Gender History

In an effort to better understand constructions of gender in
ancient Greece and ancient India, this paper will compare
ideas about the female soul, self and body present in ancient
Greek philosophy, especially Plato’s, and early Indian
philosophy. Using the comparative method, the paper will
identify and analyze the parallel elements of the societies of
the Aegean and South Asia, through the use of primary
sources like ancient Greek philosophy and history, as well as
ancient Indian texts like the Upaniṣads and the Mahābhārata.
For nearly two centuries scholars have used the comparative
method to illuminate aspects of both Greek and Indian culture.
Recently, Matthew Dillon has stressed that much common
ground exists between Greek and Indian thought in the Axial
Age (Matthew Dillon, 2000) while Wendy Doniger has argued
that Greek and Indian mythologies reveal respective female
characters that are more alike than Greek and Indian male
characters and that gender is more important than culture,
especially when comparing Greek and Indian attitudes about
men and women. (Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, 1999)
Scholarship on ancient Greek and Indian ideas about gender
has flourished as well. But few studies have viewed the
ancient Greek and Indian concepts of the soul through
feminist and comparative lenses. This presents an interesting
space in which to consider ancient Greek and Indian ideas
about gender and the soul.
The paper begins with both a review of the comparative
method as a tool for evaluating ancient history and a survey of
comparative scholarship regarding the soul, metempsychosis,
and gender in ancient Greek and Indian culture. By analyzing
key passages from the Upaniṣads it shows the many
similarities present in early Greek philosophy and ancient
Indian philosophy. In particular, the paper will show that
ancient scholars in both cultures, around the same time, were
working with the same repertoire of ideas. Women were
important actors in both cultures, especially in religious
activities. Yet they were also defined, for the most part,
negatively because of their bodies. Female bodily functions
like menstruation were ritually dangerous and in both cultures
a case can be made that women were seen to be at the
mercy of bodily needs like desire, more than men. At Timaeus
90e­91a, Plato describes female souls as failed versions of
the male soul, a fact proven by their weak bodies. However,
philosophical musings about the soul made by the female
ascetic intellectual Sulabha in the Mahābhārata, suggest that
body­ soul dualism did not have to result in the concept of an

Abstract
I beni della nobiltà nel Friuli moderno: un quadro d’insieme e alcuni casi di rivendicazioni maschili e femminili a cavallo del confine
La realtà geopolitica presa in esame è quella del Friuli moderno, spartito, dopo la caduta del dominio temporale dei Patriarchi di Aquileia nel 1420, tra i territori soggetti alla Repubblica veneta (la cosiddetta Patria del Friuli) e le terre della Contea di Gorizia, direttamente parte dei domini asburgici dal 1500.
La presenza di un confine che divideva sistemi costituzionali -  Repubblica e Impero - e politici diversi – si pensi all’importanza del confine nazionale che dall’Ottocento divide Italia e Austria – ha favorito in molta parte della storiografia e fino ad anni recenti, un’interpretazione spesso oppositiva della nobiltà in età moderna. Di quest’ultima sono state sottolineate soprattutto le divisioni, l’organizzazione in fazioni, la perdurante conflittualità legata alle diverse inclinazioni politiche e ideali per l’una o l’altra realtà statuale.
In questo saggio ci si propone di abbandonare questa prospettiva meramente “politica” e di comprendere meglio le relazioni che legavano o opponevano le famiglie nelle pratiche sociali e giuridiche relative ai patrimoni e derivanti dal matrimonio o dalla successione. A questo scopo si è portata l’attenzione sui beni personali e familiari, sui diritti di proprietà, sulla trasmissione, sulle rivendicazioni che interessano diversi tipi di beni. L’obiettivo è quello di analizzare, grazie ad alcuni casi specifici, quali fossero i comportamenti e le scelte che in queste occasioni uomini e donne dell’aristocrazia adottavano.
Nella prima parte del saggio si fa cenno al quadro giuridico e istituzionale, mettendo in luce gli elementi che accomunano le due aree territoriali e che hanno una comune radice nel precedente periodo patriarcale. Le Costituzioni patriarcali costituiscono infatti riferimento per le raccolte giuridiche provinciali - sia della Patria del Friuli che del Friuli asburgico - elaborate o modificate nel corso dell’età moderna. In questo senso, le leggi che regolamentano il godimento dei beni, i diritti successori, la dote fanno riferimento ad un quadro normativo sostanzialmente condiviso ma in cui i caratteri della tradizione giuridica germanica e di quella romana si vengono affiancando. Diversi i sistemi amministrativi e gli apparati di giustizia dai due lati del confine e diversi i canali di difesa degli interessi della nobiltà e le possibilità di contrattazione con il potere centrale, sebbene si rintracci in entrambe le aree divise dal confine una matrice comune segnata dal particolarismo e da una perdurante impronta feudale: città “capoluogo”, comunità, assemblee di rappresentanza territoriale e cetuale, feudi e giurisdizioni di diverso peso.
Manca tuttavia una lettura complessiva e comparativa che descriva insieme Friuli veneto ed asburgico da questi punti di vista e soprattutto manca un’analisi approfondita delle pratiche oltre che delle norme che tenga conto del diverso agire di uomini e donne nelle rivendicazioni e nei conflitti che si aprono per la difesa dei rispettivi diritti. Con l’obiettivo di tessere una storia sociale del confine e delle sue élites che leghi storia della famiglia e prospettiva di genere, il saggio propone tre spunti di riflessione a partire da alcuni casi di studio che hanno come oggetto beni di diversa entità e importanza.
Nel primo si mettono in relazione le rivendicazioni economiche e patrimoniali di alcune famiglie della più importante aristocrazia locale con le strategie politiche dei casati medesimi mostrando, attraverso esempi tratti sia dalla documentazione istituzionale che dalle carte di famiglia, come gli interessi e gli accordi privati di alcuni membri non possano essere correttamente interpretati se non si tiene conto, più ampiamente, del quadro politico generale e della conflittualità nobiliare che interessa il Cinquecento friulano e che oppone o stringe i casati di appartenenza di questi soggetti.
Il secondo livello di analisi riguarda alcuni casi di trasmissione di beni tra famiglie a cavallo del confine: beni il cui godimento (o la cui rivendicazione) è legata a matrimoni contratti tra soggetti di famiglie venete e asburgiche. Le situazioni di conflitto fanno emergere le difficoltà della gestione giudiziaria transfrontaliera che può protrarsi per più generazioni, le differenze di genere nella conduzione delle cause ma anche spesso il ricorso a pratiche extragiudiziarie che si richiamano ad un universo di valori ideali e che la nobiltà condivide.
Un ultimo livello di analisi fa cenno – con il ricorso ad alcuni esempi tratti sempre dalla documentazione privato-familiare -  alla diversa entità dei beni rivendicati: piccoli oggetti personali o, all’estremo opposto della scala, beni feudali. Si analizza in particolare la posizione delle donne relativamente alla scelta di trasmettere i primi o di vantare diritti di titolarità dei secondi.

No es este un libro de fácil consulta, ni por sus dimensiones ni por su contenido. Sexe, race et colonies. La domination des corps du xv e siècle à nos jours es una monumental obra colectiva de 1.200 imágenes y 17 capítulos sobre el nexo histórico entre sexualidad, categorías raciales y colonialismo. A través de cinco continentes y siete siglos de explotación sexual, el libro documenta sin reparos la ingente producción visual en la que se apoyaron colonizadores de orden diverso para construir a sus súbditos coloniales como "otros". Detrás del volumen hay un equipo de 97 investigadores que durante cuatro años ha rastreado 320 archivos y colecciones privadas de Europa y Estados Unidos. El resultado ha sido la selección de las 1.200 imágenes -grabados, pinturas, ilustraciones, carteles, postales, fotografías-que se incluyen en la obra. Estas valiosas fuentes primarias, en gran parte inéditas, se reparten entre los 17 capítulos escritos por los cinco coordinadores del volumen y sus colaboradores. Todo ello presentado en un libro de gran formato, con una altísima calidad en la reproducción de las imágenes. Las publicaciones lujosamente ilustradas sobre sexualidad y colonialismo no son ninguna novedad en el mundo editorial francófono, como demuestran los títulos Harem colonial...

В статье рассматриваются причины и особенности изменений ситуации в отношении женского образования на примере Петербургского политехнического института. Главным препятствием развития женского технического образования являлась консервативная политика царского правительства, видевшего в предоставлении права девушкам получения высшего образования угрозы роста революционных настроений и аморального поведения студенчества. Несмотря на это, женское высшее техническое образование за период с начала до 20-х гг. XX в. сделало большой рывок вперед. На то было сразу несколько взаимосвязанных причин: позиция прогрессивных членной академического сообщества, признававших совместное обучение частью реформ образования, стремление самих девушек и, наконец, политика пришедших к власти большевиков, не только декларировавших равноправие мужчины и женщины, но и на практике осуществлявших борьбу за его соблюдение.

[Open access via https://doi.org/10.3167/asp.2019.130104]
Based on some forty duels that took place in Athens between 1870 and 1918, this article examines the different connotations middle-class dueling assumed in the political culture of the period. Drawing on newspaper articles, monographs, domestic codes of honor, legal texts, and published memoirs of duelists, it reveals the diversified character of male honor as value and emotion. Approaching dueling both as symbol and practice, the article argues that this ritualistic battle was imported to Greece against a background of fin de siècle political instability and passionate calls for territorial expansion and national integration. The duel gradually became a powerful way of influencing public opinion and the field of honor evolved into a theatrical stage for masculinity, emanating a distinct glamor: the glamor of a public figure who was prepared to lay down his life for his principles, his party, the proclamations he endorsed, and his "name."

Women Speak Nation underlines the centrality of gender within the ideological construction of nationalism. The volume locates itself in a rich scholarship of feminist critique of the relationship between political, economic, cultural, and social formations and normative gendered relations to try and understand the cross-currents in contemporary feminist theorizing and politics.The chapters question the gendered depictions of the nation as Hindu, upper caste, middle class, heterosexual, able-bodied Indian mother. The volume also brings together interviews and short essays from practitioners and activists who voice an alternative re-imagining of the nation.

Margarita de Austria (1480-1530), quien iba a ser reina de España por su matrimonio con el prín-cipe Juan de Castilla y Aragón, heredero de los Reyes Católicos, por los caprichos de la fortuna pasó casi la mitad de sus años como gobernadora de los Países Bajos y fue regente de su sobrino el emperador Carlos V. Su vida ofrece la oportunidad de examinar la mentalidad dominante de hace 500 años, pues su personalidad y su entorno reflejan la complejidad de un mundo en transición, un mundo que se verá dramáticamente transformado con el Descubrimiento de América. La colección originaria de las Indias que atesoró en la corte de Malinas adquiere un nuevo significado pues supone la expresión de propiedad y poderío por parte de la dinastía Habsburgo sobre las nuevas tierras. Su familia es la mano que, por intercesión del poder divino, rige los designios de Europa y del Nuevo Mundo y así lo atestiguan sus colecciones. 

Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), who was going to be Queen of Spain for her marriage to Prince Juan of Castile and Aragon, Catholic Kings' heir, by the whims of fortune she spent nearly half of her years as Governor of the Netherlands, she was the regent of his nephew the Emperor Charles V. Her life offers us the chance to examine the five hundred years ago's leading understanding, as her personality and enviroment reflect the complexity of a changing world, a world that will be dramatically transformed with the Discovery of America. The Indies' collection that she treasured in the Court of Mechelen, achieves a new meaning which claims that the property and rule of the new lands discovered belong to the Habsburg dynasty. Her family, through God's mediation, governs Europe and the New World, and her collections evidence it.

IVRA: Romans, Visigoths and Byzantines. An experience of teaching innovation in the key of gender
The experience presented aims, on the one hand, to cover the need to create teaching materials in which cross-cutting, interdisciplinarity and gender and citizenship competences were its main thread so that they could be used in legal studies and, especially, in the framework of the subjects related to Roman Law. On the other hand, it aims to be an experience in teaching innovation, which has resulted in the realization of scientific research on the subject. All this has been carried out by a group of essentially interuniversity and multidisciplinary teachers. In addition, the transfer of results obtained has exceeded the university level to reach society in general. Keywords: Teaching innovation, women, Roman law, teaching materials, interdisciplinarity.

Why do they kill?
The publication in 1992 of Christopher R. Browning’s Ordinary Men raised crucial, previously unasked questions about the Holocaust: what made the members of a German police battalion - “middle-aged family men of working- and lower-class background” - become mass murderers of Jewish children, women, and men? How does motivation tie in with other factors that prompt participation in the “final solution”? And what can survivor accounts convey about genocide perpetration? Reflecting on the work of one of the field’s most influential scholars, the twenty essays in this book explore the evolution and application of Holocaust historiography, identify key insights into genocidal settings and point to gaps in our knowledge of humanity’s most haunting problem.

This paper analyses the role played by the female religious community of San Zaccaria in the political, social and religious context of the Venetian Dogado during the Early Middle Ages. On the one hand, by comparing the convent with the other Venetian male and female monasteries, the study clarifies that the community exercised a more or less incisive role in representing first the doge’s family, then the entire city, during a specific timeframe. On the other hand, the analysis
reveals to what extent the functions the monastery exercised were influenced by events external to the Dogado or by developments within San Zaccaria itself.

This article engages with the idiosyncratic dwelling practices of khwajasara, a Pakistani gender-variant subjectivity better known as hijre in the larger South Asian context. As a prevalent type of khwajasara household, the dera plays a paradigmatic role in their homecoming narratives; whether as a post-home, the refuge from an unhomely natal familial house and a terrorising school environment, or as an intermediary bodily, spiritual and communal sanctuary on a journey towards one’s Home after post-home. Anchored in the idea of the dera, and especially as intimated to me on a late September afternoon in Lahore, this article zigzags through khwajasara’s historical and present-day multi-local experiences of homecoming, which is posited here as both spatial and identitary journeying towards collective thereness. As a property of dwelling with kindred souls, I argue that thereness equips khwajasara with exploratory senses of the subject, including, at times, those of being otherworldly and nomadic. Such thereness disrupts the very idea of settlement and allows the dera and its inhabitants to not only transgress communal boundaries—such as those of gender, religion, ethnicity and language—but also to construe home as a journey, not a destination. At the same time, it reveals various productive anxieties about khwajasara’s—or, indeed, everyone’s—classed, urbanised, economised and gendered home-life.

Gender Studies sind ein faszinierendes Phänomen: Mit einem oszillierenden Status zwischen einem Fach mit eigenen Studiengängen, einem „Fächerverbund“, einem Forschungsgebiet bis hin zu einer Methodik bzw. einem „akademischen Konzept“ entziehen sich die Gender Studies erfolgreich einer Festlegung und durchdringen inzwischen gleichzeitig fast alle akademischen Fächer. Durch die thematische Ausweitung auf die Bereiche Sexualität, Inklusion und Migration sind Gender Studies außerdem Träger bzw. fester Bestandteil von Diversitätsforschung, Queer Studies, Post- bzw. Decolonial Studies und Disability Studies.
An deutschsprachigen Hochschulen gibt es zur Zeit etwas mehr als 200 Professuren mit einer spezifischen Ausrichtung auf Gender, die auch die Begrifflichkeit explizit in ihrer Denomination führen, sogenannte Gender-Professuren. Hinzu kommt ein Netzwerk von Forschungszentren, Forschungsverbünden, Instituten und Projekten. Die Zahl derjenigen, die sich allein im deutschsprachigen Raum als Gender-Forscher verstehen, geht in die Tausende. Durch die Einbindung in das System des Gender Mainstreamings werden die Gender Studies massiv durch staatliche Institutionen gefördert, obwohl sie die gängigen Standards wissenschaftlicher Methodik nicht erfüllen.

The British General Post Office (GPO) was one of the leading employers of women in Britain between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, first as telegraph operators and later in telephone exchanges.  However, there were ongoing private discussions within the GPO as to the physical capabilities of women as well as suitable working facilities and traditionally gendered spaces and occupations.  These discussions shaped wireless telegraphy as a highly gendered and exclusively masculine profession until the exigencies of the First World War led to limited opportunities for women as domestic wireless operators for the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) from 1917 onwards.

The Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters Research Hub (SHaME) and École française d’Athènes are pleased to share details of a one-day conference taking place on 18 October 2019 at the École française d’Athènes in Athens, Greece.
This one-day conference has been organised to better our understanding of sexual violence in Greece, Britain, the US, and France and is focused on three themes:
1. Histories of sexual violence and the law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
2.  Medical communities and sexual harms from the 1960s
3. Therapeutic interventions into sexual abuse
More information about the conference, including confirmed speakers and the full programme, can be found on: https://shame.bbk.ac.uk/events/sexual-violence-laws-communities-interventions/

The past twenty-five years have witnessed a bourgeoning of studies on sexuality and gender in the pre-modern world. In particular, men and masculinities have received considerable attention. Building on the theoretical perspectives provided by feminism, Foucault, and cultural studies, the study of men and masculinities is increasingly theoretically inflected and sophisticated. Studies have encompassed questions pertaining to men of various social statuses, secular and ecclesiastical , as portrayed in historical, literary, philosophical, theological, and art historical sources among others. The conference, sponsored by the Toronto Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium (TRRC) seeks to locate the study of premodern men and masculinities in its current richness and complexity. Our plenary speakers will be two of the most important scholars in the area of medieval and early modern masculinities: Patricia Simons (U of Michigan) and Patricia Cullum (U of Huddersfield). Papers are invited on all areas of study across the premodern world (500 to 1650 CE), crossing Europe's religious and linguistic diversity, and encompassing its geographical breadth within Europe and beyond. Topics might include: concepts of virility, patriarchy, marriage fatherhood and procreative masculinities social and political perspectives medical and biological perceptions celibacy, chastity, continence monastic and clerical masculinity sexual function and dysfunction queer and non-binary masculinities typologies of premodern men masculinity in sports and athletics masculinity in literature and the arts etc. Proposals are invited for individual papers, panels, roundtables, and alternatives to traditional academic presentation models. To submit a proposal, please include: speaker's name and academic affiliation (or "independent scholar" as applicable); the title of the presentation; a 150-word abstract; full contact information (mailing address, telephone, email); and a one-page CV to konrad.eisenbichler and jacqueline.murray@uoguelph.ca. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:  Tuesday, 19 November 2019.