Once more this past year has been busy with projects as well as our usual activities of conferences and workshops. What follows is a summary of what we have achieved in the last 12 months and what we are currently working on for the future.
Past
Our 2008 annual conference took place at EdinburghUniversity in November on the theme of ‘Gendering imperialism:home, colony and the construction of genderidentities’. Organised by Esther Breitenbach and Caroline Lewis the event brought together an international gathering of speakers and participants to discuss the variety of ways in which the empire was run and experienced in gendered ways. One of the great strengths of this event was the bringing together of historians of Scottish empire, Scottish historians of empire and historians from outwith Scotland working on the imperial project. Hence our keynote speakers featured John Mackenzie on masculinity and the British Empire, Adele Perry on imperial connections between Scotland and Canada, Andrea Major on sati in India and Clare Midgley (who gave the Sue Innes Memorial Lecture) on imperial feminisms.
Spring 2009 saw some of us in Dublin – WHS decamped its annual conference across the Irish Sea for a collaboration with the Women’s History Association of Ireland and supported by the Irish-Scottish Academic Initiative. We have long talked about the natural collaborative possibilities between our two organisations and this conference confirmed that our historians of women and gender have much to talk about – points of comparison as well as difference. A longer report on this event appeared in an earlier Newsletter but it should be mentioned here that the Sue Innes Memorial Lecture was given by Jane Rendall who skilfully entangled the histories of the two countries through the story of Matilda Tone.
Owing to the shift of our 2009 annual conference to the spring (for this year only) our 2009 Postgraduate workshop (and AGM) will take place in September 2009. More below.
WHS Leah Leneman Essay Prize: we had a good number of entries for the 2008 Prize suggesting that research on Scottish women’s and gender history is quite vibrant. We would like to thank all the entrants for their hard work and commitment to women’s history and as convenor I would like to thank the judges for their care in coming to a decision. The winner was Sarah Brown for 'Finding their Anger: Consciousness-Raising and the Women's Liberation Movement in Scotland'.
Current and on-going projects
In addition to these regular events members of the Steering Committee are involved in a series of projects, all of which seek to engender a dialogue between women’s and gender history research and public understanding and enthusiasm for the subject.
A small editorial group are taking forward a book project: a Documentary History of Women in 19th Century Scotland. Contracted to Edinburgh University Press this will be a collection of primary sources focused on a number of themes and introduced and annotated by the editors. We anticipate this will be a perfect accompaniment to our earlier publications, The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and Gender in Scottish History since 1700.
Looking forward to October of this year, WHS is working with the Gude Cause Committee to contribute to the commemoration and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1909 Suffrage parade in Edinburgh. In particular, some WHS members are involved in preparing short biographies of women (mainly from Edinburgh) who were involved in the suffrage movement at the time of the 1909 parade. These will supplement an exhibition on suffrage, to be held at The Museum of Edinburgh from 30 July to the end of the year. We will keep you informed of this and other Gude Cause events via the Newsletter and the website.
WHS has played a small part supporting the Leverhulme Trust funded project on Second Wave Feminism in the UK. Esther Breitenbach organised a witness workshop in Edinburgh in May where a number of former activists in the women’s liberation movement in Scotland came together to share their memories. We will be looking to develop spin offs from this project in the future.
A longer term project and currently still in its early stages is our work with Glasgow Women’s Library and Girlguiding Scotland on Memorials to Scottish Women. The aim is to build upon the list of memorials drawn from the Biographical Dictionary and to engage Scottish guides in the gathering and recording process. The intended end result will be a list of memorials to women around the country, to be available online.
Finally, we are collaborating with Glasgow Women’s Library on their ‘Mapping Scottish Women’s History’ project. The aim is to produce an online resource for people interested in researching women’s history in Scotland.
Future Events
2009 Postgraduate & Early Career Workshop: ‘The Past is Myself: Women’s Life Narratives and Women’s History’: Saturday 26 September, Merchiston Campus, NapierUniversity, Edinburgh. Our workshops are an opportunity for postgraduates and early career researchers working in the field of women’s and/or gender history to present some of their findings in a supportive environment. This year, owing to the migration of the annual conference to Ireland, we are expanding the remit of the workshop to include a keynote speaker, to inspire and inform those of us working in this interdisciplinary field. A call for papers will be posted on the website and emailed shortly.
Please note that the AGM will also be held at this event. If you are interested in standing for the Steering Committee please do approach a member of the committee in advance (details are on our website)
2010 Annual Conference: details have yet to be decidedbut we hope this will be held at a venue in the Highlands in association with University of the Highlands and Islands.
General WHS issues
The Steering Committee of WHS meets several times a year in order to review ongoing issues (membership, finances, publicity, etc) and to plan ahead. Membership of the Steering Committee is currently drawn from across Scotland and includes academics (early career and established), postgraduates and independent researchers. This is a combination that works well and that we will endeavour to maintain. There are opportunities for WHS members to join the Steering Committee at our AGM. Information about WHS and our activities is provided on our website www.womenshistoryscotland.org.uk and details of WHS activities and other gender and women’s history related events are circulated via our e-Newsletter which is also posted on the website.
If you have any suggestions or proposals for us please contact me or one of the Steering Committee members, or you can send us a message via the website. Once more I would like to thank everyone on the Steering Committee and those from amongst the wider membership who have contributed to our work over the past year.