Gender & History announces $1000 prize for best paper given by a
graduate student at the 2014 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

The editors of Gender & History and Wiley-Blackwell invite graduate
student presenters at the 2014 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians
to submit their papers in advance to be considered for the Gender &
History Graduate Student Paper Prize to be awarded at the conference.
The winning author(s) will receive a cash prize as well as an invitation
to submit an article-length version of their paper for consideration for
publication in Gender & History. Papers should be sent electronically as
Word or PDF documents to Emily Bruce at gendhist@umn.edu by April 7,
with name and other identifying information removed from the document.
Applicants should indicate departmental and institutional affiliation in
the accompanying e-mail.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Early Modern Women, Religion, and the Body
22-23 July 2014, Loughborough University

Plenary speakers: Professor Mary Fissell (Johns Hopkins) and Dr Katharine Hodgkin (University of East London)

With public lecture by Alison Weir (evening of 22 July, Martin Hall Theatre): ‘”The Prince expected in due season”: The Queen’s First Duty’

This two-day conference will explore the response of early modern texts to the relationship between religion and female bodily health. Scholars have long observed that understandings of the flesh and the spirit were inextricably intertwined in the early modern period, and that women’s writings or writings about women often explored this complex relationship. For instance, how did early modern women understand pain, illness, and health in a religious framework, and was this different to the understanding of those around them? Did women believe that their bodies were sinful? And were male and female religious experiences different because they took place in different bodies?

We invite proposals that address the relationship between religion and health, and the spirit and flesh, with a focus on female experience in any genre in print or manuscript. Genres might include medical, literary, religious, autobiographical, instructive, and rhetorical writings.

Topics might include, but are not limited toL

• Methods of recording or maintaining bodily and spiritual health
• The function of religion/faith in physiological changes (e.g. pregnancy/childbirth/nursing/menstruation)
• Illness, providence, and interpretation
• Suffering as part of religious experience and conversion
• Spiritual melancholy, madness, demonic possession, or witchcraft
• The physical effects of prophesising/preaching
• Chastity and religious life
• Spiritual and physical births/reproductive tropes
• Ensoulment and pregnancy
• The miraculous or martyred female body
• The body and sin
• Uses of the Bible in medical treatises

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers, complete panels, or roundtable discussions. Suggestions for discussions on pedagogical approaches to teaching the above topics are also welcome.

Please send abstracts of 300 words for 20-minute papers, or longer proposals for panels or roundtables, to Rachel Adcock, Sara Read, and Anna Warzycha at emwomen@lboro.ac.uk by 31st January 2014.

The Editorial Board of the Journal of Women’s History is proud to
announce the second biennial prize for the best article manuscript in
the field of women’s history authored by a graduate student.  Article
manuscripts in any chronological and geographical area are welcome.

Manuscripts should not exceed 10,000 words, including endnotes, and
should follow the University of Chicago *Manual of Style*, 16th edition.
Please also submit an abstract of no more than 150 words that summarizes the
argument and significance of the work.  We seek work that has broad
significance for the field of women’s history in general by addressing
issues that transcend the particulars of the case or by breaking new
ground methodologically.

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically, along with a cover
letter specifying the author’s graduate advisor, program, and status (i.e.,
year in program, ABD, etc.), by January 1, 2014 to each member of the
committee: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, chair <wu.287@osu.edu>, Vera Mackie <vera@uow.edu.au>, and Lora Wildenthal <wildenth@rice.edu>.

The winning author will receive $3000, and the article, after the normal
process of revision, will be published in the Journal of Women’s
History.

The prize will be awarded in May at the Berkshire Conference in Toronto.

Call for Papers

“Gendering the Carceral State: African American Women, History, and Criminal Justice”

The Journal of African American History (JAAH) is planning a Special Issue on the historical experiences of black women in the criminal justice system. Over the last few decades, the U. S. prison system has witnessed unprecedented expansion, with the number of state prisoners moving from 200,000 in the late 20th century to just over two million in the early 21.st African Americans have been disproportionately represented in the prison population, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the total prison and jail population. A growing body of work has begun to examine mass incarceration, currently and historically. However, the focus is often on the experiences of African American men.

This Special Issue of the Journal of African American History, with guest editors Kali N. Gross and Cheryl D. Hicks, seeks scholarly essays documenting the historical experiences of African American women in the carceral state. Essays focusing on a broad cross-section of issues such as crime, violence, policing, poverty, shifting laws, and penal reform in relation to African American women are welcome.

Among the topics to be considered in this Special Issue of the JAAH are: 1) disproportionate arrests and incarceration rates; 2) juvenile justice; 3) gendered and/or sexual violence; 4) regulation of black female sexuality; 5) the impact of poverty, racism, and stereotypes on the policing and incarceration of black women’s bodies; 6) the impact of legislation, especially drug laws, on African American women and their families; and 7) international comparisons of the impact of carceral practices on women in various locations in the African Diaspora and Africa.

Essays should be no more than 35 typed, double-spaced pages (12 pt. font), including endnotes. The JAAH uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition (Chicago, IL, 2010) for citations. Guidelines for manuscript submissions are available in The Journal of African American History and on the JAAH website: http://www.jaah.org/. Submitted essays will be peer reviewed. Your cover letter should include the title of your essay, name, postal address, e-mail address, phone number, and fax number. Your essay should begin with the title of the essay and should NOT include your name.

Please send four (4) hard copies of your manuscript to:

Profs. Kali Gross and Cheryl D. Hicks, Guest Editors c/o V. P.
Franklin, Editor
The Journal of African American History
University of California, Riverside
GSOE -1207 Sproul Hall
900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA 92521

Email: vpf1019@aol.com; or jaah@jaah.org

Submission Deadline: 15 January 2014

The Fifth Sons of the American Revolution Annual Conference on the American Revolution
Women in the Era of the American Revolution
Colonial Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Virginia
June 20-22, 2014

The Sons of the American Revolution and Colonial Williamsburg, with support from the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture, invite proposals for papers to be presented at a conference that will examine and reconsider our understanding of the lives of women during a time of political and economic upheaval, social change, and armed conflict that we call the “era of the American Revolution.”

Papers may examine any dimension of women’s lives and gender roles at this time. During a period of significant disruptions in daily life and changed expectations of what a woman’s place in a marriage, the household, and the community “ought” to be, they assumed multiple roles. They displayed patriotism by supporting boycotts of British goods and encouraging manufacturing at home; they raised funds to feed and clothe the troops; they supported the family by managing the farm or family business while a husband fought; some followed the armies in supporting roles; and some were soldiers. Others remained loyal to the British crown. Over these years, they wrote poetry, essays, plays, and fiction, exchanged letters with family members and friends, and kept journals. These records, public and private, yield countless stories that allow us to construct a fuller, more complex, narrative of the period.

The papers should explore in the broadest sense the war’s impact on women’s lives. They may focus on individuals or women as a group, and they need not be strictly confined to the years between the Stamp Act and the Treaty of Paris. The topics may reach back into the colonial era or up into the early nineteenth century as long as they demonstrate a connection to the events of the Revolution. We anticipate that the conference will provide an opportunity and a congenial forum in which to recognize and build upon the pioneering scholarship of generations of historians and at the same time we hope that it will stimulate new research by junior scholars. The resulting conversations and debates will contribute to the critical ongoing effort to understand women’s lives and experiences during the era of the American Revolution.

Publication of accepted papers in an edited volume is anticipated. The SAR will cover presenters’ travel and lodging expenses and offer a $500 honorarium.

Proposals should include a 250-word abstract and a short C.V. and must be submitted by December 1, 2013, to Barbara Oberg (boberg@Princeton.edu), Department of History, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544.

This conference will be dedicated to Pauline Maier (1938-2013), a leading scholar of the American Revolution and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Re:Humanities is the first national digital humanities conference of, for, and by undergraduates, now in its fourth year. Our theme for Re:Humanities 2014 is “Play. Power. Production.” The Re:Hum Working Group, comprised of students from Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore Colleges, seeks undergraduates who engage with contemporary currents in digital humanities, scholars who both apply digital methodologies in traditional humanities research while posing critical humanities questions about those technologies. We invite undergraduates who will think interdisciplinarily, theorizing relationships between new digital technologies and the webs of power and access that surround them. The Working Group welcomes submissions of criticism and projects at all stages of development, with the understanding that a substantial amount of research will be accumulated to present at the conference at Haverford College, April 3-4, 2014.

We encourage proposals that are concerned with but not limited to:

* Postcolonial Studies, Queer Studies and New Media Studies.
* Criticism of New Media Technologies.
* Collaboration and Solidarity in the Digital Humanities.
* Game Analysis, Design and Play.
* Digital Production and “Maker” Culture.
* Performance and Affect in Participatory Media
* Appropriation Culture: Theory and Practice.
* Global and Transnational Perspectives on the Digital Humanities.

Students selected to present will receive a small award to defray travel costs. Lodging will be arranged at no cost to participants.

The submission deadline is December 1, 2013 (Midnight GMT) and decisions will be announced before the new year.

All submissions must include your name, institution, a short biography of 2-3 sentences, and a titled description of your project (maximum 700 words). Send a .doc/.docx, .pdf or .jpg file to rehumanities@gmail.com. (We are happy to accommodate you if your submission requires a different format. In this case, please contact us at least seven days in advance of the due date).

We look forward to your participation!

The Re:Humanities 2014 Working Group

Queer Feminine Affinities

Edited by Alexa Athelstan & Vikki Chalklin
Extended Call for Submissions
Deadline Friday 17th January 2014
queerfeminineaffinities@gmail.com

For more information about Queer Feminine Affinities, and the original call for submissions, please see www.queerfeminineaffinities.wordpress.com

We were delighted to receive an overwhelming and exciting response to our initial call for submissions to Queer Feminine Affinities. However, we are still seeking additional submissions on a number of as yet underrepresented topics. With this extended call we specifically welcome work that engages with the following themes:

Intersectional femininities

Contributions addressing intersections of femininity/femme with other aspects of embodied experience. We particularly encourage submissions pertaining to femininities of colour and questions of “race,” ethnicity, racism and anti-racism, as well as those attending to dis/abilities, (mental) health and ableism, and intersecting with issues of class, religion, and cultural differences of various kinds.

Trans* and non-binary fem(me)ininities

Submissions exploring various crossovers and relationships between femininity/femme and masculinity, femaleness/maleness, queer, or a combination of these. We are especially keen to solicit contributions examining trans*, non-binary, intersex, and/or genderqueer fem(me)ininities including transgender and transsexual women and men who identify as femme or feminine.

Critical hetero-femininities

Does queer or alternative femininity have to mean LBG? What space is there in gay, straight, or queer cultures/communities for critical, radical, or queer heterosexual/straight femininities or femmes?

(Non-)Geographically Located femininities

What is at stake in femme/femininities that are located either geographically or within other (virtual/affective/ephemeral) communities? In particular towns or cities, regions, or countries? What are the specificities of a Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish queer feminine identity or what is the experience of femininities in the north, south, east or west of England? How does this relate to experience of feminine/femme embodiment outside of the UK? What are the roots and routes of femininities embodied and enacted through and across diasporas and other transnational communities and relationships?

This is not a purely academic project. Creative and personal reflections on femme/femininity are just as valuable for this project as academic essays, and all styles of written and visual contributions that can feasibly be reproduced in a printed book format are welcome. These may include but are not limited to the personal, autobiographical, creative, political, passionate, fictional, collaborative, humorous, lighthearted, and fanciful.

The editors are willing to negotiate the precise length of any submission within the remit of our overall book length, up to a maximum length of 5,000 words for all written contributions.

Please send a 300 word proposal and a short biography to Alexa and Vikki at queerfeminineaffinities@gmail.com by Friday 17th January 2014.

Archive/Image. New Archival Epistemes in the Digital Landscape

March 7-8, 2014 Open Society Archives, Central European University (Budapest)

This conference aims to bridge the gap between contemporary digital archival practices and academic theory regarding the image of and the image in the archive. It is only through studying the historicity of visual practices and the historical imagination that we can understand the potential of new technologies. Until now, it is only the history of science that has investigated the role of the image as an epistemic tool.

Given the growing role of visual material in both researching and presenting historical data, and leading on from recent research endeavors in arts, media, film and literary studies to explore changes in the notion of the archive in the digital era, we invite dialogue between theorists and practitioners on the following questions: What are the images and concepts that frame our understanding of both traditional and digital archives today? What new approaches are developed when working with visual imagery in the archives? How do visual representations of historical data shape users’ expectations and influence the identity of archival institutions? How might scholars influence the forms that knowledge takes in digital environments?

Prospective participants are invited to envisage their intervention at one of the proposed panels:

1. The evolution of historical/scientific imagination and archival practices

2. Audio-visual collections and new archival epistemes in the digital era

3. Digital humanities potential in archival practices

4. Performing the archive

5. Displaying evidence

Scholars and specialists in the fields of history, archival science, media studies, film studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and other related areas of the humanities are invited to apply and to explore the new challenges in conceptualizing, exhibiting, and working in the archives. Organized on the premises of an archival laboratory, the event seeks to establish a new scholarly network of archival and research institutions, to examine the nature and function of the archives both in historical and contemporary contexts.

Please email an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short CV to visualizing.archives@gmail.com by December 5, 2013. The conference will take place on March 7-8, 2014 at OSA Archivum (www.osaarchivum.org)

Partial travel grants can be provided to the participants from the region on a competitive basis. Please submit a brief justification for your travel grant request along with the conference abstract.

Dr. Ioana Macrea-Toma
Dr. Oksana Sarkisova
visualizing.archives@gmail.com
www.osaarchivum.org

Email: visualizing.archives@gmail.com
Visit the website at http://www.osaarchivum.org/press-room/announcements/ArchiveImage-Conference-Call-Papers

The Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages welcomes submissions for its annual awards.

The 2013 Florence Howe Award
Each year, the Florence Howe Award for feminist scholarship recognizes two outstanding essays by feminist scholars, one from the field of English and one from a foreign language. Each recipient receives $250 and is honored at an event hosted by the Women’s Caucus at the annual MLA meeting.
To be eligible for consideration, essays of 6250-7500 words, written from a feminist perspective, must have been published in English between June 2012 and September 2013. Applicants must also be members of the Women’s Caucus.
Please send submissions and inquiries to: Kirsten Christensen, Associate Professor of German, Department of Languages and Literatures, Pacific Lutheran University at kmc@plu.edu. Deadline for submission: November 30, 2013.

The 2013 Annette Kolodny Award
The Annette Kolodny Award is presented annually to a graduate student member of the Women’s Caucus who is scheduled to give a paper at the MLA. The recipient receives $400 and is honored at an event hosted by the Women’s Caucus at the annual MLA meeting. To apply, please send electronic copies of your CV and abstract, as well as information on the MLA session in which you are scheduled to present, to: Kirsten Christensen, Associate Professor of German, Department of Languages and Literatures, Pacific Lutheran University at kmc@plu.edu.
Please note that applicants must be members of the Women’s Caucus. Deadline: November 30, 2013.

For further information about these awards and about the Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages, including membership, go to: http://www.wcml.org/