Home Page | About the IFRWH | National Committees| Board Members| Conferences| Newsletter |Publications|
Inquiry Digital Women’s Lexicon of the Netherlands (ca. 500-1850)
Since September 1 2003 the University of Utrecht led by Els Kloek is composing
a Digital Women’s Lexicon of the Netherlands (DVN), a bibliographical
dictionary of all women who made a name in the Dutch history until 1850. Eligible
subjects are women who were active in the Netherlands or in oversee territories,
whether or not born within the current Dutch borders. Women are selected based
on their achievements and/or reputation. In the end, about a 1000 women’s
biographies will be recorded.
More information: http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/DVN
In Memoriam Joke Blom
Last January, the director of the International Institute and Archive for the
Women’s Movement (IIAV) in Amsterdam unexpectedly passed away. She was
commemorated at a meeting on February 6 at the IIAV. On February 10 2004, Inge
Ruys became temporary director.
2004 Saw the start of ‘Salon Al Baraka’, a series of afternoons with lectures, poetry readings and discussions on history, gender and ethnicity. The Dutch Association for Women's History (VVG) initiates the salon in cooperation with 'Stichting Oud-Lombok’, an organization relating to a multi-cultural neighborhood in the Dutch city of Utrecht. In every salon meeting, the attention is focused on one of the original countries of population groups in the neighborhood and the roles of men and women. Lectured are combined with poetry readings and a column. In the first series the history of Morocco, Turkey and Iraq is at the forefront. Information at: www.museumcafélombok.nl and at www.vrouwengeschiedenis.nl
Currently, the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies (NOV) organizes
the PhD course "Oral History, Life Stories: Theory, problems, international
debates". The course meets at April 15, 20, 22, 27 and 29 (10.00-13.00)
at the Belle van Zuylen Institute/University of Amsterdam and is being coordinated
by Prof.dr. S. Leydesdorff.
Personal histories and (auto) biographies have traditionally played an important
role in gender studies. The meaning and significance of personal experiences
are central to such research. Personal experiences are sometimes used to prove
the existence of unfamiliar viewpoints and unknown histories. This course seeks
critically to reflect upon the status of such knowledge, and on the ways in
which it is produced. What kinds of insights, for instance, may or may not be
discovered through personal interviews? What is the relation between the spoken
and the written word? What do images mean in relation to sound? To what extent
and in what contexts can individual responses be seen to acquire general significance?
For more information: nov@ let.uu.nl
In May 2004 the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies (NOV, Utrecht University) organizes the course "Interpreting Gender and its Intersections: Analyzing Texts in Feminist Social Science Research". This course is especially for PhD students and will be taught in English.
In May, Prof. Deirdre Mc Closkey (Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences,
University of Illinois at Chicago) will give a special seminar for Ph. D. students
and others who are interested on “Bourgeois virtues: Virtue ethics in
a commercial society, from the Gouden Eeuw to the Euro”. The seminar will
pay attention to the historical and political background of the subject, but
focused chiefly on the ethical philosophy of Aristotle, Aquinas, Adam Smith,
and more recent "virtue ethicists", such as Martha Nussbaum and Alasdair
MacIntyre. Students will be expected to make formal presentations of the readings
and to write a short paper in English on the application of the ethics of the
virtues to the problems of capitalism. Texts: Crisp and Slote, eds. Virtue
Ethics; Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Glasgow edition only),
and Professor McCloskey's book-in-progress, Bourgeois Virtue: Ethics for an
Age of Capitalism.
The seminar meets four times: Friday afternoons, 14:00-17:00, May 7 through
May 28. Place: Erasmus University of Rotterdam (Woudestein) in L1-110 (May 14
in LB-062)
For registration and information, contact: Erik Pruijmboom, pruijmboom@fhk.eur.nl
+31-10-4082458
In May/June 2004 the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies (NOV,
Utrecht University) organizes the course "The Linguistic Turn". This
course is especially for PhD students and will be taught in English.
Dates: May 19, 21, 26, and June 2, 2004. Location: NOV / Utrecht University
This course is designed as a toolkit for training Ph.D. researchers in basic
methods and concepts of cultural analysis. Several methods and approaches will
be presented: discourse analysis, visual analysis, narratology, rhetorical analysis,
intertextuality, psycho-analysis, and semiotics. The course will focus on the
way in which cultural categories such as gender, ethnicity and sexuality structure
the meaning of images and texts.
The course is open to Research Master students and Ph.D. students who work with
textual analysis be it in the arts or in other disciplines. The main focus lies
on the recognition of the semiotic principle, which recognizes human signification
as a layered process in which syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects are
interdependent. The presented theories and insights will be illustrated by textual
and visual analysis of texts and images. In addition students will be invited
to present and discuss their textual and/or visual material and analytical approaches
in class.
Deadline for registration: April 29. For more information on fees and registration:
nov@let.uu.nl or +31-30-2536001
The Student Association of Women’s Studies Amsterdam, ‘The Sirens’, presents a feminist café during which the fluidity of gender, sexuality and identity will be discussed – and an introduction to Queeruption 6 (June 1-7) will be given. Queeruption is a “free Do It Yourself gathering of people who don't feel at home with the way the popular culture labels sexuality in black or white, good or evil, commercially interesting or a threat”. Date: Wednesday April 24th. Location: De Molli, Van Ostadestraat 55hs, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Information: sirenen@bust.com
Advanced European Summer School in Women's Studies from Multicultural and
Interdisciplinary Perspectives 4 - 19 September 2004, Ljubljana, Slovenia (University
of Ljubljana - Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis)
The NOISE European Summer School, a two-week intensive course, is by now a well-established
event, which has been organized annually since 1994, hosted by different NOISE
partner universities, with the participation of a broad range of students and
teachers from all over Europe and beyond. The NOISE Summer School is coordinated
by the International Office Women's Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This
year’s theme will be:
"New European Identities and Mediated Cultures: Revisiting the Politics
of Location".
Please check the website for more information, practical details and application
forms:
Http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/summerschool2004Http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/summerschool2004
or email the NOISE central coordination at noise@let.uu.nl noise@let.uu.nl
Special Issue of The European Journal of Women's Studies
Vol. 12, No 3, 2005 of The European Journal of Women's Studies will be focused on transformative Methodologies in Feminist Studies (Edited by Nina Lykke).
The special issue will bring together articles, which put focus on transformative methodologies in feminist studies. Methodologies will be understood in a broad sense as 'thinking technologies', and the aim of the special issue is to reflect, discuss and assess some of the many innovative approaches which have been developed and used as an integrated part of feminist theorizing.
Since the beginning of the Women's Studies movement in the 1970s, feminist theorizing has expanded within all kinds of disciplines from the human and social sciences to technoscience and biomedicine. Together with postcolonial and queer studies, feminist studies has, moreover, been part of a strong movement in contemporary research which has pushed for inter- and transdiscplinarity. A politics of location aiming at self-reflexion, contextualization and situatedness in research has also been given high priority. All these trends have had a transformative impact on research and research methodologies.
The special issue will give space to articles, which will engage in a presentation
and critical assessment of methodological transformation processes engendered
by feminist theorizing. Articles with many different points of departure are
welcomed. They can be written from disciplinary outlooks as well as from inter-
and transdisciplinary perspectives. They can be theoretical reflections on methodological
transformations brought about by feminist theorizing, or they can address questions
of method raised by specific research projects within the field of Women's and
Gender Studies. They can reflect methodological issues emerging from research
in the intersections between feminist, postcolonial or queer studies, or, from
dialogues between theory and feminist activism. They can, in a comparative perspective
reflect how different national/regional contexts have produced different research
agendas and designs. They can reflect tensions between modern and postmodern
research agendas and designs, between poststructuralist, realist, constructivist
and post-constructivist approaches as well as between qualitative and quantitative
methods in feminist studies.
The call for submissions is open-ended, but a common denominator for the special
issue will be a commitment to discussions of transversal links between feminist
theorizing, methodological approach and transformation of
research. All articles will be subject to the usual review process.
Articles should be prepared according to the Manual of Style available on request
and should be sent to the Managing Editor of the journal:
The European Journal of Women's Studies, Attn. Akke Visser (Managing Editor),
Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Tel: +31 30 253 1881 or email EJWS@fss.uu.nlEJWS@fss.uu.nl
The closing date for the submission of articles is June 30th, 2004
The aim of this workshop is to look at the role gender played in shifting demographic structures from high levels of celibacy, high rates of births and deaths and late ages at marriage towards more modern demographic structures characterized by low levels of births and deaths, as well as early and universal marriage. Mainstream historical demography has either relied on macro statistical approaches hiding individual agency or on individual-level analyses focusing exclusively on attributes pertaining to men in explaining changing demographic patterns, whether it be religion, or socio-economic characteristics such as occupation, or family of origin.
Despite the fact that the role of men as men is almost never focused upon explicitly,
it nevertheless contributes to a construction of the male as an agent of modernization.
Women are entirely left out of this picture, belonging as they do to the private
sphere of the family, where they are undergoing rather that (co-) constructing
social change. Women are thus not envisaged as decision-makers where it concerns
marriage, fertility and family formation. This workshop therefore wants to look
at the role women played in shaping the demographic transition, as well as the
way in which gender, as pertaining to men as well as women, was a constituent
part of this process of change. Papers are invited which deal with any aspect
related to the demographic transition, ranging from mortality, migration, fertility
patterns, or household and family formation. Questions that may be considered
revolve around the issue whether particular socio-economic groups of women were
leading actors in changing marital and fertility patterns.
Abstracts for proposed papers may be submitted not later than 15th of August
2004. Abstracts should be around 800 words, stating clearly, the questions that
will be examined, the type of empirical material that will be used, and an outline
of the main argument that will be developed in the paper. Please state explicitly
in what way the paper is related to any of the issues raised above and in what
way gender is integrated as an analytical category. Please state clearly name,
address, fax number, and email address when submitting your proposal. Proposals
should be sent to: Dr. Angélique Janssens, University of Nijmegen, Department
of
History/Centre for Women’s Studies, P.O. Box 9103, 6500 HD Nijmegen, The
Netherlands, fax: +3124361 2807, email: a.janssens@let.kun.nl
‘Women’s compartment’
The ‘Women’s compartment’, a successful online effort to draw
attention to female writers of the former Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia),
has expanded with a website (in Dutch) on S.J. (Suze) Geerts-Ronner (1882-1977),
a biologist and researcher at Java. She can be found, with many other women,
at www.damescompartiment.nl . Furthermore, a rare play of the writer Melati
of Java has been published on internet. http://melati.damescompartiment.nl/
Is dedicated to this special author.
At April 24, 2004 the Press Museum in Amsterdam and the Dutch Association
for Women's History (VVG) organized the conference ‘Regarding women’s
magazines…’, during which historians as well as publishers from
magazines reflected on the phenomenon of illustrated women’s magazines.
The conference was part of the opening ceremonies of the exhibition ‘Regarding
women’s magazines…’ at the Press Museum. For information in
the exhibition, visit www.persmuseum.nl or contact
The Press Museum, Zeeburgerkade 10, 1019 HA Amsterdam, the Netherlands or mail
info@persmuseum.nl
Compiled by Marloes Schoonheim