Catherine Hall (University College London) Organizers: Karen Hagemann, Chad Bryant (both UNC, Department of History), Emily Burrill (UNC, Curriculum in Women’s Studies) and the UNC Graduate Working Group on Gender History
Gender and Empire – Comparative Perspectives
Literature, art and movies often represent colonization and the formation of empires as male adventure stories. Maleness certainly was constitutive of the imperial enterprise, but as gender historians have long emphasized, imperial maleness needed constant confirmation and substantiation. Historians of empire have observed the same characteristics for colonial rule, which too constantly needed to be confirmed and legitimated, because of the permanent fear that colonial and racial prestige—and power—might be undermined. Colonial discourses on gender seems to be one of the spaces were the instability of the empires and its power structures is most visible. Competing concepts of masculinity and femininity were central to colonial order, but they cannot be understood in isolation. Rather, they need to be historicized and contextualized. They were constructed in close interplay with other categories of difference like race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and religion and created sexual, racial, and national hierarchies, which challenged or stabilized imperial rule during the nineteenth and twentieth century. They also challenge historians to think comparatively about empires and to ask what constitutes an empire.
In the workshop we will explore the complex connections between gender and empire in a comparative perspective. We will contrast the British colonial rule in North America, the Caribbean and India; the French rule in the Caribbean and Africa; the Habsburg rule in Central-Eastern Europe; the Spanish Empire and its rule in Latin America; and the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during the long nineteenth century. In our comparison we want to study the specific characteristics of the different empires and the function of the gender order for their rule in the colonies. We will discuss the deployment of femininities and masculinities that justified imperial rule and attempted to establish clear lines of demarcation between ruler and ruled. We will analyze the ambiguities and contradictions of colonial relationships across genders and look at colonial policies that regulated these gender relations and how they transformed over time. Finally, we will analyze the ways in which processes of decolonization and nation-building were influenced by the gendered legacies of imperialism. Please Contact: Karen Hagemann 919-962-3960 hagemann@unc.edu for more information. 
Friday, March 26, 2010, 12:30 pm UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities, Hyde Hall
Gender and Empire - Comparative Perspectives
Organizers: Karen Hagemann, Chad Bryant (both UNC, Department of History), Emily Burrill (UNC, Curriculum in Women’s Studies) and the UNC Graduate Working Group on Gender History
Gender and Empire – Comparative Perspectives
Literature, art and movies often represent colonization and the formation of empires as male adventure stories. Maleness certainly was constitutive of the imperial enterprise, but as gender historians have long emphasized, imperial maleness needed constant confirmation and substantiation. Historians of empire have observed the same characteristics for colonial rule, which too constantly needed to be confirmed and legitimated, because of the permanent fear that colonial and racial prestige—and power—might be undermined. Colonial discourses on gender seems to be one of the spaces were the instability of the empires and its power structures is most visible. Competing concepts of masculinity and femininity were central to colonial order, but they cannot be understood in isolation. Rather, they need to be historicized and contextualized. They were constructed in close interplay with other categories of difference like race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and religion and created sexual, racial, and national hierarchies, which challenged or stabilized imperial rule during the nineteenth and twentieth century. They also challenge historians to think comparatively about empires and to ask what constitutes an empire.
In the workshop we will explore the complex connections between gender and empire in a comparative perspective. We will contrast the British colonial rule in North America, the Caribbean and India; the French rule in the Caribbean and Africa; the Habsburg rule in Central-Eastern Europe; the Spanish Empire and its rule in Latin America; and the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during the long nineteenth century. In our comparison we want to study the specific characteristics of the different empires and the function of the gender order for their rule in the colonies. We will discuss the deployment of femininities and masculinities that justified imperial rule and attempted to establish clear lines of demarcation between ruler and ruled. We will analyze the ambiguities and contradictions of colonial relationships across genders and look at colonial policies that regulated these gender relations and how they transformed over time. Finally, we will analyze the ways in which processes of decolonization and nation-building were influenced by the gendered legacies of imperialism. Faculty: $ 25.00 and Grad. Students: $ 15.00 Please Contact: Karen Hagemann 919-962-3960 hagemann@unc.edu for more information. Saturday, March 27, 2010, 9:30 am UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities, Hyde Hall
Gender and Empire - Comparative Perspectives
Organizers: Karen Hagemann, Chad Bryant (both UNC, Department of History), Emily Burrill (UNC, Curriculum in Women’s Studies) and the UNC Graduate Working Group on Gender History
Gender and Empire – Comparative Perspectives
Literature, art and movies often represent colonization and the formation of empires as male adventure stories. Maleness certainly was constitutive of the imperial enterprise, but as gender historians have long emphasized, imperial maleness needed constant confirmation and substantiation. Historians of empire have observed the same characteristics for colonial rule, which too constantly needed to be confirmed and legitimated, because of the permanent fear that colonial and racial prestige—and power—might be undermined. Colonial discourses on gender seems to be one of the spaces were the instability of the empires and its power structures is most visible. Competing concepts of masculinity and femininity were central to colonial order, but they cannot be understood in isolation. Rather, they need to be historicized and contextualized. They were constructed in close interplay with other categories of difference like race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and religion and created sexual, racial, and national hierarchies, which challenged or stabilized imperial rule during the nineteenth and twentieth century. They also challenge historians to think comparatively about empires and to ask what constitutes an empire.
In the workshop we will explore the complex connections between gender and empire in a comparative perspective. We will contrast the British colonial rule in North America, the Caribbean and India; the French rule in the Caribbean and Africa; the Habsburg rule in Central-Eastern Europe; the Spanish Empire and its rule in Latin America; and the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East during the long nineteenth century. In our comparison we want to study the specific characteristics of the different empires and the function of the gender order for their rule in the colonies. We will discuss the deployment of femininities and masculinities that justified imperial rule and attempted to establish clear lines of demarcation between ruler and ruled. We will analyze the ambiguities and contradictions of colonial relationships across genders and look at colonial policies that regulated these gender relations and how they transformed over time. Finally, we will analyze the ways in which processes of decolonization and nation-building were influenced by the gendered legacies of imperialism. Faculty: $ 25.00 and Grad. Students: $ 15.00 Please Contact: Karen Hagemann 919-962-3960 hagemann@unc.edu for more information.
