2024 Conference Report

The WHAI Conference 2024 took place in Queen’s University, Belfast on 26 and 27 April 2024. The theme this year was Irish women and relationships from medieval to modern history, and we had a range of papers focusing on everything from love potions to women’s relationships with national identity. Over seventy-five delegates attended across the two days, coming from universities across Ireland, Britain and further afield in Italy and Canada. Fortunately, they were able to enjoy good weather in Belfast and even some appropriately coloured flowers in the Quad.

The conference kicked off with an Early Career Researcher workshop where we heard from three established academics on viva preparation, creative teaching and applying for post-doctoral funding. Dr Marie Coleman provided reassuring advice for anyone in the room approaching their viva, highlighting that you are an expert on your topic. She also recommended bringing a searchable copy of your thesis on a laptop and a water bottle into the examination. Dr Leanne Calvert spoke about how creative practice has been helpful in getting students involved and gave great insight into how we can make assessment more accessible in future teaching. In the final of the three conversations, Dr Frances Nolan demystified the post-doctoral funding process and emphasised the importance of recognising and highlighting your own skills when applying. Over twenty ECRs attended the workshop, and it was lovely to get such a large group working on various aspects of Irish women’s history together!

Throughout the two-day conference, thirty-two presenters gave thirty-one papers on ten panels as well as two fascinating keynotes. The themes of the sessions were broad, ranging from love to biography to sport and leisure. On Friday afternoon, Melissa Shiels’ paper was a particular standout as it was delivered in full Tudor regalia. Melissa then returned the next morning to provide context to Laura Fitzachary’s paper on the eighteenth-century Irish woman and her toilette. The panel on love was another stand-out and an excellent way to end the conference. Dr Clodagh Tait discussed mishaps with love potions, Deborah Wilson talked about the scandalous marriage of Lady Dufferin and Dr Shannon Devlin revealed the tumultuous courtships of a set of cousins. All three provided both great insights into how Irish women approached love but also a lot of laughter.

The conference sparked a lot of interesting discussions, whether in the questions sections, over coffee during the breaks or at dinner, and it was lovely to spend two days exploring so many different areas of Irish women’s history. The wide array of papers, with diverse topics like Lucy Wray’s on the milk-sponsored Northern Irish beauty pageant searching for a Dairy Queen, showed just how much exciting and innovative work is going on in the field of Irish women’s history at present.

This year’s WHAI Conference received funding from a range of different sources and we’d like to thank: Queen’s Agility fund, the Northern Bridge Consortium (AHRC), Athena Swan, WHAI, Queen’s Gender Initiative and Queen’s Graduate School.

Rachel Newell, WHAI Postgraduate Representative

2024 Conference call for papers

The Women’s History Association of Ireland’s annual conference will take place at Queen’s University Belfast on 26-27 April 2024. The broad theme for this year is ‘Irish women and relationships from medieval to modern history’.

We welcome papers on the following topics:

• Irish women’s relations with political organisations, figures and campaigns 
• The relationship between Irish women and the church
• Women, gender and sexuality in Ireland
• Irish women’s relations with newspapers, the press and social media
• Women and criminality in Ireland
• Irish women’s interpersonal relationships
• Women and the family in Ireland
• Irish women’s friendships
• Irish women’s relationship with the world
• Women and sport in Ireland

Papers on other topics which relate to the theme are also welcome.

Abstracts of between 250-300 words and a short biography should be sent to whaiconference2024@gmail.com on or before 12 January 2024.

The Women’s History Association of Ireland welcomes contributors at all career stages and international participants. 

Once accepted, we will endeavour to prioritise speakers with caring responsibilities according to their scheduling needs. Rascals Day Nursery on the Upper Lisburn Road offers limited day-rate child-care services on weekdays. For information on this, please see https://www.rascalsdaynurseries.com/rascals-day-nurseries.

For further information and updates about the conference, please see https://womenshistoryassociation.com/ or follow us on X @WHAIreland.

Conference organisers: Katherine Ingram, Rachel Newell and Sophia Traxler