University College Corkis hosting Women’s History Association of Ireland Conference 2023 Fri, 2from 6 May 2023 – Sat, 27 May 2023. The conference has a diverse programme of speakers from many disciplines, and this year’s keynote speakers for 2023 are Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne (UCC), and Professor Máiréad Enright (University of Birmingham).
Register to attend here.
Women’s History Association of Ireland Conference 2023
FRIDAY 26TH MAY
9.00 – 9.30am: Registration
9.30am: Opening remarks: Dr Deirdre Foley, UCC
10 – 11.30am: Parallel Panel One
Panel 1A:
Ukrainian Women in Politics and Activism: historical and artistic perspectives
Chair: Dr Olesia Zhytkova, DCU
Dr Mariia Huk, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, member of NGO Litopys Nezlamnosti
Women of Ukraine during the First World War and today: historical parallels
Dr Yuliia Topolnytska, European University, Kyiv
Social roles of Ukrainian women during the period of the aggravation of the crisis of
the Soviet system (1964-1985): legislation, propaganda, realities
Dr Maria Petrushkevych, National University of Ostroh Academy
The image of Ukraine – woman through the eyes of modern artists in the
context of the Russian-Ukrainian war
Panel 1B:
Revolutionary Voices
Chair: Susannah Deedigan, QUB
Katherine Ingram, QUB
‘Throwing stones at each other’: suffrage militancy in Ireland and its impact on unity in
the female enfranchisement movement
Niall Murray, UCC
Fighting for whose cause? Experiences of a ‘lady doctor’ under Irish revolutionary local
Government
Helen Litton, TCD
Kathleen Clarke: A Woman in Irish Politics, 1916-42
11.30am – 12pm: Break
12 – 1.30pm: Parallel Panel Two
Panel 2A:
Ukrainian Women in Politics and Activism: contemporary perspectives
Chair: Dr Mary McAuliffe, UCD
Dr Olesia Zhytkova, DCU
The corruption’s impact on women’s participation in politics and activism in Ukraine in the 21st century
Kateryna Prokopenko – wife of Denys “Redis” Prokopenko, Commander of “Azov” Regiment; the Head of “Association of the Azovstal defenders’ families”
The activity of the “Association of the Azovstal defenders’ families” in Ukraine (2022 – 2023)
Maria Ionova, Ukrainian Member of Parliament
Women in politics and activism in Ukraine in 2022 – 2023
Panel 2B:
Queer Irish Activism
Chair: Prof Laura Kelly, University of Strathclyde
Orla Egan, Cork LGBT Archive
Diary of An Activist: a social activism memoir
Niamh Scully, University of Oxford
Lesbians Are Everywhere: The Formation of Community Space by Queer Women in Ireland from the 1970s-1990s
1.30 – 2.30pm: Lunch
2.30 – 4pm: Parallel Panel Three
Panel 3A:
Reproductive Rights in the Republic
Chair: Dr Deirdre Foley
Dr Laura Kelly, University of Strathclyde
The Women’s Right to Choose Group, pro-choice activism and crisis pregnancy counselling in early 1980s Dublin
Dr Katherine Side, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Leaving Reproductive Justice Behind for International Protection Seekers
Panel 3B:
Women and Imprisonment
Chair: Judy Bolger, TCD
Susan Byrne, TCD
The ordinary female prisoner in the Irish Free State (1922-37)
Susannah Deedigan, QUB
“She will be the last to go out, & by that time she will have killed all these girls”: the Armagh women’s hunger strikes, 1943-4
Miren Mohrenweiser, QUB
Maternal Activism and the State in Northern Ireland, 1976-1981
Panel 3C:
Irish Women’s Writing and Biography
Chair: Dr Maeve O’Riordan, UCC
Michael Loughman, DCU
‘The Simple Life idealised by the Left Wing Politicals’: The writings of Máirín Cregan and the agrarian vision of the Independent Irish state
Orlaith Hickey, DCU
“A body of loss”: Marginalised women in the Irish written record and the role of the
Ainm biographical database in the recovery of women’s stories
4.00 – 4.15pm: Break
4.15 – 5.15pm: Keynote Address
Dr Máiréad Enright, University of Birmingham
7pm: Conference Dinner
SATURDAY 27TH MAY
9.30 – 10.00am: Registration
10 – 11.30am: Parallel Panel One
Panel 1A:
Women and State Welfare
Chair: Dr Martin Walsh, UL
Olivia Frehill, TCD
Women workers, the state and the impact of the 1911 National Insurance Act
Dr Fionnuala Walsh, UCD
Welfare, widowhood and the state in post-revolutionary Ireland
Suzanne Jobling, QUB
‘A Matter of Public Interest’: Fighting for Pension Rights in the Republic of Ireland
Panel 1B:
Female Veterans
Chair: Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne, UCC
Filippo Barsi, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa
Brutalization and Proudness: women’s prison experience during the Anglo-Irish War explained through Bureau of Military History’s Statements by witnesses, 1913-21
Sophia Traxler, QUB
‘It would have been ridiculous to expect women to have taken part under arms’: The
Gendering of Service-Based Pensions, Female Veterans, and the Irish Free State, 1924-1934.
Máire Hussey, University of Oxford
Reading revolutionary voices ‘against the grain’: situating the Military Service Pension
Collection within a history of Irish women and welfare
11.30am – 12pm: Break
12 – 1.30pm: Parallel Panel Two
Panel 2A:
Women, Work and Industry
Chair: TBC
Norma Owens (University of Galway)
Was the Cong Lace Industry better than Home Rule?
Dr Morgan Wait, UCD
‘If we were men they’d find other jobs for us’: Continuity Announcers at R/TÉ, 1962-73
Panel 2B:
State and Gender-Based Violence
Chair: Dr Deirdre Foley
Conall Ó Fátharta, Maynooth University
Saviours and Sinners: how Irish newspapers served to normalise the Magdalen Laundries as charity, 1920-1960
Ellen O’Sullivan, UCC
Masculinity, nationhood and femicide: gendered killings in Ireland, 1925-2018
Carmel Nolan, DCU
Gender-based violence policy in Ireland: the need for intersectionality and inclusivity
1.30 – 2.30pm: Lunch & WHAI Committee Meeting
2.30 – 4pm: Parallel Panel Three
Panel 3A:
The Legacy of Revolution
Chair: Dr Fionnuala Walsh, UCD
Emma Dewhirst, QUB
‘Behold in the grave today what was yesterday the symbol of your country, and is at this
moment the symbol of resurrection’: Women and the Shaping of Political Legacy
Jennifer Geraghty-Gorman, independent scholar
The Afterlife of a Cumann na mBan girl: ‘A life the size of a postage stamp’
Shannon Forde, independent scholar
‘A poor woman like me’ – The Military Service Pension of Margaret Forde, 1934 – 1962
Panel 3B:
Motherhood and Childhood
Chair: Judy Bolger, TCD
Georgia Ryan, University of Galway
They Have No Time to be Ill: Maternal Health in Galway 1900-1918
Dr Cara Delay, College of Charleston
‘Beyond My Powers of Description’: Motherhood and Suffering in the Great Famine
Dr Deirdre Foley, UCC
Working motherhood in Ireland, 1965-1990
Panel 3C:
Perceptions of Prostitution
Chair: Dr Jay Rozman, UCC
Molly Daly, MIC
The Regulation of Prostitution in 19th Century Ireland
Dr Mary Lawton, UCC
Creating the Literary Prostitute
4.00 – 4.15pm: Break
4.15 – 5.15pm: Keynote Address
Professor Lindsey Earner-Byrne, UCC
5.15 – 5.30: Closing remarks: Professor Diane Urquhart, WHAI President
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