CamFemSoc Lent Term Symposium
Monday 10 March
7pm - 9pm
The Armitage Room, Queens' College (Silver Street, CB3 9ET)
The Cambridge Feminist Society Lent Symposium will feature fellows and graduate students from English, Law, Development Studies, and Latin American Studies. Presentation topics include women's texts on textiles, the political economy of gender in Belgian Congo, feminist and pacifist movements in contemporary Columbia, and women and the Common Law.
Programme:
19:00: Welcome and Opening Comments 19:15: Dr Jane Partner (English Faculty; Trinity Hall and St John's College) Scarlet Letters: Women’s Texts on Textiles This short paper presents a fascinating and little-studied object: a confession embroidered onto linen by Elizabeth Parker during the early nineteenth century. This object, now in the V&A's collection, is unique, and the account that it gives of Elizabeth's troubled life and disturbed mind is a moving document of female experience. I explore the meaning that this autobiographical work derives from its physical form, considering it in the context of the tradition of textile texts produced by women on samplers. I conclude by thinking about the ways in which these traditions are references and subverted by contemporary women artists. 19:30-19:40: Questions and Discussion 19:40-20:00: Ariella Rotenberg (M.Phil Development Studies) The Political Economy of Gender in Belgian Congo This paper will explore a specific instance of tax evasion by a group of Muslim, Swahili women in the city of Buyenzi in modern-day Burundi during Belgian rule in the Congo in the 1950’s. I will argue that while at first, the successful refusal by Buyenzi women to pay the femmes libres tax could be seen as an assertion of women’s rights as well as a moment of extroversion by an indigenous population against European powers, neither is the case. In fact, the success of this particular tax opposition depended on notions of feminine inferiority and further reinforced European notions about African sexual impropriety. Precisely because the opposition to the tax did not challenge notions of female inferiority or African impropriety, it was successful, but therefore far less emancipatory than it appears on the surface. 20:00-20:10: Questions and Discussion 20:10-20:25: Cherie Elston (PhD, Centre of Latin American Studies, St Edmund's College) La Ruta Pacífica: feminist and pacifist movements in contemporary Colombia My research looks at Colombian women's literary production, feminist thought and the women's movement from 1975 to the present. I'd like to present about the contemporary Colombian women's and anti-war movement. 20:25-20:35: Questions and Discussion 20:35-20:50: Jo Murray (LLM, Faculty of Law, Darwin College) Women and The Common Law At present there is one woman on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom out of 12 Law Lords, and only 22% of the whole Judiciary are female. The common law (judge-made law) has a huge impact upon filling the gaps left by legislation, and often has more of a role in shaping the law than many are aware. This presentation shall consider the use of gender stereotypes in case law that changed the outcome of judicial decisions, or could change the outcome of future cases. It shall also consider how the operation of laws and use of legal principles may disadvantage women. 20:50-21:00 Questions and Discussion 21:00: Wrap-up. |
How to find us:
The Armitage Room is '11' on this map. Enter via the Main Gate Porters' Lodge on Silver Street. Space Boundaries:**Do note that the event is only open to self-defined women and those who have sometimes identified as women. The purpose of our society is to provide an alternative space that differs from the scores of Cambridge academic & artistic spaces that are initiated, designed and dominated by men. Whatever the space boundaries, CamFemSoc events are dedicated to focusing on women's issues, knowledges and perspectives.
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