WHN Annual Conference 2025, Call for Papers

First Call for Papers

Women’s History Network 33rd Annual Conference

Online via Zoom

Thursday 4 & Friday 5 September 2025

Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Archives, Libraries, Museums and Personal Collections.

One of the many exciting aspects of researching women’s history is the discovery of previously unknown lives which have lain hidden or overlooked within public and private collections of papers and objects/artefacts across a broad range of repositories.

The aim of the WHN’s 33rd annual conference is to explore and celebrate the challenges of uncovering the presence of women within archives, libraries, museums and personal collections. It is also an opportunity for keepers and cataloguers to discuss issues related to the accessibility / inaccessibility of collections

It will provide a unique opportunity for these little-known or neglected histories of women to be revealed, for their stories to be recounted and evaluated, and for their impact in shaping society considered.

Beyond the stories that are recounted, contributors are encouraged to:

• evaluate the challenges and obstacles they faced in uncovering the presence of women
• elaborate on difficulties they encountered accessing material
• discuss the ways in which material can be made more accessible, especially from the keepers and cataloguers perspective
• describe the imaginative approaches that were adopted to reveal ‘lost lives’
• consider ways in which aspects of e.g sexuality, which are not traditionally catalogued, can be captured.
• consider how we can capture silences in the archives.

We encourage submissions which relate to individuals or groups of women from all walks of life, within any time period and from any geographical location, and particularly encourage those which foreground marginalised voices and imaginative approaches. Repositories could include, but are not limited to official and unofficial, i.e private archives, libraries and museums, as well as personal and private collections, libraries and museums. Possible topics of interest, but are certainly not limited to, include:

• Women within the home
• Women in the media
• Women in professions
• Women in literature
• Women in science and medicine
• Women in business
• Women in politics
• Women in the Arts
• Women who were marginalised by reason of, for example, social mores, religion, sex or legal impediment

We invite submissions of 150 – 200 word abstracts for 15 minute papers which take a critical look at these areas of history. Proposals are welcomed from scholars working at all levels, including those without an institutional affiliation and, for example, those working outside academia, heritage or any other specific sector.

As part of WHN’s mission to support postgraduate scholars, we also welcome and encourage participation from post-graduate researchers interested in any other areas of women’s history to the Open Strand. Contributors to this strand are asked to propose a 10-minute lightning talk only.

All submissions must be on the form downloadablehere

and emailed to: whnconference2025@gmail.com by 29 March 2025

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