What, when & where
call for papers: Thanks for Typing: Wives, Daughters, Mothers, and Other Women behind Famous Men
8 – 9 March 2019
Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, Wolfson College
When a series of tweets with #ThanksForTyping hashtag appeared in 2017,
picking brief references to wives’ assistance from the acknowledgement
sections of academic works, these tweets went viral. They demonstrated
that even in the 20th century wives of male academics, who did
significant work towards their husbands’ research and publications,
rarely got any proper credit and mostly remained anonymous. The movement expanded, with people sharing similar references to different female family members of the male authors, academic and not, in different
languages. The phenomenon appeared to be universal.
The conference is aimed at uncovering these mostly forgotten lives and
writing them into existence. We accept proposals for 20-minute papers on
wives, partners, daughters, mothers, and other women who laboured in the
shadows of their famous husbands or male relatives – academics, men of
letters, activists – or stood out to have a career of their own. It is
anticipated that selected papers will be published in a book emerging
from the discussions and conversations held at the conference.
Deadline & how to apply
Please send your abstracts of approximately 250 words to thanksfortypingconference@gmail.com by 1 November 2018.
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