In addition to gender and religious affiliation, other social categories played a key role in the differentiation of social groups and the shaping of individual life projects in the early modern period: one of these categories is age. Research has already highlighted the age of individual Pietists, sometimes also mentioning gender-specific attributes. For example, it has been emphasised that the spouses in mésalliances were also of different ages, that generational differences occasionally played a role, that widows were accorded special agency, that sisters' choirs in Herrnhut were mixed-age institutions of the Moravian community, or that Pietist groups paid special attention to children. There has not yet been a systematic comparative exploration of the intertwining of gender and age in the context of Pietism. The working group Gender & Pietism calls for contributions to examine the interrelations or intersections of age and gender. The focus should not only be on old age, but all phases of life should be examined. Starting points might be the distinction between biological and social age postulated by the social sciences as well as the historical model of the staircase of life stages. Accordingly, the focus should be less on demographics and more on the analysis of socially constructed stages of life and notions about age.
Following the methodological suggestions of an intersectional approach, this workshop will explore various questions: when did age become an argument in the Pietist reform movement, and when did it play a prominent role together with the category of gender? When were age hierarchies suspended? How was age relevant in connection to other categories of difference? Even if the main focus is on interdependencies and intersections of age and gender, other social categories such as status or social rank must of course also be taken into account. Special attention should be paid to the link between dis/ability, religious virtuosity, and age in the context of global missions.
We expressly invite researchers from all historical disciplines to participate: Contributions from literature, art, and music studies are welcome, as are studies from the fields of history and church history. We are especially interested in cases in which age is explicitly addressed in sources originating from Pietist contexts and in which the contemporary significance can be explored. Case studies and theoretically attentive investigations are welcome.
The following thematic fields are possible:
- life from youth to widowhood and/or old age
- unequal marital unions
- dynamics of age-specific group formation
- illness, health, dis/ability
- conversion and mission: age and local affiliation, age in the global context of mission
- Leadership positions and fields of activity: Gerontocracy vs. spiritual giftedness of younger pietists
- age-specific forms of piety and spiritual virtuosity
- iconographic representations and their (contemporary) interpretations
Please send a short curriculum vitae with a meaningful synopsis (approx. 2500 characters) to Ulrike Gleixner gleixner@hab.de and Xenia von Tippelskirch xenia.vontippelskirch@hu-berlin.de by 31 March 2022. Subject to the approval of the requested funds, travel and accommodation costs may be reimbursed. Conference languages are German and English.
Auswahlbibliographie/ Selected Bibliography:
Ruth Albrecht, Ulrike Gleixner, Corinna Kirschstein, Eva Kormann, Pia Schmid (Hg.), Pietismus und Adel. Genderhistorische Analysen, Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen, 2018.
Matthias Bähr und Florian Kühnel (Hg.): Verschränkte Ungleichheit. Praktiken der Intersektionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit (Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. Beihefte, Band 56), Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2018.
Lynn Botelho, Old Women in Early Modern Europe. Age as an Analytical Category, New York: Routledge, 2013.
Tobias Delfs: Die Dänisch-Englisch-Hallische Indienmission des späten 18. Jahrhunderts. Alltag, Lebenswelt und Devianz, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2020.
Josef Ehmer, Das Alter in Geschichte und Geschichtswissenschaft, in: Ursula M. Staudinger, Heinz Häfner (Hg.), Was ist Alter(n)? Neue Antworten auf eine scheinbar einfache Frage, Berlin: Springer-Verlag 2008, 149-172.
Juliette Rennes, Âge biologique versus âge social: une distinction problématique, in: Genèses, 2019/4 n° 117, 109-128.
Daniel Schäfer, Old Age and Disease in Early Modern Medicine, London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011.
Pia Schmid (Hg.), Gender im Pietismus. Netzwerke und Geschlechterkonstruktionen, in Zusammenarbeit mit Ruth Albrecht, Ulrike Gleixner, Eva Kormann, Katja Lißmann u. Christian Soboth, (Hallesche Forschungen 40), Halle: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen, 2015.
Pat Thane, Das Alter: eine Kulturgeschichte, Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchges., 2005.