The Habsburg queen of Naples-Sicily, Maria Carolina (1752-1814), navigated a life marred by revolutionary social upheaval, geopolitical restructuring, dynastic competition, and concurrent personal tragedies and triumphs. As a foreign consort to the Bourbon monarch of Naples-Sicily, she encountered xenophobic hostility and countless challenges to her influence at court. As a reform-minded individual, she helped to enact wide-ranging alterations to society and state in southern Italian world. As a thrice-exiled figurehead, she experienced first-hand the harsh difficulties of political instability and contested legitimacy. And, as a queen she employed her position as a power to shape the fortunes and paths of dynasties across Europe. More than a mere ‘arch rival’ to Napoleon Bonaparte, Maria Carolina represents the myriad experiences of a female ruler during a period of dynamism and irrevocable change.
We see Queen Maria Carolina of Naples-Sicily as a prism, or more precisely as an intersection of overlapping crossovers that enables us to contextualise broadly defined social, economic, and political developments of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This crossover should be analysed both vertically—through social hierarchies—as well as horizontally across geographic regions throughout Europe in this period. In this context, Maria Carolina of Naples-Sicily serves as a primary starting point and as a model for wider considerations of rulership, gender, societal change, familial status, and political participation as well as geopolitical shifts and dynastic integration and competition. We therefore seek to address the following themes and questions:

Gender
- To what extent did the reformist efforts of Maria Carolina and Ferdinand IV reflect the wider application of enlightened ideals within European states? In what ways did social structures in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily alter between 1750 and 1820? How much of this change should be attributed to the ruling elites and monarchs themselves both in Naples-Sicily and, comparatively, across Europe?
- In terms of pace such industrialisation or revolutionary waves, were certain social alterations particular to the Italian peninsula or did they occur upon a wider European scale? What, for example, can account for the narrative of the contrast in developing speeds and modes between the northern and southern Italian regions?
- Regarding revolution and wartime upheaval, what did the loss of the rule of law mean for different strata of the populace? How were threats to life (and ways of life) expressed emotionally and physically?
- Finally, on a more general level, how do categories of gender, social standing, religious affiliation and denomination relate to each other within the context of Naples-Sicily and on a European scale?

Society
- To what extent did the reformist efforts of Maria Carolina and Ferdinand IV reflect the wider application of enlightened ideals within European states? In what ways did social structures in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily alter between 1750 and 1820? How much of this change should be attributed to the ruling elites and monarchs themselves both in Naples-Sicily and, comparatively, across Europe?
- In terms of pace such industrialisation or revolutionary waves, were certain social alterations particular to the Italian peninsula or did they occur upon a wider European scale? What, for example, can account for the narrative of the contrast in developing speeds and modes between the northern and southern Italian regions?
- Regarding revolution and wartime upheaval, what did the loss of the rule of law mean for different strata of the populace? How were threats to life (and ways of life) expressed emotionally and physically?
- Finally, on a more general level, how do categories of gender, social standing, religious affiliation and denomination relate to each other within the context of Naples-Sicily and on a European scale?

Networks
- In relation to Maria Carolina’s political agenda in Naples-Sicily, we must ask how she conceived of her actions and from where she drew her inspiration. What influence did dynastic relations in places such as Brussels, Florence, or Vienna impart upon her? And, more generally, how influenced were foreign-born consorts by their respective home regions and wider familial networks? To what extent can we see this as an expression of transdynasticism?
- Similarly, against whom did Maria Carolina measure herself? To whom did she look for comparison? And who in Europe looked towards Naples for inspiration and influence?
- What insights emerge when we fix our focus upon Naples-Sicily during this period as a place of sustained Mediterranean entanglements? What economic and political networks emerge from this centre and vice versa? How did the role of Naples-Sicily change over time in determining the wider internal Mediterranean space?

The keywords of the conference title alert, but do not limit us to these potential crossovers and wider contemplations on the era of Maria Carolina’s life and reign. In developing domestic and international perspectives on these themes, we expect to reinvigorate understandings of gender and political participation by combining recent lessons gleamed from new political history and intersectionality. In doing so, this approach not only broadens our conceptualisations of Neapolitan-Sicilian history but also our perception and comprehension of Maria Carolinas as well.

The conference will be held at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, between Thursday 8 and Friday 9 of September 2022. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered. The conference language will be English. We plan on an in-person meeting but also anticipate the need for proof of vaccination and recovery (2G) in order to attend. In to be considered for the event, please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words along with a short summary CV of no more than half a page to Ellinor Forster via ellinor.forster@uibk.ac.at by 30 April 2022.