Learning to see the power of women
A series of “cultural encounters” between past and present, unlocking disciplinary differences and opening a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation, allowing for a re-invigorated dialogue with creatives.
In the last two decades, particularly among feminist scholars, there has been growing interest in early modern women’s cultural, literary and political agency.
This body of work is designed not merely to (re)shape our collective memory and imaginary, but also to challenge deeply ingrained paradigms about knowledge production.
Building on her AHRC-funded project of 2010/11, “Women's Spaces, Bodies and Voices”, Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk has been working with partners including the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and L’Institut français d’Ecosse on her impact project Learning to see the power of women from the Renaissance to the present.
Since 2016, the project has comprised a series of “cultural encounters” between past and present, unlocking disciplinary differences and opening a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation, allowing for a re-invigorated dialogue with creatives.
The first event in the series, a three-day conference on ‘Recovering Women’s Past: New epistemologies, new ventures’, shares its title with Dr Genieys-Kirk's forthcoming publication (Nebraska University Press, ISBN 978-1-4962-3179-6).
Date: 8 to 10 September 2016
Venues: Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (Days 1 & 2); L’Institut français d’Ecosse (Day 3)
Format: Panel sessions, exhibitions, documentary screening, public talks and discussions
Research strand: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
A three-day conference bringing together 35 international experts to explore the power of women in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present.
The first in an ongoing series of ‘cultural encounters’ between past and present, the event unlocked disciplinary differences and opened a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation between playwrights, artists, filmmakers and others.
Date: 10 September 2016
Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh
Format: Panel discussion
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Part of the Recovering Women’s Past conference, this public event discussed the representation in historiography and films of Catherine de Medici, Joan of Navarre, Marie Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots), Queen Margot, and Christina of Sweden. Chaired by Professor Gina Luria Walker (USA), it featured:
- Professor Suzan Broomhall (Australia)
- Professor Mary Spongberg (Australia)
- Dr Elena Woodacre (UK)
- Dr Armel Duboit-Nayt (France)
- Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk (UK)
Date: 10 September 2016
Venue: Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh
Format: Panel discussion
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Part of the Recovering Women’s Past conference, this public event brought together four theatre practitioners to discuss their work. With the participation of Anna Birch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland):
- Belgian playwrights and actresses Barbara Sylvain and Lula Bery talked about their play on Marie Suart and Elizabeth I, It’s so nice (2011)
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Alexandria Patience talked about her co-authored play on seventeenth-century playwright Aphra Behn, APHRA (1997) and gender equity in theatre
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Clarissa Palmer talked about her co-authored play Olympe de Gouges, porteuse d’espoir/ A Beacon of hope (L’Harmattan, 2012).
Date: 9 September 2016
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Format: Documentary screening and debate
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
MARCH (2015, 40 minutes) documents March of Women, a large-scale public art event in Bridgeton, Glasgow held on the eve of International Women’s Day 2015. Through a series of interviews with a wide variety of the participating women, the film considers the gap in documenting women’s history, and points to the resounding importance of having a female generation to both honour and draw inspiration from. A screening of the film was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016. It was introduced by Professor Anna Birch, Artistic Director of March of Women, and followed by a debate moderated by Professor Gina Luria Walker (New School, New York).
Dates: 29 July to 8 October 2016
Venue: Talbot Rice Gallery
Format: Retrospective of drawings and selection of late paintings
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Associating with Andy Warhol and the Beat Generation, Alice Neel (1900-1984) tended to exist on the peripheries of society. Telling the story of the turbulent events that shaped Neel’s life, The Subject and Me was the first solo exhibition of her work in Scotland. It was the latest in a series of exhibitions at Talbot Rice Gallery promoting the work of leading women artists, previously including Jane and Louise Wilson, Hanne Darboven, Jenny Holzer and Rosemarie Trockel. A guided tour of the exhibition with Principal Curator, Pat Fisher, was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016.
Dates: 8 September 2016
Venue: Centre for Research Collections, Main University Library
Format: Exhibition of artefacts from the University's Special Collections
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
A guided tour of the exhibition was included in the programme of the Recovering Women’s Past conference in September 2016.
Dates: 28 and 29 June 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
In brief: A two-day research meeting of the Dariah-EU Working Group on Women Writers in History. Bringing together an international group of 15 researchers, the event comprised panel sessions, a film screening, workshops and working group discussions.
Related research: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues; Learning to see the power of women
Date: 17 May 2018
Venue: L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
Format: Workshop
Research strand: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
The first in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the work of seventeenth-century playwright and novelist, Mme de Villedieu, with a focus on her play, Le Favori (1665) (H. Goldwyn and A. Evain (eds.), Théâtre de femmes de l’Ancien Régime, XVIIes, 2008).
Date: 31 May 2018
Venue: L’Institut français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh
Format: Workshop
Research strand: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
The second in a series of workshops examining the lives and literature of female writers from the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries). Held in French, this event centred on the novels of Madame de La Fayette, with a particular focus on La Princesse de Montpensier.
Date: 27 June 2018
Venue: 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh
Format: Film screening
Research strand: Cultural Encounters/Dialogues
Research theme: Learning to see the power of women
Organiser: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk
A public screening of Bertrand Tavernier's 2010 film La Princesse de Montpensier [The Princess of Montpensier] shown in collaboration with The French Institute as part of the two-day event, Cultural Encounters Between North, South, West And East. Inspired by a novel by an iconic seventeenth-century French woman writer, the film was introduced by Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk based on her research ‘Women of the past, Reception of women writers: Madame de La Fayette as a case study’.