“Fighting Women” during and after the Second World War in Asia and Europe
This is a call for papers for the above conference, to be held on June 12-13, 2014, at the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in close cooperation with Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU), Japan. This conference seeks to go beyond the static “passive/pacifist” portrayal of women in the Second World War. We are interested in recovering the history of women who transgressed normative, peacetime gender boundaries by choosing to be masters of their own fate in abetting and perpetrating violence, in collaborating with or resisting aggression, or in actively furthering or frustrating the war goals of their own side. We aim to examine the actions and image of “strong,” “active,” and/or “violent” women in the various theaters of the Second World War, contrasting European, East Asian, and Southeast Asian cases for greater insights into the relations between gender, culture, and the Second World War. Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biographical note to the conference coordinators (NIOD: Eveline Buchheim, Ralf Futselaar; KGU: Timothy Tsu,) at info@niod.knaw.nl and indicating ‘Fighting Women’ as subject matter by September 1, 2013. Authors will be notified by November 1, 2013. Please direct your inquiries to the coordinators at the same e-mail address.
NIOD: Eveline Buchheim, Ralf Futselaar
KGU: Timothy Tsu
Email: info@niod.knaw.nl