Author Archives: Jennifer Redmond

Extended deadline for Call for Papers: 3rd Infoviz workshop of Nedimah, Visual Tools and Methods in Digital Humanities: Capturing, Modelling, Reading, and Thinking about Knowledge Creation

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The deadline for sending in Contributions for the 3rd Infoviz workshop of Nedimah has been changed to the the 21/2 at 13.00.
Please read the call for Papers and send your contributions to fredrik.palm@humlab.umu.se.

Information on the 3rd NeDiMAH infoviz workshop – Visual Tools and Methods in Digital Humanities: Capturing, Modelling, Reading, and Thinking about Knowledge Creation is available at: http://drupal.p164224.webspaceconfig.de/node/184

The workshop will happen the on the 7-8 of March in Umeå and accepted contributions will have have their travel and accommodation arranged by NEDIMAH.

Looking forward to your contribution!

Fredrik Palm (fredrik.palm@humlab.umu.se)
Orla Murphy

Maids, Porters and the Hidden World of Work at Bryn Mawr College: Celebrating Stories for Black History Month

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From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

We have previously referred to the maids and porters who worked at Bryn Mawr College in other posts and here we reflect more on their presence and significance at the college as part of our celebrations of Black History Month at Bryn Mawr College. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the Tri-Co Chapter of the NAACP on Facebook and on Tumblr for details of their events throughout the month of February. We have been working with them to assist in their research and their exciting program should not be missed.

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

We are interested in the campus as a space, one that housed different groups across the years and one that is often remembered due to its distinctive architecture and beautifully kept grounds. In thinking more about campus communities and space, it seemed appropriate to examine what evidence we had on those who were integral to maintaining it: maids and porters, the majority of whom historically were African American.

One finding we have made from the research we have conducted at The Albert M. Greenfield Center for the History of Women’s Education on maids and porters at the college is that despite the fact that they were often incredibly close to the students, they rarely feature in the memorializing students did of their lives here. Why is this? Were they so fundamental to the experience of living in the dorms that it was almost too obvious to acknowledge their presence in their reminiscences? Were many maids and porters shy about getting their photos taken? How would they describe their experiences if we could speak with them today? Although we have many questions, we do know, however, through scrapbook evidence, that the maids and porters produced a theatrical show every year and the College Archives contain some photographs of the ways in which students and maids and porters interacted in the dorms.

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

We also know that there was a night school, a Sunday School and a Maid’s Club which offered classes to interested maids. The Maid’s Club kept a library in their club room and it was reported in the College News of November 15, 1922 that the maids were ‘particularly enthusiastic about singing’ and often sewed while they met (see Offerings to Athena page 103 for more on maids at Bryn Mawr).

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

 

 

Jen Rajchel’s exhibit on our site examines dorm cultures at Bryn Mawr and Jessy Brody’s work on scrapbooks has revealed their virtual absence from the photograph albums and scrapbooks she reviewed – over one hundred in total – that span the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is despite the fact that students and the staff who looked after their domestic needs in dorms across campus had multiple daily interactions, either in person or through the transmission of goods or services. Seeking out their experiences has required a little more detective work and a stronger reliance on source material from oral histories, memoirs and personal letters, rather than traditional documentary sources that can be used in the construction of ‘important’ historical figures, or those who maintained personal archives.

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

One such example is a wonderful interview with Fleta Blocker, which you can listen to in its entirety here. Blocker began at the college as a bell maid, a position that revolved around answering the telephone in dormitories, but she progressed in her roles at the college, ending her four-decade career as a Hall Manager, a role previously only held by white women. Her life was rich and full: active in her church, she traveled the world, inspired by the Bryn Mawr environment to see places such as Oxford and Africa. We included a link to this interview in the new exhibition Taking Her Place at the Rare Book Room Gallery in Canaday Library (on view until June 2nd 2013) in the Broadening the World of Bryn Mawr section, as there was a connection between maids at the college and the women who attended the Summer School for Women Workers. (A digital exhibit on the latter group is coming to the site soon!) The women at the Summer School, many of whom worked in poor conditions in factories across America, were moved to complain about the living conditions they saw the maids had, living in the attics of dorms without proper ventilation in the heat of summer. This was an issue that resurfaced again and the ‘living in’ arrangement was eventually phased out.

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

We also learned from an interview with alum Jane Drucker (whose interview, along with many others, will be available later this year on the Tri-Co digital repository Triptych), that it was a student rather than a member of the staff who headed the Maids and Porters Association for their dorm. This was not a staff association as such, and Drucker recalls her main responsibility as being to organize end of year gifts for the staff who looked after her dorm. It was not, therefore, despite its name, an association to advocate for staff. Looking back, Drucker thought this was odd, but at the time it was the norm that women students would fulfill such a role.

From the Bryn Mawr College Archives

Photographs of the work that maids and porters did, however, are a feature of the college archive collections and many personal scrapbooks and photograph albums. The immaculately kept dorm rooms appear regularly in scrapbooks, catalogs and what appear to be college commissioned photographs so their importance in the life of the college cannot be underestimated. Many of the photographs show elaborately decorated rooms that imitate parlors in houses where ladies would sit; it is obvious that much effort has been put into creating environments that are comfortable and appropriate for college women. It’s worth considering, therefore, the people who worked to maintain such homely environments.

At The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education we are interested in representing the diversity of experiences in education and illuminating the world of women at Bryn Mawr and other colleges in the past. Examining the lives of those who helped them to focus more intently on the ‘life of the mind’ rather than domestic concerns is another angle of vision on past worlds. As we uncover more information through our research activities, we will be adding it so keep watching the site. In the meantime, this great timeline about the “Invisible Women” in domestic service in US history created by Mother Jones is well worth visiting.

Finally, if you have memories you would like to share or any comments, make sure to add them below!

Call for Papers: Crimes of Passion: Representing Sexual Pathology in the Early 20th Century

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Crimes of Passion: Representing Sexual Pathology in the Early 20th Century

Münster, Germany
24-26 July 2013

The discourse on sexual pathology claimed a central position in modern European
culture almost as quickly as it began to establish itself as a scientific discipline. The
bonds between science and culture seem all the more visible when it comes to the
science of sexual deviance, as many sexual scientists were quick to point out in their
works.

Without empirical or statistical material at hand, the scientists turned to other sources
of knowledge in order to legitimize and systematize sexual pathology. Their earliest
case studies came from literature. Indeed, certain authors found themselves under
examination, as sexual themes in their books were treated as evidence of pathological
fantasies. These literary perversions became the basis for sexual pathologists’
scientific interpretations and psychological analyses. As part of the formation and
development of the discipline, the connection between sex and crime also played a
central role in the scandals, injustices, and power struggles associated with sexual
pathology in the early 20th century.

The popular reception of works by Richard Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, or
Erich Wulffen, in addition to their contested scientific reception, attest to a wide
interest in social deviation with sexual deviants being just one particularly scandalous
branch of alterity.

Indeed, deviation is the Other to that which is socially accepted, legitimate, and
institutionalized. Social deviance by definition breaks course from what is construed
as “normal.” The deviant breaks with the social order and, depending on the particular
historical and political configuration, might be dealt with as a criminal. The debate
surrounding Paragraph 175 of the German penal code that made sexual relations
between people of the same sex illegal highlights the virulent history of how sexual
deviance and crime were yoked together. Paragraph 175—enacted in the 19th century,
but which was not completely repealed until 1994—brought certain sexual relations
with their own specific social and cultural sanctions into the juridical realm of penal
codes and state regulation. A significant part of this new institutionalization of sexual
deviance (both academically and in terms of the law) involved thematizing gender
roles, especially questions of “the female.” The pathologization of femininity was
famously and scandalously presented by Otto Weininger in his Geschlecht und
Charakter, a work that marks another controversial episode in the history of sexual
pathology and modernism.

The conference Crimes of Passion focuses on the triad of sexuality, criminology and
literature during the early decades of the 20th century. We invite contributions that deal with representations and theories of sexual deviance broadly conceived. Especially welcome are papers that look at the interchange between literature, philosophy, criminology, and sexology. We also encourage contributions that address questions of sexual pathology at the beginning of the 20th century from a variety of fields and disciplines including but not limited to anthropology, sociology, history, art history, gender studies, or musicology.

Paper topics might present historical discussions of:

–representing criminalized femininity/masculinity

–reception of sexual theories in literature and popular culture

–representing and theorizing perversion

–intersections of criminal, sexual and political/social discourses

–the politics of sexual crimes

–anthropological aspects of sexual pathology

–cultural criticism and sexual pathology

We plan on publishing a selection of essays based on the papers presented at the
conference.

Please submit abstracts (250 words max.) and a short bio (50 words
max.) by 15 February 2013 to japhet.johnstone@uni-muenster.de and
oliver.boeni@uni-muenster.de. We will inform you of our decision by 1 March 2013.

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PERFORMANCES: DRHA 2013: Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts

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CALL FOR PAPERS AND PERFORMANCES

Forthcoming DRHA 2013 Conference:

University of Winchester

DRHA 2013: Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts

Reconceptualising Digital Creativity; Re-mapping Behaviour,

Engagement and the way we Archive in the 21st Century;

Date: Sunday 21st July – Wednesday 24th July 2013.

The theme of this conference will focus on the need to
re-conceptualize the ways in which we engage with digital technology
in particular regard to the speed with which we are exposed to new
technologies. As societies around the world face fundamental
ecological, demographic and economic changes, we are forced to
re-evaluate our relationship with natural and digital resources. Also,
as the next generation of digital natives start to design new
interactive futures, the old paradigms of knowledge exchange, and
social interaction are making way for socialized gaming and crowd
sourcing. The focus for this conference will be to re-imagining new
and contemporary ways for designing digital engagement, looking at
possible events and social practices that lay just around the corner.
Interdisciplinary processes are assumed strategies in this conference
so that we can focus on how we can, using contemporary technology, map
the emerging digital and social landscape

· Assess and engagement
· Managing the shift demographically from passivity to interactivity
· Digital Architectonics, designing the future
· Generating subjective and objective understanding through a
performance paradigm
· Digital mobility; imaging, GPS and mobile technologies
· Somatics; mapping interior spaces
· Open sources and social mediation
· Digital mapping of new theories and territories
· Holography and communication
· Blurring the boundaries between performances inside and outside
· Mapping liminal and liminoid structures in new digital rituals
· Access to digital archives of the preservation local and global knowledge
· Interdisciplinarity, interactivity and performance
· Using digital resources in collaborative creative work, teaching and
learning and scholarship
· Dance and interactive technologies
· Mapping new model of business with reference to sustainability
· Virtual worlds, virtual robots and the gaming industry

There will be a selection of papers from the conference, which will be
published in an issue of the peer reviewed journal BST: Body, Space &
Technology this year.

For over 10 years Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA)
continues to be a key gathering for all those are influenced by the
digitization of cultural activity, recourses and heritage in the UK.
This includes: Scholars, teachers, artists, publishers, librarians,
curators or archivists who all wish to extend and develop access and
preservation regarding digitized information rendered from
contemporary culture and scholarship; the information scientist
seeking to apply new scientific and technical developments to the
creation, exploitation and management of digital resources.

Keynote speakers will include.

1. Janet H. Murray Professor – Graduate Program in Digital Media
School of Literature, Communication and Culture Georgia Institute of
Technology
2. Johnny (Sue) Golding is the BIAD Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art
and Director of the Centre for Fine Art Research (CFAR), The School of
Art, Birmingham City
3. Robert Pratten co-founder and Managing Director at Transmedia
Storyteller Ltd
4. Dr Hugh Denard – Assistant Professor in Digital Arts and
Humanities, Trinity College Dublin

We invite original papers, panels, installations, performances,
workshop sessions and other events that address the conference theme,
with particular attention to the theme of ‘Re-mapping Behaviour,
Engagement and the way we Archive’. We encourage proposals with
innovative and non-traditional session formats.

Short presentations, for example work-in-progress, are invited for
poster presentations. Anyone wishing to submit a performance or
installation should visit the conference Website. Details will be
posted soon on the conference website www.winchester.ac.uk/DHRA

For information about the spaces and technical equipment and support
available, please check the website for details. All the proposals,
whether papers, performance or poster presentation, should reflect the
critical engagement that lies at the heart of DRHA.

Proposal to post on the Softconf website: http://www.softconf.com

The deadline for submissions will be 31 March 2013. Abstracts should
be between 600 – 1000 words. Letters of acceptance will be sent by
15th of May 2013, when the conference registration will be opened.

Conference Fees

Accommodation with en-suite facilities our outline pricing for
delegates are as follows:

· Full conference fee with en-suite accommodation (Incl. Accommodation
& all meals £390
· Conference fee without accommodation (excl. conference dinner) £180
· Conference fee without accommodation (incl. conference dinner) £190

Day Delegates
· Sunday 21st July £40
· Monday 22nd July £60
· Tuesday 23rd (excl. conference dinner) £60
· Tuesday 23rd (incl. conference dinner) £70
· Wednesday 24th July £40

Discounted Postgraduate Fees

· Full Conference with en-suite accommodation (University Room) £260
· Sunday 21st July £30
· Monday 22nd July £40
· Tuesday 23rd (excl. conference dinner) £40
· Tuesday 23rd (incl. conference dinner) £50
· Wednesday 24th £30

Dr Olu Taiwo

DRHA 2013

Call for Papers: Celebrating the Achievements and Legacies of Ada

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CALL FOR PAPERS
Celebrating the Achievements and Legacies of Ada
Lovelace

18 October 2013

Stevens Institute of Technology, College of Arts and Letters

An interdisciplinary conference celebrating the achievements and legacies of the poet Lord Byron’s only known legitimate child,  Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), will take place at Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) on 18 October  2013.

This conference will coincide with the week celebrating Ada Lovelace Day, a global event for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and  Mathematics (STEM).  All aspects of the achievements and legacies of Ada Lovelace will be considered, including but not limited to:

  • Lovelace as Translator and/or Collaborator
  • Technology in the Long Nineteenth Century
  • Women in Computing: Past/Present/Future
  • Women in STEM
  • Ada Lovelace and her Circle

Please submit proposals or abstracts of 250-500 words by 14 May 2013 to:
Robin Hammerman (rhammerm@stevens.edu).

Dr. Robin S. Hammerman
Teaching Assistant Professor
College of Arts and Letters
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, New Jersey
07030

Conference: Body Projects: Body Modification and the Female Body, University of Leeds, March 9th 2013

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Body Projects: Body Modification and the Female Body

9th March 2013, University of York

An interdisciplinary one day conference

Keynote Speaker: Professor Ruth Holliday, University of Leeds

‘The PIP Scandal: ‘Fake’ Breasts and the Politics of Corporeal Value’

Registration is now open for ‘Body Projects: Body Modification and the Female Body’. This conference will cover a wide range of body modification practices including: plastic surgery; tattooing, bodybuilding, clothing/fashion and dieting. Our speakers will consider body modification in relation to eating disorders, pregnancy, weight loss and gain, exercise, commercialism and technology.

We are very lucky to have speakers approaching body modification from different disciplines and perspectives: art, law, literature, history, women’s/gender studies, queer studies, critical theory, media studies, psychology and health studies. The conference will address debates around agency, control, third wave feminism, post-feminism, neo-liberalism, self-regulation and identity. Please join us for what promises to be an exciting and stimulating day.

A full programme and details of how to register can be found at: http://bodyprojects.wordpress.com/

 

Body Projects: Taster Panel, Wednesday 6th March 2013

Please join us at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York for an extra (and free) Body Projects panel. Two of our postgraduate speakers will give papers, followed by discussion and cake! This will offer a preview of the conference themes or it can be an alternative for those unable to attend on Saturday 9th March.


Please register your interest at: bodyprojectsconf@gmail.com

Sexuality Summer School 2013: ‘Queer Imaginaries’

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Sexuality Summer School 2013: ‘Queer Imaginaries’

21st – 24th May 2013
Public events confirmed:
Tuesday 21st May – Professor Robyn Wiegman (Duke), public lecture ‘On Wishful Thinking’, University of Manchester
Wednesday 22nd May – Professor Lois Weaver (Queen Mary), performance lecture ‘What Tammy Found Out’, Contact Theatre

Thursday 23rd May – Dr Rosalind Galt and Dr Karl Schoonover, ‘Global Queer Cinema Project, Screening and Q&A, Cornerhouse

The Sexuality Summer School has been held annually by the University of Manchester since 2008. The Sexuality Summer School is coordinated by the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture (CSSC) with sponsorship this year from Screen, Manchester Pride, the Cornerhouse, Contact Theatre, artsmethods@manchester, and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester.
The Summer School is an annual event intended for postgraduates and researchers working in the broadly defined area of sexuality studies. The Summer School addresses current debates within queer studies, emphasising in particular its implication for the interdisciplinary study of culture. It offers an opportunity for students to discuss queer debates with researchers in the CSSC as well as international scholars brought in for the event. Applications welcome from Doctoral and Masters’ level students from any university.

Registration for the 2013 Summer School: Queer Imaginaries will go live at http://estore.manchester.ac.uk on March 1st 2013.

For more information about the Sexuality Summer School, including details of previous events, see: https://sexualitysummerschool.wordpress.com, find our page on Facebook or tweet us @SSS_Manchester. You can also find out more information by contacting Clara Bradbury – Rance at sexualitysummerschool@gmail.com

 

Call for papers: FEMINIST SYMPOSIUM: Boundaries, Bodies, and Dissidence: Negotiating New Spaces of Feminist Knowledge, March 29, 2013

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FEMINIST SYMPOSIUM: Boundaries, Bodies, and Dissidence: Negotiating  New  Spaces   of  Feminist  Knowledge   on March 29, 2013

Florida Atlantic University’s Women’s Studies Graduate Student Association in collaboration with the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies proudly presents FAU’s 15th Annual Women’s Studies Graduate Student Association Symposium. 

We welcome scholarly work by graduate students from all disciplines. We hope to encourage lively debate about issues of common interest and encourage further work in the fields of gender and women’s studies issues. 

This symposium is an opportunity for graduate students to present their ongoing work, thesis proposals or research papers.

Graduate students in the Visual and Performing Arts are invited to submit proposals for exhibits or creative performances.

To apply, please submit a one-page abstract which includes:

(1) A brief description of the proposed topic

(2) An explanation of how the topic relates to Women’s Studies

scholarship or issues of feminist analysis

(3) A thesis statement

 

Individual or collective submissions are welcome. Please include your name, address, telephone number, e-mail, institutional affiliation and the title of your paper at the top of the page. Final decisions on the submitted abstracts will be sent no later than February 22, 2013.

 

All abstracts must be received by Friday, February 1, 2013.

Abstract submissions should be sent via email to: fau.wsgsa@gmail.com

For more information, contact Renata Bozzetto at rrodri68@fau.edu

The conference is open to the public. Arrangements concerning refreshments and guest speakers are pending.

 

Please join us in celebrating the  15th Anniversary of the WSGSA Symposium!

We welcome papers on the following topics including, but not limited to:

 Gender Justice

Global Feminist Issues,

Diaspora and Politics of Exile 

Feminist Philosophy 

Women’s Studies and

Feminist Pedagogy

Sexual Politics

Queer Studies

Feminist Cultural Studies

Media and Popular

Culture

Disability Studies

Feminist Critical Race

Studies

Environmental Justice

Feminist Approaches to

Science, Spirituality, Militarism,

Families, Reproduction, Labor,

Health or Violence

Taking Her Place Exhibition, January 28th to June 2nd 2013

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——————————————————————-
Update: the exhibition will be reopened for the Women in Public Service Institute!
July 7-19, 11:00 – 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday.
——————————————————————-

Taking her Place at the Rare Book Room Gallery in Canaday Library is open … Learn more about the exhibition launch.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to find out more about related exhibition events @GreenfieldHWE and email us if you have any questions at greenfieldhwe@brynmawr.edu.

Have you seen the exhibition? Tell us what you think!

If you have visited the exhibition and would like to share your thoughts and comments, please use the comments box below to do so.

Please note that by leaving a comment here you are agreeing for it to be made public and appear on this page. All comments are subject to approval by The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education.

If you would like to give feedback but do not wish to have your comment appear publicly, please feel free to email us at greenfieldhwe@brynmawr.edu

Taking Her Place Opening Talk: “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic … and Power: Education as Entry to the World”

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“If our sons constitute half the nation, our daughters compose the other half; if knowledge in polity, law, physic, or divinity, be necessary in the former; it is equally so, in some degree, in the latter. …surely no one will deny them the right of comprehending what are forms of government, what is right and wrong between man and man, how to preserve health or restore it, and which is the way to Heaven?”

–Sarah Howard, Thoughts on Female Education: With Advice to Young Ladies, 1783. You can read the full text on an iPad provided as part of the exhibition, Taking Her Place.

Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz

We are thrilled for the upcoming opening of Taking Her Place, the first exhibition of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education. The exhibition officially opens this coming Monday with a talk by renowned historian and biographer of M. Carey Thomas, Professor Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Professor Emerita at Smith College and a member of our Advisory Board. Her talk, entitled “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic … and Power: Education as Entry to the World” will take place in Carpenter Library B21 at 5:30pm. All are welcome to attend the talk, which will be followed by a reception in the Rare Book Room Gallery.

The exhibition will be on display in the Rare Book Room Gallery of Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr College, from January 28th until June 2, 2013. Through the collections of Bryn Mawr College, Taking Her Place illuminates a narrative of women expanding their roles beyond the domestic sphere by claiming their rightful place as educated members of their society, beginning with the roots of the movement in the eighteenth century and continuing into and beyond the twentieth century. More information about the content of the exhibition and its digital components is available in our previous post.

A second talk will take place on April 18th, given by Professor Elaine Showalter, Bryn Mawr College class of 1962, Avalon Foundational Professor Emerita at Princeton University. Professor Showalter is regarded as a founder of feminist literary criticism, and her impact on the field of women’s studies has been tremendous. Her talk will take place on Thursday, April 18th, 2013, at 5:30 pm in Carpenter B21.

Also look out for the special book shelf created by Olivia Castello and Arleen Zimmerle outside the exhibition space. This book shelf contains texts related to the themes in the exhibition. If you have any suggestions for texts that should be added, email us at greenfieldhwe@brynmawr.edu.

Watch this space for further announcements regarding the talk by Professor Showalter and special tours with the curators, Jennifer Redmond and Evan McGonagill, Director and Research Assistant of The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education. We encourage all to attend the exhibition, and we welcome your feedback!