Women and Education in the Public Eye in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Welcome to an international symposium at Umeå University 31 October – 1 November 2024 on the theme of Women and Education in the Public Eye in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The symposium aims to bring together researchers from abroad and Sweden, especially those with an historical interest in women in print culture. This will enable the researchers to find transnational connections and circulations of ideas where education, women's history and press history meet. We invite researchers specifically interested in women’s magazines, journals and books as educational platforms and channels. By sharing our theoretical, empirical, and methodological challenges and work-in-progress, we can spark meaningful discussions that will benefit everyone involved.

Symposium Programme

Day 1: 31 October

9.00–9.30: Opening Session
Welcome, practical information and presentation round

9.30–10.45: Keynote 1 (online)
• School and college girls and their authors in the public
eye in the first half of the 20th century – Stephanie Spencer & Nancy G. Rosoff

10.45–11.00: Coffee break

11.00–12.15: Session 1. Girls in Print: Student Magazines and Children's Literature
• Girls and education in Swedish girls’ stories – Caroline Bergström
• Girls at mirror: The representation of young girls trough advertisements published in Italian children’s magazines (1950–1980) – Veronica Fonte
• Women’s use of a student magazine: A means for organisation and interaction at Chalmers University of Technology 1955–1974 – Petronella Rosenquist

12.15–13.30: Lunch at restaurant Lingon

13.30–14.20: Session 2. Women's Rights and Education Across Borders
• Addressing the state: Printed numbers for women’s
right to state secondary education – Sophie Winkler
• Second hand news: L’égyptienne and Türk Kadın Yolu
reporting on the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance, 1925–1927 – Kara A. Peruccio

14.20–15.10: Session 3. Women as Editors and Authors in Swedish Periodicals
• The female medium: Spiritistic activities as a possibility for 1900th century women in Sweden – Julia Falk
• The demands of the new era: Sexual education, population policy, bildung-ideals, in the Journal Tidevarvet 1923–1929 – Charlott Wikström

15.10–15.30: Coffee break

15.30–16.20: Session 4. Gender, Nation and Education
• A new textbook for a new nation: An intersectional
analysis of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils – Lina Spjut & Emma Vikström
• Models of Femininity in Republican Spain (1931–1936).
Representations, values and consequences – Carlos Sanz Simón

16.20-16.25: Short break

16.25–17.15: Session 5. Teaching in a Transforming Empire
• A pioneering woman progressive educator in the Late
Ottoman public square: Ayşe Sıdıka's (1872–1903) teaching methodology – Şüra Tekin
• Educating female teachers: Insights from Late Ottoman women’s magazines – Badegül Eren-Aydınlık

19.00: Dinner at Rex Brasserie, Rådhustorget 1

Day 2: 1 November

08.45-10.00: Session 6. Educators' Biographies and Life-Writing
• The arm is broken, and cannot stay hidden in the sleeve: Tevfik Fikret’s Open outcry for his sister’s agonizing death in 1902 while facing off the tradition – Seyfi Kenan
• Life-writing, the formation of professional identity, and Constance Louisa Maynard, principal of Westfield College – Tabitha Lambert-Bramwell
• Women on the periphery? in the biography of sami educator Israel Ruong (1903–1986) – Madelen Johansson

10.00–10.15: Coffee break

10.15–11.30: Keynote 2
• Female friendship in the world of higher learning. The entangled lives of Grethe Hjort/Greta Hort (1903–1967) and Julie Moscheles (1892–1956) – Ning de Coninck-Smith

11.30–12.00: Closing Session
What insights have we gained, and how do we proceed
from here?

12.00: Lunch at restaurant Lingon