Women in Transition: Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries

Please note: this event has passed

This international, multilingual conference will bring together scholars, students and writers as well as sociologists, psychotherapists and clinicians working around the world. By choosing a thematic focus on ‘transition’ in women’s lives, we will be presenting research on women who have described how they have crossed biological, geopolitical, political borders as well as emotional, sexual, cultural and linguistic boundaries. The international approach, with speakers representing different cultures, and invited authors and artists, will help to emphasise the links and connections that bind women together, rather than those which separate them. We consider the ways in which the changes and transitions women undergo influence the world we live in. We will especially be looking at the idea of crossing borders and how this influences identity and belonging, and the theme of crossing boundaries in the context of motherhood and grand-motherhood as well as gender and sexual orientation.

The topic is timely given the waves of migration all around the world in recent times, and the uncertainty about what Brexit legislation will mean, especially for transnational women and their families. Issues around gender equality and women’s empowerment are central in our times. Gender and sexuality are also concepts that are changing, with gender and sexual fluidity being part of understanding women identities.

The presence of established writers, filmmakers and artists from different countries, as well as academics and practitioners, will enable discussion of the practice of re-presenting one’s own life, and the transitions one has gone through, as well as the theory. The conference will present research on contemporary European women’s writing as well as women’s lives from around the world and will enable networking between colleagues from different disciplines and institutions and at different stages of their careers.

This event is being planned in association with the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing (CCWW) at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR). With the support of the TORCH (University of Oxford); Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (King’s College London); Instituto Cervantes Londres, and the Camões Centre (King’s College London).

Organizers: Maria-José Blanco (SPLAS, KCL; CCWW), Claire Williams (Portuguese, University of Oxford; CCWW)

Guest Speakers: Marta Sanz (Spanish writer); Mònica Rovira (Catalan filmmaker); Adalgisa Giorgio (Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath); Joanna Walsh (Writer, editor, illustrator and blogger based in the UK and Paris); and the launch of Take 6 (Six Portuguese Writers) Introduced by Hilary Owen, with Margaret Jull Costa (editor), and the writers Hélia Correia, Teolinda Gersão and Lídia Jorge

The conference will start on Thursday 20 September at Strand Campus, King's College London and will continue on Friday 21 September and Saturday 22 September at St Peter's College, Oxford.

You can register for all three days (£175 GA or £125 concession) or for individual days (£80 GA or £60 concession).

For more information, visit the website: https://transitionwomen.wordpress.com/

As part of the conference, we have 4 events free and open to the public and there are now open for registration: