Researching Holocaust was gender blind until recently no matter that gender as an analytical category is vital in understanding mechanisms of discrimination. The pioneering works scholars such as Ringelheim, Goldenberg, Weitzman, and Ofer approached the question with theoretical zeal. This conference aims to focus on Jews in Central Europe (excluding Germany and Austria, where these questions have already been discussed extensively) from a comparative interdisciplinary perspective defining common points for further research in the field of arts, history, narrativity, representations and visuality.
Special emphasis is given to questions:
- What are the new fields in Holocaust study where gender is used as an analytical category?
- What are the intersections of national and transnational frames of researching gender and Holocaust?
- What can we learn from the intersectional analysis of religion, gender and sexuality?
- How to avoid essentialising gender categories in research?
- How opening up archives in former communist countries influenced the research on gender and Holocaust?
- What was the impact of communist historiography on forming the memory of Holocaust and gender?
- How do new media (internet and social networks) open up new possibilities for feminist pedagogy in the field of teaching Holocaust?
- What kind of methodological and theoretical innovations are useful in giving new insights in researching gender and Holocaust?
- The gendered nature of ego-documents from the Holocaust
- The gendered representation of Holocaust-stories from Central Europe in post WW II societies
Deadline for submitting 300 word proposals and a 100 word resume is 15th March, 2011 to the address: womenandholocaust@gmail.com. Presenters will be notified by 1st June, 2011.