, and where interests and convictions clashed. For some, ports signified freedom and possibilities; for others – such as enslaved people – captivity and extraction.
Despite its dynamic and multifaceted character, the port is often presented as a masculine place where men worked, sought entertainment and traveled from and to. In the 43rd edition of the Yearbook of Women’s History, with guest editor Irene Jacobs (Maritiem Museum Rotterdam), the new volume wants to question this stereotypical image by focusing on women who worked and lived in the port, who arrived or sailed from there, and the gendered constructions that shaped this environment. The volume wants to emphasize that women were and are active participants in all sections of the maritime industry on shore. From the repairing of nets, the selling of fish, making navigational instruments, housing sailors or keeping inns, to the maintaining of communities while the men were away at sea: women were key players in maritime societies. This new volume aims to travel to many ports around the world to investigate the role women have played in ports from economic, political, social, and cultural perspectives. In doing so, the volume will help scholars gain the broadest possible insight into the actions and influences of women in the port areas and the influence of the port on women from ancient times to the present.
In doing so, the volume focuses on the following questions: How were ports considered as a gendered space? Which forms of cultural expression did ports produce, and which role did gender play in them? Why do we know so little about women working, living, and staying in ports? Continue reading →