Toward a History of Women's Political Thought, 1400 - 1800
An international conference funded by the Australian Research Council
Hosted by the School of Philosophy & Bioethics,
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
10-13 July 2005
About the conference
The intention of this conference is to move beyond studying women's ideas largely as a contribution to the history of feminism and to begin integrating them into the broader history of political thought. The conference is part of an ARC-funded project to write a history of women's political thought that incorporates women's ideas about love, marriage, and relations between the sexes into the broader context of women's developing notions of the importance of liberty and legitimate power in the state.
The notion of political thought is interpreted widely to include both discussions of power and social relations between the sexes, as well as discussions of power and legitimacy in the state. Women from different historical periods and geographical regions have been studied by specialists, but there are few works that bring together the insights of scholars working on women political thinkers from across the four centuries and the various regions of Europe that are encompassed by our project. With this conference and in subsequent publications we hope to fill this lacuna.
We are seeking both in-depth discussions of the political ideas of individual women thinkers, and overviews which trace the development of ideas, relationships between different thinkers, and connections and contrasts with male political theorists. We invite papers on the political aspects of the thought of women such as Christine de Pizan, Constanza Varano, Laura Cereta, Cassandra Fedele, Helisenne de Crennes, Marguerite of Navarre, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Louise Labé, Olympia Morata, Katerina Zell, Archangela Tarabotti, Moderata Fonte, Marie Le Jars de Gournay, Lucrezia Marinella, Argula von Grumbach, Madeleine de Scudéry, Queen Christina of Sweden, Anna Maria von Schurman, Madame de Motteville, Margaret Cavendish, Gabrielle Suchon, Mary Astell, Catharine Macaulay, Olympe de Gouges, Mary Wollstonecraft, Marie Jodin, and others. We expect to publish an edited collection incorporating a selection of the papers from the conference, and we hope that this collection will provide a unique resource in the history of women's ideas.
The conference is organised by Dr Karen Green and Dr Jacqueline Broad, of the Philosophy Department, Monash University.
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Hilda L. Smith, University
of Cincinnati.
Prof. Sarah Hutton, Middlesex University.
Prof. Patricia Springborg, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
/ University of Sydney.
Ms Ariane Bergeron-Foote, L'Ecole
Pratique des Hautes Etudes.
Titles/abstracts
Click to download in pdf format.
Programme
The conference will begin on Sunday evening, 10 July, at 7 pm and will finish on Wednesday, 13 July, at lunchtime.
Click to download the preliminary programme in pdf format.
Venue
Alliance Française de Melbourne
17 Robe St, St Kilda
Melbourne, VIC 3182
URL : http://www.alliancefrancaisemelb.asn.au
Contact us
Dr
Karen Green
School of Philosophy and Bioethics,
Monash University.
Ph: +61 3 9905 3225
Email:
Karen.Green@arts.monash.edu.au
Dr
Jacqueline Broad
School of Philosophy and
Bioethics, Monash University.
Email: Jacqueline.Broad@arts.monash.edu.au