Author Archives: Jennifer Redmond

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania Balch Institute Fellowships in Ethnic and/or 20th-Century History and Albert M. Greenfield Fellowship in 20th-Century History 2014–2015

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IMG_0107_1The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Balch Institute Fellowships in Ethnic and/or 20th-Century History and

Albert M. Greenfield Fellowship in 20th-Century History

2014–2015

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will award two one-month Balch Institute fellowships to enable research on topics related to the ethnic and immigrant experience in the United States and/or American cultural, social, political, or economic history post-1875. HSP will also award one Albert M. Greenfield Fellowship for research in 20th-century history. The fellowships support one month of residency in Philadelphia during the 2014–2015 academic year. Past Balch fellows have done research on immigrant children, Italian American fascism, German Americans in the Civil War, Pan-Americanism, African American women’s political activism, and much more.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, enriched by the holdings of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, holds more than 19 million personal, organizational, and business manuscripts, as well 560,000 printed items and 312,000 graphic images concerning national and regional political, social, and family history.

The Historical Society’s archives richly document the social, cultural, and economic history of a region central to many aspects of the nation’s development from colonial times to the 20th century. The Balch Institute collections bring the HSP strength in documenting ethnic and immigrant history, with significant holdings of ethnic newspapers, records of benevolent societies and other local and national ethnic organizations, and personal papers of prominent leaders in ethnic and immigrant communities.

The stipend is $2,000. Fellowships are tenable for any one-month period between June 2014 and May 2015. They support advanced, postdoctoral, and dissertation research. Deadline for receipt of applications is March 1, 2014, with a decision to be made by April 15. Before mailing an application, visit http://www.lcpimages.org/forms/coversheet.htm to fill out an electronic cover sheet. To apply, send seven copies each of a brief résumé, a two- to four-page description of the proposed research, and a letter of reference to: James Green, Library Company, 1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107. For more information on applying and the joint fellowship program, telephone (215) 546-3181, fax (215) 546-5167, e-mail jgreen@librarycompany.org. For specific information on the Balch and Greenfield fellowships, contact Tamara Gaskell, (215) 732-6200 x208, e-mail tgaskell@hsp.org.

American Philosophical Society Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellowship, beginning in September 2014.

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The American Philosophical Society (APS), the nation’s first learned
society, invites applications for its two-year *Andrew W. Mellon
Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellowship*, beginning in September 2014.  The APS
seeks applications from recent PhDs in the fields of history of science,
art history, 18th- or 19th-century American history, or any other related
humanities disciplines. The fellowship, based in the APS Museum, will
provide hands-on experience in curatorial work and the opportunity to
pursue an independent research project, preferably one related to the
collections or programs of the Society’s library and museum.

The Mellon Fellow will conduct research in the APS collections in
preparation for the APS Museum’s interdisciplinary exhibitions exploring
the intersections of history, art, and science. The exhibitions take place
in Philosophical Hall, located within Independence National Historical
Park. As the public face of the APS, the museum researches and interprets
the APS’s extensive collections for the regional, national, and
international visitors who converge on Philadelphia’s historic district.

The Fellow’s primary responsibility will be to conduct scholarly research
for exhibitions, programs, and other related activities. He or she will be
fully integrated into the APS Museum staff, working closely with the
curator and others on the curatorial team. The Fellow will gain extensive
experience in planning and implementing exhibitions as well as researching
and writing interpretive materials for non-scholarly audiences (exhibition
texts, publications, etc.). Depending on the Fellow’s interests and the
Museum’s needs, he or she may also participate in public programming,
museum education, collections management, and/or grant-writing.  Twenty
percent of the Fellow’s time will be reserved for his or her own
independent research, ideally using resources at the APS or kindred
regional institutions. The Fellow will also have the opportunity to network
with APS Library staff and other post-doctoral fellows in the region’s
cultural institutions.

This two-year Fellowship will extend from September 1, 2014 through August
31, 2016. Compensation is $45,000 a year plus benefits, along with
additional funds for research support, travel, and relocation. The
Fellowship may not be held concurrently with any other fellowship or grant.

*The deadline for receipt of all materials is December 9, 2013.***

*Qualifications:*

– PhD in any humanities discipline, awarded within the past five years.
The history of science, 18th- and 19th-century American history, and the
history of art often relate most closely to exhibition content.
However,the museum’s approach is interdisciplinary, and applications
from qualified
researchers in any humanities discipline are welcome.
– Excellent analytical and writing skills; experience in writing for
different purposes and broad audiences (including but not limited to
scholars).
– Broad interests, along with the intellectual and conceptual tools
necessary for working across disciplines and time periods, and for making
creative connections.
– Flexibility and the capacity to learn quickly and to work both
independently and in collaboration with others.

– Project-oriented organizational skills applied to both academic and
practical tasks.
– Strong interest in exploring a career in the museum field. **

*REQUIRED MATERIALS (APPLICATION CHECKLIST)*

Applications must be submitted by EMAIL only to
MellonFellowship@amphilsoc.org with the subject line as follows:  Last
Name, First Name_Mellon Application 2014-16

Include:

– Cover letter stating interest in exploring curatorial work.
– Completed application form, found at
http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/curatorialfellowship

·         Comprehensive Curriculum Vitae, with items listed within
categories in reverse chronological order (Include external support
received during graduate study: fellowships, teaching or research
assistantships, tuition grants, etc.

·         Statement of current research interests (no more than 1,500
words). This statement should include a description of a potential research
project during the Fellowship, preferably one related to the APS
collections or programs.

·         Excerpt(s) from completed dissertation or thesis (no more than
5,000 words); example of non-scholarly writing if available.

·         Confirmation Letter of Academic Status (candidacy or degree
conferred).

·         Three confidential letters of recommendation, which must be
submitted on the APS recommendation form provided at
http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/curatorialfellowship

·         *See application form for further instructions.*

*To Download Application Form and Recommendation Forms:  *

http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/curatorialfellowship

*For further information on Library and Museum collections:*

http://www.amphilsoc.org/library

http://www.apsmuseum.org/collections

* ** *
*The deadline for receipt of all materials is December 9, 2013.*

Call for Proposals Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists

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library image
The Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists will hold its twentieth biennial conference at Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, June 16–18, 2014.

 

The conference invites proposals for papers on any aspect of Quaker history. Send a one-page abstract including proposed paper title, a one-page vita, and a separate cover letter detailing anticipated funding sources, if accepted, to John Anderies at quakerhistoriansandarchivists@gmail.com.

The deadline for proposals is December 6, 2013.
Conference Website: http://libguides.guilford.edu/cqha

—

Call for Papers: Digital Shorts at the 2013 American Studies Association Annual Meeting

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book-stack-and-ereaderCall for Papers: Digital Shorts at the 2013 American Studies Association
Annual Meeting

The Digital Humanities Caucus of the American Studies Association seeks
ASA conference attendees to participate in a session entitled Digital
Shorts: New Platforms of Knowledge and Dissent. The session will consist
of “lightning talks” in which participants describe digital projects in
3-5 minute presentations, receive community feedback, and discuss issues
raised by the talks. These presentations may address current projects,
developing ideas and project proposals, or activities related to digital
humanities work such as publishing and teaching. Contexts for projects
presented in this session can include academic research, public history
and museums work, and archival and library work. There is no need to write
a mini-paper or formal presentation. Speaking from slides, a website, or
memory are all encouraged. We will have a computer/projector in the room
with PowerPoint loaded and live Internet access available.

Digital Shorts will take place Friday, November 22nd from 10:00am to
11:45am at the annual conference at the Hilton Washington in Columbia Hall 9.

To sign-up, please email a brief abstract of your intended lightning
presentation (250 words MAXIMUM), your name, and affiliation to
<dhlightningshorts@gmail.com>. We will also accept additional
presentations at the session, time permitting.

Important Note: This is informal, so you can (and should!) make a
presentation even if your name appears elsewhere on the ASA program.

Job Announcement: Director of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education

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AMG Digital Center logo_Page_1Job Search:

Director, The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center

 for the History of Women’s Education

 

The Bryn Mawr College Library is seeking a dynamic scholar to lead the development of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education, an online portal to support original research, teaching, and the exchange of ideas about the history of women’s education, both in the United States and worldwide.  The Center’s website (http://greenfield.brynmawr.edu/) has been live since September 2012, and includes online exhibitions on the history of women’s education, instructional materials to facilitate teaching about the history of women’s education, and a resources and news section to connect scholars working in the field.  The Director will be responsible for further developing, editing, and curating the content of the site, for building connections with other scholars and institutions working in women’s education, for organizing and hosting events connected with the Center, and for working with a project advisory board made up of prominent scholars in the field.  The Center currently has two outstanding grant applications that, if successful, will be the responsibility of the Director to administer. The first is a planning project for the development of a portal for searching the digital collections maintained by the Seven Sisters Colleges, and the second is a project to build connections and digital collections in cooperation with women’s colleges in other countries.  Planning future projects and grant proposal writing will be an important parts of the Director’s role.   The Director is part of the Special Collections Department within the library, and will have an opportunity to be formally connected with an academic department.  The Director will also participate in the growing digital humanities program being cooperatively developed by Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges.  The position begins during the fall of 2013, and is funded for two years.  The successful candidate will be encouraged to take part in the Council on Library and Information Resources Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Academic Libraries.

The Director must have a PhD in the humanities or social sciences, preferably within the field of women’s history, the history of education or a cognate field.  The ideal candidate will have excellent written, oral and presentation skills, experience with grant writing, a track record of research in the field of women’s and/or educational history, and experience on a digital humanities project. Experience in the field of digital humanities will be a significant advantage, particularly experience with Omeka, the platform used to create the Center’s site, and with WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter and other social media tools.

Environment: The Bryn Mawr College Library http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/ is at once a strong undergraduate college library and a research library in a number of fields in the humanities and the sciences. The Library is a part of Bryn Mawr’s Information Services, a department that was organized in 2001 to bring together the library, computing, and instructional technology operations. The library works closely with the libraries of Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges through the Tri-College Consortium, one of the most influential academic library consortia in the country.

Bryn Mawr College is a private liberal arts institution located approximately 11 miles west of Philadelphia, PA, and it serves a population of 1,800 students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College has a long tradition of educational excellence, offering a dynamic and challenging work environment with many opportunities for professional growth.  Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges operate within an atmosphere of tri-college cooperation and collaboration.

Review of applications will begin October 7th.

To apply: send letter of interest, CV and three professional references to

jobs@brynmawr.edu

 

A new beginning for the Center…

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This blog post brings news that is both sad and exciting for me… after a very productive, educational and inspirational time as Director of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education, I will be moving on as of September 25th 2013. I will be taking up a new faculty post at the National University of Ireland Maynooth in the history department. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Bryn Mawr and have learned a lot, getting to immerse myself in the world of digital humanities while pursuing my love of women’s history – bliss! I will be able to continue my work blending digital humanities with pedagogy in my new role and look forward to integrating much of what I’ve learned here.

I especially enjoyed connecting with so many wonderful colleagues on Twitter, some of whom I was lucky to meet in person at the Women’s History in the Digital World conference last March (for a report on the conference click here).  The digital repository that resulted from the conference continues to remain popular: it now holds 42 records, which have been downloaded a total of 482 times to date. I do get to remain connected to the Center, however, as I will be joining the Advisory Board. In this capacity I hope to help advise the new Director and to assist in moving the Center on to its next phase of development.  The Center has been my focus over the last two years and I am delighted to be able to remain a part of its future. The Center’s growth has been tremendous – we now have 1252 items on the site, and since its launch in September 2012, the website has been viewed by over 41,000 people. The blog, Educating Women, has had over 25,000 page views and continues to attract new followers – be sure to keep up to date with news from the Center by visiting the blog regularly.

This news means that the role of Director is open and ready to be filled by someone willing to take on the exciting challenges of running a digital center. If you are interested in progressing the work of the Center, or you know someone who would be ideal for the role, be sure to share the job description and encourage them to apply. You can find all details related to the application procedure here in this document and we have announced it on Twitter and some of the major academic listservs – please feel free to share it on your own networks.

SmithHildaWorthington

Hilda Worthington Smith, Director of the Summer School for Women Workers

SummerSchool15 (2)

Students and teachers at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers

As part of my work since returning from maternity leave I have completed two new research based exhibits for our site which are being finessed in their formatting but will appear in the next few days. These had been on my to-do list for quite a few months and I am delighted to have completed them at last! The first, looking at the Summer School for Women Workers that began at Bryn Mawr College, looks at the history of this labor education initiative that was subsequently replicated by Barnard College among others. The Summer School was an idea conceived by M. Carey Thomas at the end of her tenure as president of Bryn Mawr College. As the exhibit reveals, she was inspired with the idea of utilizing the prestigious college campus for education programs for factory workers after hearing of the news that Britain had passed suffrage legislation. Thomas’ sense of feminism led her to ponder how women who had achieved social and political change (such as suffrage) could assist their sisters. The Summer School was directed by Hilda Worthington Smith, a Bryn Mawr alum and social work pioneer. The school was the subject of a documentary, The Women of Summer by Rita Heller (available for viewing if you have access to the VAST Academic Video Online database) and was also featured in the Taking Her Place exhibit as an example of the history of Bryn Mawr in opening the campus up to non-traditional groups or students who were not conceived of in Joseph Taylor’s original plan for the college.

No_So_Ladylike_Afterall

M. Carey Thomas

The second exhibit is on M. Carey Thomas herself. I talked about this research as it was in progress at the Women’s History in the Digital World conference and the Mediating Public Spheres: Feminist Genealogies of Knowledge conference and produced this reflective piece on her and on using the Omeka exhibit format. I was interested to study Thomas from multiple angles in an attempt to reveal different truths about her, positing that there is no single ‘Truth’ to be known about her (or anyone). For this exhibit I used her own words from different periods of her life, the words of her close friends, professional associates and colleagues all of which offer different insights into her personality. I have also featured her published writings on topics in women’s education, many of which appeared as a result of public speeches she gave and illustrate her profile during her lifetime as one of the foremost advocates of women’s access to education and the professions. You can access the exhibit by clicking here on the Center’s exhibit collection (it will be live in a few days).

A final reflection on the current state of women’s history in the US wraps up this post. Having spent much time over the last few months processing membership applications to the Coordinating Council for Women in History, I was struck by the breadth of interests that members have. On the application form members are asked to fill out three key words that represent their historical research interests, and this Wordle represents the responses members have given:CroppedHistoryWordle

Just for fun, I also used Tagxedo to represent these key words as a map of the United States:

CCWH

A review of these terms affirms my own view that women’s history is a vibrant and eclectic space, and is a strong counterpoint to those who seek to pigeonhole historians who focus on women of the past. The Center has had a wide breadth of interests since its inception, and in the future it will continue to promote diversity in the narratives it highlights in women’s education in the past. As the Center enters its new phase of growth I hope all of you will continue to support its mission to get women’s history, particularly narratives that focus on education, noticed in the exciting sphere of digital humanities.

Thank you to all of you who have interacted with me in my work at the Center, its growth is also due to your interest and promotion.

“Material Encounters in the Archive” Brown University, October 25, 2013

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Friday, October 25, 2013
2:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Pembroke Hall 305

Brown University

“Material Encounters in the Archive” frames a dialogue between four interdisciplinary feminist scholars whose research addresses the potential, as well as the limits, of the archive as a theoretical and physical site of knowledge production. Our speakers will reflect on how engaging with archival objects — as collectors, curators, and researchers — has shaped their understanding of the archive, not only as repository for extant documents but as a productive apparatus that shapes the contours of what is valued as legitimate information and scholarship. The presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A open to the audience.

For more information see http://www.brown.edu/research/pembroke-center/material-encounters-archive-symposium

CFP: WRITING WOMEN’S LIVES: AUTO/BIOGRAPHY, LIFE NARRATIVES, MYTHS AND HISTORIOGRAPHY, Istanbul, Nov 2013

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pages-flipWOMEN’S LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTER FOUNDATION
AND YEDİTEPE UNIVERSITY

CALL FOR PAPERS
SYMPOSIUM
WRITING WOMEN’S LIVES: AUTO/BIOGRAPHY, LIFE NARRATIVES, MYTHS AND HISTORIOGRAPHY

APRIL 19 – 20, 2014 / ISTANBUL – YEDİTEPE UNIVERSITY

Deadline for submission of abstracts: November 30, 2013

The Women’s Library and Information Centre Foundation (WLICF) and Yeditepe University  invites submission of abstracts of papers to be presented at its international symposium “Writing Women’s Lives: Auto/Biography, Life Narratives, Myths and Historiography” which will be held in Istanbul (Yeditepe University), Turkey, April 19–20, 2014.

The symposium calls for papers from a broad, interdisciplinary field of women’s life writing including biography and autobiography, letters, diaries, memoirs, family histories, case histories and other ways in which women’s lives have been recorded. The call is open to various genres and national, regional and global cultural traditions of women’s life writings as well as to papers on the related areas of women’s oral traditions, oral history research, testimonies, and the representation of women’s lives in all possible verbal and non-verbal art forms, such as documentaries, video, art, etc.
WLICF was founded in Istanbul in 1989 and the library was opened to the public on April 14, 1990. It was the first and is still the only library in Turkey dedicated to assisting research on the history of women. The principle mission of the library is to acquire, protect and preserve the women-centred intellectual legacy of our world and to make this legacy accessible to researchers.
Yeditepe University is a foundation university situated in İstanbul, Turkey. The University was established in 1996 by the Istanbul Education and Culture Foundation (İstek Vakfı). The university campus consists of 236 thousand square meters of closed area and 125 thousand square meters of open area. It has 319 classrooms, 22 lecture halls, 32 computer labs, 74 professional labs belonging to the Fine Arts, Architecture, Communication, Engineering and Sciences Faculties and 2 professional photographic studios. Yeditepe University comprises eleven faculties, three graduate institutes and one vocational school of higher education. All academic programs are offered in English except for a program of political science and international relations in French, a program of business administration in German and a program of art and design in Italian.

Proposals may include, but are not limited to the following research topics:
-Narration of historical women characters in literary, artistic and scientific texts
-Feminist/women’s auto/biographical literature
-Theory and methodology in narrations of women’s history
-Ethical and moral concerns in historiography and life narrations
-Global, national and regional scale women-centred mythologies
-Special difficulties and problems of writing life narratives
-Social memory and feminist/women’s auto/biographies
-Gender and feminist/women’s auto/biographies
-Men in feminist/women’s memoires
-Media and representation: the representation of feminists’/women’s lives in media and textbooks
-Arts, everyday life and feminist/women’s auto/biography: film, theatre, music, painting, pop culture, etc.
-Fictive dimension in auto/biographies, intersection of historical characters with fictive elements.
-Women in auto/biographical documentaries
-Feminist pioneers’ and women’s rights activists’ auto/biographies          or life narratives (especially from Turkey, the Balkans, and the Middle East)
Documentary sources:
-Feminist/women’s archives, libraries and their significance in writing women’s lives
-Private archives and their significance in writing women’s lives
-Correspondence
-Memoires/ Diaries
-Oral history documents

Submission details of abstracts and final papers:
We welcome proposals for individual papers, roundtables, workshops, films and other presentations. The abstracts should be sent in English, but the presentations might be either in English or in Turkish. The maximum time allowed for any presentation will be 20 minutes. The organizing committee is working to provide simultaneous translation during the symposium.  Abstracts of papers should be 250-500 words in length (in English only) and must include “the name of the writer and the affiliation”, a “short biodata” and the “contact addresses” (e-mail, postal address, phone and fax number). Please specify one of the following lines of inquiry relevant to your paper and indicate this as well.

The symposium sessions will be organized along the following lines of inquiry:
1- Theory, methodology, feminist history, feminist criticism and women’s life writing
2- Auto/biography, life narratives, myths and historiography
3- Individual women in women’s movements and women’s history (contributions are especially invited from/about the Balkans and the Middle East)
4- Life narratives in cultural traditions and vice versa: women’s folklore and oral traditions.
5- Autobiography and biography in comparison
6- Auto/Biographical fiction and women’s life narration
7- Philosophy in women’s life narration
8- Social memory and feminist/women’s life narratives

Please email abstracts and proposals to the following address with
1.       Name (with your family name in CAPITAL letters).
2.       Affiliation
3.       A short biodata
4.       Email address
5.       Postal address
6.       Phone and fax numbers
7.       Relevant sub-theme
symposium@kadineserleri.org<mailto:symposium@kadineserleri.org>

Symposium Proceedings:
Selected papers will be published in the forthcoming symposium proceedings. For this reason finalized papers should be sent to the following address by June 30, 2014, at the latest:

symposium@kadineserleri.org<mailto:symposium@kadineserleri.org>

Deadline for submission of abstracts:                                                                        November 30, 2013
Notification of acceptance of abstracts and program proposals:                          January 30, 2013
Deadline for the final version:                                                                                      June 30, 2014
Symposium registration fee is 150 Euro.

*Information regarding travel , accommodation  and the web site of the symposium will be sent to the participants by the end of  September 30, 2013.

Symposium Coordinators:
Dr. Birsen Talay Keşoğlu , Yeditepe University  – History
Assistant Prof. Vehbi Baysan, Yeditepe University  – History.  (Vice )
symposium@kadineserleri.org<mailto:symposium@kadineserleri.org>

Organising Committee
Aslı Davaz: Specialist on Women’s archives and libraries, Researcher and Translator, Founding-Member of the Women’s Library and Information Centre Foundation – İstanbul

Ayşe Durakbaşa: Prof. Dr., Marmara University, Department of Sociology – İstanbul

Ayşe Nur Erek: Assistant Prof., Yeditepe University, Department of History – İstanbul

Birsen Talay Keşoğlu: Assistant Prof., Yeditepe University, Department of History – İstanbul.

Tilly Vriend: Senior International Project Manager Atria, Amsterdam; Co-President AtGender</http:/www.atgender.eu/> and Board member WINE<http://winenetworkeurope.wordpress.com/>, Women’s Information Network Europe

Fatma Türe: Assistant Prof., Ankara University, Department of Sociology – Ankara

Leyla Şimşek-Rathke: Dr., Marmara University, Department of Sociology – İstanbul

Nazan Aksoy: Professor, İstanbul Bilgi University-Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of English Language Teacher Education –  İstanbul

Neşe Yıldıran: Assitant Prof., Yeditepe University, Department of History – İstanbul

Diane Belle James: Editor and translator (USA)

Tûba Çavdar Karatepe: Associate Prof., Marmara University, Department of Information and Records Management -İstanbul

Women’s Library and Information Center Foundation, İstanbul, Turkey
Address                                                              :Kadir Has Cad. No:8 Fener Vapur İskelesi Karşısı
Tarihi Bina, Fener / Haliç 34220 Istanbul-Turkey
Telephone                                                        : 0090 212 621 81 34 – 0090 212 534 95 50
Mail Address                                                    :kadineserleri@gmail.com
Collaborating Institution                            :Yeditepe University – History Department /Istanbul – Kayışdağı
Address                                                              : 26 Ağustos Yerleşimi, Kayışdağı cad., Kayışdağı-                                                                               Ataşehir, 34755, Istanbul Turkey
Mail Adress                                                      : www.yeditepe.edu.tr<http://www.yeditepe.edu.tr/>

We look forward to your participation and contribution.
Women’s Library and Information Center Foundation and Yeditepe University

The annual essay competition returns! Bryn Mawr College students, enter for a chance to win $500

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Essay Competition Poster 2013

It’s that time again…. we are announcing the third annual essay competition of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education, kindly sponsored by Friends of the Bryn Mawr College Library. As with last year, there are two categories of winners: current students and alumnae.

The title this year is: “Women, education and the future…. what do women’s colleges have to offer?”

With the number of women’s colleges declining on a yearly basis, this year’s essay competition asks you to reflect on what role existing women’s colleges may play in women’s lives in the future. Will the trend in converting to coeducational institutions continue? Do women’s colleges offer a unique enough experience to survive? What are their particular strengths as we look towards the demands of the future on women? Will they fuel women to inhabit leadership roles on a larger scale or will they cluster women in certain sections of the economy and political life? As always, you are welcome to take this title as a prompt for your own thoughts and opinions and you are free to offer positive or negative predictions for the fate of women’s colleges. We intend this title to be expansive, to include reflections on education, employment, societal norms, women’s leadership … anything you wish to address with regard to the role that women’s colleges may play.

So, if you would like to have your say then we want to hear it! Your essay will be published on the site of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education and the winner of the undergraduate section will receive a $500 cash prize; the winner of the alum section will win a selection of prizes, including a copy of the college history, Offerings to Athena. The competition is open to all current undergraduate students of Bryn Mawr College and the closing date for entries is October 21st 2013 so hurry up and get writing!

6th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, November 21-23, 2013

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6th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the
Digital Age

November 21-23, 2013

Thinking Outside the Codex

In partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, the Schoenberg Institute of Manuscript Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce the 6th Annual Lawrence J.
Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age. This year’s
symposium will encourage participants to “think outside the codex” and turn
the tables on traditional approaches to manuscript study. We will explore
such topics as how format shapes and limits interpretation, use, and
production of manuscripts and how technologies have changed and challenged
traditional methods of scholarship. We are especially considering instances
of and responses to failure in the history of manuscript production and
scholarship. In doing so, we hope to provoke new questions and forge new
approaches to the study of the pre-modern book.

To kick off the event, a reception and the keynote address will be held
Thursday evening, November 21, at the Free Library of Philadelphia. This
year’s keynote speaker will be Peter Stallybrass, Walter H. and Leonore C.
Annenberg Professor in the Humanities, Professor of English and of
Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, and Director of the History of
the Material Text Seminar at the University of Pennsylvania.  The symposium
begins Friday morning at the newly renovated Special Collections Center of
the University Pennsylvania Libraries. Speakers include:

*    Benjamin Albritton, Stanford University
*    Christopher Blackwell, Furman University
*    Benjamin Fleming, University of Pennsylvania
*    Martin Foys, King’s College, London
*    Evyn Kropf, University of Michigan
*    David McKnight, University of Pennsylvania
*    Kathryn Rudy, University of St. Andrews
*    Robert Sanderson, Los Alamos National Laboratory
*    Timothy Stinson, North Carolina State University
*    Elaine Treharne, Stanford University

In addition, four workshops will be held throughout the symposium to offer
hands-on exploration of problems and issues related to the study of
manuscripts in the digital age.

The Handwritten and the Printed:  The limits of format and medium in
Japanese premodern books
Leaders: Julie Davis and Linda Chance, University of Pennsylvania

Demo Workshop for T-Pen: Transcription for paleographical and editorial
notation
Leader: James Ginther, Saint Louis University

Scholarship Outside the Codex: Citation-based digital workflows for
integrating objects, images and text without making a mess
Leader: Christopher Blackwell, Furman University

Of Apples and Apple Pie: Exploring the relationship between raw data and
digital scholarship
Leaders: Dot Porter and Doug Emery, University of Pennsylvania

For more information go to:
http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/lectures/ljs_symposium6.html