Women, Money and Markets, 1600-1950

Call for Papers:

Women, Money and Markets (1600-1950)

 Sheffield Hallam University

June 12-14^th 2023

This annually-held conference addresses the role of women in consumerism, shopping, global trade, domestic trade, markets (literary and otherwise), currency, and varying practices of exchange. The conference is interdisciplinary in nature, bridging literature, material culture, gender studies, theatre and economic history, and aims to relate the debates of the period to modern-day issues about the presence and position of women in the economy, the market and the media.

This year we are holding the conference in Sheffield, at Sheffield Hallam University, and welcome contributions in the form of individual papers or panels and roundtable on:

• Varying practices of women associated with currency, global and/or domestic markets and marketability
• Material practices associated with value, exchange and/or female creativity
• Women as producers and/or consumers in the literary or other marketplaces (including, but not limited to, food, clothing, agriculture and raw materials)
• Representations of women at work or women’s involvement in:
  • Trade, business and industry
  • Professional services (e.g. law, finance, hospitality and the media)
  • Domestic service
  • The rural economy
  • The stock market and speculation
  • The literary marketplace (past and present)

In recognition of Sheffield’s key role in early industrialisation, and the political activism that it created and inspired, this year we are featuring two special areas of interest and welcome contributions on these topics:

• Women and industry
• Women, work and protest

We particularly welcome cross-cultural considerations of the above issues. To enable contributions on early 20thC work, activism and its representation, we have this year extended the time period covered by the conference to 1950. 

Guide for submissions:

Please send 250 – 300 word abstracts to: Dr Sarah Dredge: s.dredge@shu.ac.uk, Dr Pete Collinge: p.collinge@keele.ac.uk, and Dr Emma Newport e.newport@sussex.ac.uk). Please include a covering email outlining briefly your proposed format (individual paper, panel, roundtable, etc.). If you are submitting a proposal for a panel, please include an abstract for each paper in your panel (up to 300 words each).

Important dates:

Deadline for submissions: February 28th

Notification of acceptance by: March 15th

For any enquiries regarding the conference, please contact: s.dredge@shu.ac.uk or p.collinge@keele.ac.uk