WHAT: Call for Papers Masculinity(/ies) – Femininity(/ies) in the Middle Ages Workshop
WHEN: 2nd – 3rd March 2016
WHERE: German Historical Institute Paris
DEADLINE: 4th January 2016

In the Middle Ages, gender was a crucial principle of classification, which structured social contacts and organised life in society. The ways in which masculinity and femininity were constructed as being opposed and/or complementary to each other, as well as how these notions influenced the realities of men’s and women’s lives in this time, must be read as a mechanism facilitating a conception of the world that relied on binary structures. The workshop »Masculinity(/ies) – Femininity(/ies) in the Middle Ages« wants to bring together young researchers and experts in this field. It aims to analyse what being masculine or feminine in medieval societies meant and how gender structured social configurations. Temporal, spatial, cultural, social, religious, as well as many other parameters and contexts are very important for these questions, which is why this call for papers offers a deliberately broad focus.

Papers might consider masculinity/ies and femininity/ies, gender norms and configurations of gender –

from the beginning of the Middle Ages to their end, –

in dynastic centres/ monasteries/ cities/ in the rural areas (gender and behavioural norms specific to social status, spatiality of gender …), –

in peaceful situations of contact (rituals, festivities, commercial relationships …), –

in situations of conflict (war, juridical quarrels …), –

in religious centres and movements (feminine/masculine piety …), –

in different religions, –

in poetry, scholastic literature, didactical discourses

… but also in how they relate to the body, sexuality etc. The workshop is also interested in the potential otherness, ambiguity and potentials of transgression within a binary gender configuration, which is based on hegemonic notions of masculinity and femininity. The Workshop will comprise talks by Geneviève Bührer-Thierry (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Klaus van Eickels (Bamberg), Natasha Hodgson (Nottingham) and Christof Rolker (Konstanz/Zürich) and will be concluded with a lecture given by Didier Lett (Paris7 Diderot), and commented on by Claudia Opitz (Basel) within the conference cycle »Les Jeudis de l’Institut historique allemand«. Travel costs for participants will be covered and accommodation for two nights can be provided. The publication of the proceedings is intended. The talks and discussions will be held in German, French and English; active skills of one and at least passive comprehension of the other two languages are required.

The Call for Papers is addressed specifically to graduate students of history (or researchers in adjacent disciplines), as well as more senior academics. To apply, please send a cover letter (including details of language skills), an abstract of the planned presentation of 30 minutes (no more than 350 words), and an academic CV in one document (pdf) to Constanze Buyken (cbuyken@dhi-paris.fr) until the 4th of January (subject line: »CFP Masculinities – Femininities«). See more here.