HomeGender, Memory and Sources
Gender, Memory and Sources
Genre, mémoire et sources
Published on Tuesday, September 03, 2024
Abstract
This conference will focus on the links that can be observed between gender and memory in textual and iconographic sources. This conference belongs to a cycle created by the Structure Fédératrice de Recherche ALLHiS, and as such, will focus more specifically on the analysis of the sources used by researchers. This conference aims at questioning the ways in which memory and gender are represented, whether it be in written sources (manuscripts, literary or legal texts…), iconographic sources (photos, statues, paintings…) or immaterial sources (ethnographic data). The aim of such a study is to welcome works based on the study of as many different sources as possible, which will enable researchers to construct an interdisciplinary overview of these sources that aims at being diverse rather than exhaustive.
Announcement
The conference will take place on April 10th and April 11th 2025 at Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Étienne.
Argument
From a methodological and historiographical perspective, this conference aims at questioning gender and memory as two fields of research which have increasingly come under scrutiny over the last decades. This effort first started with Maurice Halbwachs’ Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire and La mémoire collective, which were published in the 1930s, and since then, memory has become a field of research in its own right, permeating other areas belonging to human and social sciences from the 1980s onwards. This phenomenon has led T. Späth to define the 1980s as a “memorial turning point”, following the spatial turning point inaugurated by Pierre Nora’s Lieux de mémoire. Since then, the field of research has thrived in various disciplines relating to human and social sciences, which points at an ever-growing questioning of how memories are constructed, kept and used by individuals as well as by political, cultural or social figures throughout history. In the wake of the numerous works that have brilliantly demonstrated the relationship between memory and space, it has become increasingly necessary for researchers to take into account the influence of gender over the memorial process. The term “gender” first appeared in the 1970s, as a psychological and psychiatric tool, and allows for a distinction between the biological sex and the social sex, although this short definition only grazes the surface of gender studies. Numerous authors have taken advantage of the intersection between gender and other fields of research to significantly enrich their understanding of the sources at their disposal, and in the wake of American cultural studies, the issues of gender and memory were first questioned as a whole in 1996, in Selma Leydesdorff, Luisa Passerini and Paul Thompson’s Gender and Memory. Questioning memory and gender together allows for a new understanding of gender as a social and political object – especially in terms of rights or moral and political duties – , but also for a systematic study of the erasure suffered by the individuals that were deemed to be deviant or hostile to the governing body and of their resistance against their erasure. Finally, this questioning creates new challenges regarding the role played by memory and how various social strata have made use of it.
Propositions can include (but are not limited to):
- A theoretical reflection on the way memorial writings deal with gender: although history and memory cannot be mistaken for one another, conflating both methods can sometimes lead to an anachronistic reading of past behaviours. Anachronisms, however, can still give way to fertile understandings by enabling researchers to appreciate the past in light of how it is currently received, which, in turn, allows for a better understanding of present norms and behaviours. Nevertheless, this process cannot be thought of as a straightforward questioning, since it entirely depends on the context the study takes place in. It therefore appears relevant to historicise memory through a gendered understanding of sources.
- An observation of how gender impacts the memorial process: memory cannot be neutral[1]. Reminiscing is an intrinsically social behaviour, as it remedies a lack. The memorial process is therefore that of a reconstruction which is entirely dependent on its social setting, as our perception of the past is shaped by our present understanding it. This, in turn, leads us to emphasize or conceal specific aspects of this reconstructed past, which explains why there is no androcentric memory in patriarchal societies, for instance.
- An analysis of memory in actuality: some societies – like the Ancient Roman one, for instance – build their understanding of the world according to past models as vehicles of central values. Catherine Baroin calls this process “memory of the present[2]”, as the past remains very much present, since it acts as a moral compass omnipresent in space, speeches and behaviours. It therefore appears particularly interesting to study how memory was used and understood throughout time and space.
- A study of the concept of memory and of the canonical: in collective memory, whether it be within the field of gender studies or memory studies, women and gender minorities tend to be made invisible, resulting in a marginalizing process of these minor memories, which the canons reflect, being mainly androcentric and ethnocentric. It could thus prove particularly fruitful to question the intersections between the memorial process and the canons as a way to legitimise works, whether literary or more generally belonging to the arts. How can the artistical canons be reassessed, in order to become more inclusive and remedy the discriminating memory process against minorities? Can the canons become a safeguard for the collective memory that was erased?
- A recension on a recent scientific publication renewing the methodological approach to gender, memory and sources. Such a proposal should be part of a general bibliographic reflection, putting forth how the concept has evolved in the different scientific fields.
Candidates should :
- Hold a master’s degree (M2 equivalent) or be in the process of earning it, be a PhD candidate or a young Dr: this conference aims at creating a space for young scholars to discuss their research.
- Send a short abstract (300-400 words), focusing either on the aspects aforementioned or on a recently published scientific work dealing with the same aspects.
- Send a short biography mentioning the name of their university and their research unit, their level of study, their research object as well as anything they would have published.
Participants wishing to apply to communicate in pairs are welcome, especially if their communication includes an interdisciplinary or international perspective.
Propositions should be sent no later than December 1st 2024
to seminaireallhis2025@gmail.com
All propositions will be answered by December 15th, 2024.
Papers from the conference will be considered for publication before the end of 2026.
Scientific committee
- Adrien Bresson, doctoral student in Latine language and literature at Université Jean Monnet de Saint-Étienne (HISOMA).
- Noémie Cadeau, doctoral student in comparative literatures at Université Jean Monnet de Saint-Étienne (ECCLA).
- Blandine Demotz, doctoral student in English literature at CY Cergy-Paris Université (Héritages).
- Jonathan Raffin, doctoral student in Roman history at Université de Poitiers (HeRMA).
Bibliography
Altınay, Ayşe et Pető, Andrea, Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories: Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence, Londres, Routledge, 2016.
BAROIN Catherine, Se souvenir à Rome. Formes, représentations et pratiques de la mémoire, Paris, Belin, 2010.
BRUIT ZAIDMAN, Louise et SCHMITT PANTEL, Pauline, « L’historiographie du genre : état des lieux », dans Problèmes du genre en Grèce ancienne, Violaine Sebillotte Cuchet et Nathalie Ernoult éds., Paris, Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2019
Downs, Laura Lee, Writing Gender History, Londres, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010
HALBWACHS, Maurice, Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire, Paris, Albin Michel, 1994.
HOUZÉ-ROBERT, Emmanuelle, « La mémoire n’est pas neutre. Souvenirs de femmes à la Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Nantes », Travail, genre et sociétés, n° 14, 2005, p. 109-128.
LEYDESDORFF, Selma, PASSERINI, Luisa et THOMPSON, Paul Richard, Gender and Memory, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.
NORA, Pierre, Les lieux de mémoire, Paris, Gallimard, 1997.
POLLOCK, Griselda, Differencing the canon: feminist desire and the writing of art’s histories, New York, Routledge, coll. « Re visions », 1999.
RADSTONE, Susannah et HODGKIN, Katharine éds., Regimes of Memory, New York, Routledge, coll. « Routledge studies in memory and narrative », n° 12, 2011.
RIOT-SARCEY Michèle, « L’historiographie française et le concept de ‘genre’ », Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, n° 47-4, 2000, p. 805-815.
SPÄTH, Thomas, « Au lieu des Lieux, les actes de mémoire. Figuration du passé et pratiques sociales », dans Une mémoire en actes. Espaces, figures et discours dans le monde romain, Stéphane Benoist, Anne Daguet-Gagey, Christine Hoët-van Cauwenberghe éds., Villeneuve d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2016, p. 23-46.
Tamboukou, Maria, Gendering the Memory of Work: Women Workers’ Narratives, Londres, Routledge, 2016.
Notes
[1] According to Emmanuelle Houzé-Robert, « La mémoire n’est pas neutre. Souvenirs de femmes à la Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Nantes », Travail, genre et sociétés, n° 14, 2005, p. 109.
[2] Catherine Baroin, Se souvenir à Rome. Formes, représentations et pratiques de la mémoire, Paris, Belin, 2010.
Subjects
Places
- Université Jean Monnet campus Tréfilerie
Saint-Étienne, France (42)
Date(s)
- Sunday, December 01, 2024
Attached files
Keywords
- genre, mémoire, source
Information source
- Adrien Bresson
courriel : seminaireallhis2025 [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Gender, Memory and Sources », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, September 03, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/128ir
