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Gender and Conversion in Early Modern Europe

A symposium at the University of York, 26th-27th July 2012

Stories of conversion and religious change have become increasingly central to the literary, historical, and art historical study of the early modern period, yet -- with a few important exceptions -- scholars have paid little attention to the particular ways in which sexed identity inflected the experience of faith, or how men and women renegotiated discourses of gender and proper behaviour as they shifted confession, sometimes crossing both geographical and linguistic boundaries, and encountering new cultures, customs, and expectations.

This two-day symposium will bring together leading academics whose expertise spans questions of gender, religious belief, identity, and narrative form in order to explore discourses of family and gendered relations, and the staging of conversion as a personal or public event. Participants are invited both to uncover and to challenge the scholarly, literary and historical conventions which link femininity to the home or convent and masculine identity to travel, trade, and colonial encounters. Together, we will create new methods and paradigms to uncover and describe the work done by religion and sexed experience in creating ideas of 'masculine' and 'feminine' dress, identity, behaviour, and practice.

Participants include Hannah Crawforth (King's College, London), Eric Dursteler (Brigham Young University), David Graizbord (Arizona), Chloe Houston (Reading), Elizabeth Lehfeldt (Cleveland State), Kathleen Lynch (Folger Shakespeare Institute), Silvia Mostaccio (Louvain), Jeffrey Shoulson (Miami), Helen Smith (York), and Saundra Weddle (Drury), with additional chapters from Keith Luria (NC State) and Daniel Vitkus (Florida), and responses from Matthew Dimmock (Sussex), Simon Ditchfield (York), Mark Jenner (York), and Abigail Shinn (York).

Symposium attendees will be invited to read pre-circulated draft chapters which will appear in an edited collection on the theme of Gender and Conversion: Religious Change and Sexed Identity in Early Modern Europe, and to discuss their lessons and development in a series of themed panel sessions.

All are welcome to attend the symposium, but delegates are required to register in advance, and to read the papers prior to attending. There will be a small charge for external delegates of £30 to cover the cost of coffees and lunches. Participants will be having drinks, followed by an informal dinner, on the Thursday evening. To register, please email conversionnarratives@york.ac.uk. Payment can be made in advance or on the day, by cheque or cash.