June 18-20, 2014
Barnard College, New York City

Women and Community in the Ancien Régime: Traditional and New Media

Scholarly Focus

This three-day conference will feature research and teaching approaches that explore how women participated in and contributed to different kinds of community in medieval and early modern Europe.  Conference sessions will feature presentations based on texts and images in traditional manuscript and print format, as well as work that employs new technology and media projects. The conference will be interdisciplinary, and will consider the function and importance of female communities in the natural and social sciences, religion, literature, history, music and fine arts.

Presentation topics may explore women in:

• Medical communities; midwifery
• Religious communities and non-orthodox or heretical groups
• Salons and académies
• Women and the Republic of Letters
• Epistolary communities
• Literary circles
• Artists’ and performing artists’ communities
• Guilds
• Oral communities; storytelling

Resources and approaches used may include:

• Print and Manuscript format
• Digital resources of all kinds
• Online publication of texts and images
• Database design and creation
• Material culture and artifacts
• Film

This conference is co-sponsored by the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL:

We welcome three types of submissions:

1. Demonstrations/showcasing of existing projects which will include discussion of their creation and implementation for research and/or teaching
2. Abstracts for regular paper presentations
3. Proposals for entire sessions (including the names, titles, and abstracts of three/four presenters)

Regular papers will last for 20 minutes, and will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Project demonstrations will last for 30 minutes followed by 15 minutes of discussion. We ask participants to include the following information in their proposal:

1. Paper or Session title
2. Session type – Regular or Project Demonstration
3. 250 word abstract
4. Contact information and bio paragraph

The Committee will look at all the proposals and their compatibility with the sessions that are planned. As far as possible, we will try to avoid parallel sessions.

The language of the Colloquium will be English.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:

The deadline for submitting your proposal is October 1, 2013.

Please submit proposals by e-mail to the conference committee:

Prof. Laurie Postlewate: lpostlew@barnard.edu.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by October 15, 2013. Information about the conference, including registration, accommodation at negotiated favourable rates, will be provided early in 2014. We will periodically update information here.

We look forward to your participation,

The Conference Committee:

• Christine McWebb (University of Waterloo)
• Laurie Postlewate (Barnard College, Columbia University)
• Catherine Dubeau (University of Waterloo)