Call for Papers: Mothers and Fathers in the Pre-Modern World, c.1000-1800, deadline 31 December 2021

Date / time: 23 April, 12:00 am

Call for Papers: Mothers and Fathers in the Pre-Modern World, c.1000-1800, deadline 31 December 2021

 

Mothers and Fathers in the Pre-Modern World, c.1000-1800: A hybrid conference at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge and online on 23 April 2022

Parent-child relationships were a near ubiquitous feature of life in the past. However, historians often study them from child-centric perspectives, concentrating on bodily- and task-focused experiences such as feeding, educating, working, and discipling, rather than on the experience and meanings of motherhood and fatherhood. This conference puts mothers and fathers at the centre of the debate. It seeks to readjust our views of parent-child relationships by situating them in the context of the life-cycle, and by considering the diverse ways in which those relationships functioned or malfunctioned at various stages in a life. This conference hopes to both acknowledge the independent reality of being a mother or a father while simultaneously recognising the relation dynamic of being a parent.

Please send a c.250-word abstract and short biography to premodernmothersandfathers@gmail.com by 31 December 2021.

This conference is possible with the generous support of the Women’s History Network.We encourage submissions from humanities scholars, and especially encourage graduate students and ECRs to apply. Funds will be available for travel expenses. Please note that the in-person aspect of this conference is dependent on COVID restrictions. If necessary, we will host the entire conference online.

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