Transnational and global history have become intriguing fields of research for young historians. Dissolving the containers of national history writing to look at transnational networks, cross-border movements or spatialisation processes, long-standing assumptions in historical research are being constantly challenged by innovative doctoral projects which look for connections and transfers rather than reinforcing nation-state containers. At the same time, historians such as Angelika Epple and Christoph Dejung ask the highly valid question, “was it a man’s world?”, when it comes to the failure of this critical and ever-growing field to include the achievements of women’s and gender history into the research scope of global and transnational history. The doctoral workshop is intended to map out the intersections and crossovers between Gender History and Transnational and Global History, by taking a collective look at participants research projects.

Argument

Transnational and global history have become intriguing fields of research for young historians. Dissolving the containers of national history writing to look at transnational networks, cross-border movements or spatialisation processes, long-standing assumptions in historical research are being constantly challenged by innovative doctoral projects which look for connections and transfers rather than reinforcing nation-state containers. At the same time, historians such as Angelika Epple and Christoph Dejung ask the highly valid question, “was it a man’s world?”, when it comes to the failure of this critical and ever-growing field to include the achievements of women’s and gender history into the research scope of global and transnational history. With the aim of bringing the multiple debates and approaches from the two fields into a fruitful conversation, we are interested in addressing the following questions:

1. Methodological and theoretical questions

How to conceptualize Gender and Women’s history in relation to Global, transnational and entangled history? What does it mean to integrate a gendered perspective into work on global and transnational history, or when applying a global and transnational perspective to a question related to gender? How do we integrate critical thinking from these fields whilst avoiding anachronism in our use of categories, or is this at all necessary? 

2. Construction of categories of difference

How were categories of difference (i.e. Gender, Race, Sexual Identity, Class, Religion, Ethnicity, Nationality etc.) defined, policed, negotiated in different times and periods? How did they intersect with each other in different contexts? 

3. Re(construction) of Gender Roles in Global Religions, Spiritualism and Traditional Medicine

How have unequal power relations inherent in religious activities shaped gendered institutions, structures and participation? How have cosmological and mythological accounts in various global communities, whether from pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial contexts, been reflective of cultural fluidity?  How has the foundational role of gender influenced the histories of cultural worship, ancestral identity, ritualism and spiritual therapies?

4. Breaking the Silence in the Archives

How do we deal with the silence of so many missing voices in the archives? What strategies are in place to read against the grain, thus making it possible to give voice to those which are officially inaudible? How do archives function as an instrument of power and how have “counter-archives” and archives of social movements challenged this power by contributing to the historiography? 

In reflection of the challenges, ideas and debates already at play, we would like to invite doctoral students to a workshop in which we collectively take a critical look at gender and women’s history through the lens of global and transnational history. 

Submission guidelines

Doctoral students are invited to submit a 250-350 word paper proposal along with a short bio

by the 15th of January 2021

to lauramaria.frey@unibas.ch. We welcome proposals focused on all world regions and are particularly interested in empirically based research.

We have secured some funding for travel and accommodation. Please indicate in your application where you will be travelling from, if you would be able to cover part or all of your travel costs. The workshop will be held in English. 

General Information

Dates: 3-4 June 2021

Venue: University of Basel should the COVID situation allow, otherwise the event will be online

Organisers

• Ruth Ennis (Uni Leipzig),
• Tolulope Esther Fadeyi (Uni Basel),
• Laura Frey (Uni Basel)