{"id":5882,"date":"2025-03-18T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2025-03-18T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T11:32:00","slug":"cfp-feminist-enlightenment-politics-feministische-aufklarung-und-politik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5882","title":{"rendered":"CFP: Feminist Enlightenment Politics \/ Feministische Aufklarung und Politik"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday 25th-Saturday 28th June 2025
Monte Verit\u00e0, Ascona (Switzerland)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Keynote speakers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astrid Dr\u00f6se (Universit\u00e4t T\u00fcbingen), Sarah Richardson (University of Glasgow),<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ritchie Robertson (University of Oxford)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Women it is said have no business with politics.\u2014Why not?\u2019 (Charlotte Smith, Desmond (1792))
\u2018Demandons des Repr\u00e9sentantes \u00e0 l\u2019Assembl\u00e9e Nationale.\u2019 (\u00c9trennes Nationales des Dames (1789))
\u2018Die Weiber, nicht f\u00fcr \u00f6ffentliche \u00c4mter bestimmt sind.\u2019 (Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Grundlage des
Naturrechts (1796))<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debates about women and politics raged across Europe throughout the eighteenth
century. Although women were denied direct political representation, scholars have shown that
women were actively involved in the world of eighteenth-century politics. Far from being
unconcerned with contemporary politics, women attended public events such as the trial of
Warren Hastings (1787-1795) and debates at the Houses of Parliament in great numbers, facilitated
political discussions in salons across the continent, and were key figures in political campaigns such
as the 1784 Westminster election. In the wake of the French Revolution, women campaigned for
active citizenship, as Olympe de Gouges demanded in D\u00e9claration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne
(1782). Women were also instrumental in promoting abolition campaigns and reform movements.
As monarchs, empresses, queen consorts, and courtiers, women across Europe exercised political
power and authority through official and non-official channels.
\u2018Feminist Enlightenment and Politics \/ Feministische Aufkl\u00e4rung und Politik\u2019 is an
international and interdisciplinary conference which examines the role and presence of women in
eighteenth-century political debates across Europe. The conference brings together researchers
specialising in the long eighteenth century across Europe from the fields of literature, history,
philosophy, politics, and legal studies. It is part of the international project Feminist Enlightenment across Europe. (https:\/\/feministenlightenment.eu\/en\/ ). The conference is a bilingual event
(English and German). We also welcome papers in other languages (French and Italian) and will
offer to translate papers.
We will consider the following research questions, among others:
\u2022 What constitutes the political subject in Enlightenment Europe?
\u2022 How did the law influence debates about married and unmarried women and active
citizenship?
\u2022 Which media helped circulate women\u2019s political thinking and participation?
\u2022 Which forms of politics sought to achieve gender equality, and which actively sought to
prevent it?
\u2022 How did class, religion, and race intersect with reflections on (gender) equality?
\u2022 What tactics were developed after the Rousseau-like attack on the postulate of equality
designed in the early Enlightenment?
\u2022 How does the question of nation intersect with the universal impetus of Enlightenment
norms?
We invite abstracts for 20-minute papers focusing on the conference theme. Topics may
include but are not limited to:
\u2022 Debating societies;
\u2022 Women at court;
\u2022 Wives in the diplomatic world;
\u2022 Political theory from the perspectives of gender and race;
\u2022 The role of literature in political discourse;
\u2022 Networks of correspondence and sociability;
\u2022 Women and political practice;
\u2022 Politics and material culture;
\u2022 Women and local politics
\u2022 New approaches to teaching and researching gender and politics in the long eighteenth
century
Please send a 250 to 500-word abstract in the language of your choice and a short
biographical note to Anne-Claire Michoux (anne-claire.michoux@es.uzh.ch) by 1st April 2025.
Proposals are welcomed from scholars at all career stages. Acceptance will be communicated in
late March.
The conference will be held in the beautiful historical Monte Verit\u00e0 cultural centre,
overlooking Lake Maggiore and the Alps. We have secured subsidised accommodation rates.
Bursaries towards accommodation costs will be available.
Conference organisers: Anne-Claire Michoux (University of Zurich); Gideon Stiening (LMU
M\u00fcnchen)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 25th-Saturday 28th June 2025Monte Verit\u00e0, Ascona (Switzerland) Keynote speakers: Astrid Dr\u00f6se (Universit\u00e4t T\u00fcbingen), Sarah Richardson (University of Glasgow), Ritchie Robertson (University of Oxford) \u2018Women it is said have no… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5885,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/5885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}