CFP

Association of Ireland Annual Conference,  University College Dublin, 15–16 May 2020    CFP

We are delighted to announce that the 2020 WHAI annual conference will be 15-16 May at UCD, on the topic: ‘Besieged bodies: gendered violence, sexualities, and motherhood’

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers from any field in the humanities/social sciences on themes that include, though are not limited to:

Gendered or sexual violence in war and revolution

The wartime gendered body

History of sexualities

LGBT history

History of intimacy and emotion

Histories of birth control, abortion and reproductive rights and activism

Pregnancy and motherhood

Religious violence and institutionalism

War, violence and trauma

Propaganda, war and gender

Violence and the nation

Applicants are asked to send a short biography (100-150 words) and a 250 word abstract to Dr Mary McAuliffe and Dr Fionnuala Walsh at WHAIMAY2020@gmail.com by 15 January 2020. Panel proposals for papers of 20 minutes should consist of three 150-word abstracts, all three biographies, and the name of a chair, if possible. All other inquiries may be directed to the same address.

Cancellation: Women’s History Association of Ireland Annual Conference,  15–16 May 2020

Due to the ongoing coronavirus / COVID 19 pandemic it is with deep regret that we announce the cancellation of the WHAI 2020 annual conference, scheduled to be held in UCD on 15/16 May.   In the interests the safety of our keynotes, panellists, WHAI members, students and interested parties who would have attended WHAI 2020, a conference in UCD is not feasible at this time. We thank you all for your patience as we waited on COVID-19 updates and weighed this very difficult decision. The WHAI has held an annual conference since its foundation and it was not an easy decision for any of us to make.

We plan on holding this conference, with the same title and same themes, in April/May 2021, again in UCD. We would hope to have the same keynote speakers and many if not all the same speakers / panellists. As ever we appreciate the great scholarship and support you all bring to Irish and other women’s/gender histories and we dearly hope to hear and/or see you at WHAI events soon. We will keep you all updated as to our plans for WHAI 2021 once this difficult time has passed.

In the meantime, we hope you and yours are all keeping safe and well. We are hugely disappointed with this turn of events, but we shall be back, bigger and better than ever, in 2021.

Report on the 2021 online conference

In 2021 the WHAI explored new ways of holding its annual conference and of reaching its members in Ireland and abroad. The WHAI conference was scheduled to be held in UCD in May 2020 but because of the Covid crisis, it had to be postponed to 2021. The conference organisers Dr Mary McAuliffe (UCD Gender Studies) and Dr Fionnuala Walsh (UCD History) took the decision to move to a novel online conference format with the programme spread over four Fridays in March 2021. This decision was vindicated by the large attendance at the conference with more than 1000 attendees over the four days.

The conference was titled “Besieged bodies: Gendered violence, sexualities and motherhood”. It showcased innovative new research by fifty scholars from Ireland and abroad in fields of women’s history and gender history. The conference themes included pregnancy, maternity care, and motherhood; birth control and abortion; sexual and gendered violence; LGBT histories; and institutionalism and trauma. 

The papers spanned across time and place, exploring these issues from medieval to the contemporary period and including comparative perspectives from the United States, China and continental Europe. The conference demonstrated the strength and breadth of women’s history and gender history in Ireland and, indeed, elsewhere.

Recordings of the keynotes and podcasts of the Decade of Centenaries papers are available here: http://historyhub.ie/whai-annual-conference