UPEI hosts ‘Women, History and Technology’ conference May 16-17
The Canadian Committee on Women’s History (Atlantic Region) invites regional scholars and members of the public to participate in a conference called “Women, History and Technology” at the University of Prince Edward Island on May 16 and 17.
The conference is organized around the issue of how technology has shaped women's lives and how historians have addressed this issue in their teaching and research.
Presentations will revolve around women’s history and the production of historical knowledge, and the history of women and technology unfolding around them. Some papers assess the impact of distributed learning on women in rural economies, and others will discuss the implications and possibilities of the Internet for feminist research.
Some of the key questions that will be discussed include: How is technological “progress” defined, and how are the benefits of this progress distributed? Is there a “gender gap” in the adoption and use of new media technology in the research and writing done at universities, for government, or in the community? In what ways have new technologies played a positive role to help share ideas and data, make women-focussed research easier, or helped support teaching activities?
The conference will feature prominent historians from Canada and the U.S., including Joy Parr, Canada Research Chair in Culture, Technology and Risk, University of Western Ontario; Margaret Conrad, Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canadian History, University of New Brunswick; and Wendy Kline, Associate Professor of History, University of Cincinnati. Other presenters are drawn from the regional heritage community, government, NGO and academic sectors.
“This conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars with teachers, researchers and community workers, to foster what we hope will be some thought-provoking and inspiring discussions,” says Lisa Chilton, of the UPEI History Department, and one of the conference organizers.
Co-organizers are Sharon Myers, also a professor of history at UPEI, and Sasha Mullally, Hannah Post-doctoral Fellow in the History of Medicine at Saint Mary's University, Halifax.
The conference will be held in UPEI’s New Residence’s meeting room on the Friday night and in K.C. Irving 104 on Saturday. Registration is $50, with a $30 fee for students. For more information, please contact Sharon Myers at shmyers@upei.ca or Sasha Mullally at sasha.mullally@smu.ca.
