http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/clemence.oconnor/WIFISConference?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPv4cCnn5n6ygE#

1. General report

 This year, the conference was supported by the University of Aberdeen (College of Arts and Social Sciences, School of History, Divinity and Philosophy, School of Language and Literature), the University of St Andrews (School of Modern Languages) and the Society for French Studies, who made an exceptionally high contribution. Renewed thanks to all, and to all participants for the high and engaging quality of their papers.

 The 2009 conference was characterised by a number of innovations, most of which aimed at keeping the numbers up on a year when the event took place in a more remote part of Scotland: although all speakers were women, the conference was open to men. The fees were waived and the event was spread over two days, with a more or less thematic evening on visual-verbal interactions in contemporary French poetry and art.

 We convened two days in succession, since the Saturday conference was launched the evening before with talks and displays by the two keynote speakers, Professeure Béatrice Bonhomme (Université de Nice) and Dr Geneviève Guétemme (Université d’Orléans-Tours). Acclaimed poet and critic Béatrice Bonhomme gave a talk on Marie-Claire Bancquart and a reading of her own poems. Her selection included extracts from Le déssaisissement des fleurs, Les gestes de la neige, La maison abandonnée and Cimetière étoilé de la mer. Geneviève Guétemme had brought an exhibition with samples of her artistic practice to do with verbal-visual dynamics, and more particularly her works relating to contemporary French poetry. She gave a talk on a dyptic photographic and digital montage using two texts by Béatrice Bonhomme. These papers, given at the heart of the historic campus, were interspersed with a wine reception, a buffet and forays into the adjacent hall where a very Scottish wedding was celebrated, complete with kilts and pipes.

 The next day, we gathered in a Suite in the MacRobert Building for another twelve papers organised around five sessions: ‘Embodying values’, ‘Women of letters’, ‘Crimes and transgressions’, ‘New epistemologies’ and ‘Filiations, creative and destructive’. We had a good balance of periods and themes, with a strong emphasis on contemporary literature. This was not the result of any selection on my part: I had to accept every proposal for the event to materialise at all. Discussions were rich and lively in both languages, in a supportive climate true to the reputation of WIFIS.

 Dinner at a French restaurant and a night-time walk back to Old Aberdeen brought the event to its conclusion.

 2. Debates

 Over the lunch break, we discussed the future of the conference and related issues. It appears that WIFIS 2013 could be organised by UWS in partnership with Marseille (Elizabeth Campbell). However, there was no firm volunteering for the any of the intervening years. Elisabeth Campbell suggested that WIFIS become a more formalised organisation (‘association’) with annual fees, newsletter and a proper structure. This led us to discuss the objectives of WIFIS.

 1)      The debate on mixity

It transpired that although WIFIS has in recent years been a women-only event, this has never been set in stone (Elizabeth Campbell). Indeed, certain universities refuse to fund, or lend rooms to, discriminatory events. However, it seems to be the wish of all four regular participants who were attending this year that WIFIS should remain the all-female institution it has de facto become, or at least that this issue be left to the conference organiser in charge (Caroline Verdier). The reason for an all-female event was put forward by Anne-Lise Feral: WIFIS offers an informal and benevolent atmosphere which is propitious to early-career female academics especially.

 The rest of us fell into two categories:

-International speakers who took part in the debate from their outsider’s perspective. Most of them expressed an opinion. All opinions expressed, except that of Katherine Roussos, were in favour of a mixed event, whether for anti-discriminatory reasons or because, from experience, they realised that men are always a very small minority in women-related conference.

-Three Scottish-based women academics (including myself) who respect the decisions made by former generations in times when macho behaviours were perhaps more widespread at conferences, but question the fact that atmosphere would be altered if men were allowed to join today, and would welcome the opening of the conference to a mixed audience.

 2) The debate on objectives

For the four regular WIFIS participants, the objectives should not be altered. The conference should welcome:

1. Scottish women speakers talking about ANY subject (including male authors, didactics, etc.)
2. Anyone, international speakers and possibly even men (Elizabeth Campbell), talking about women.

 To all other people who expressed an opinion on this, WIFIS needs to specialise. Two possibilities: one is a WIFIS conference dedicated to the study of women, prioritising a degree of intellectual coherence. If this is the main objective, WIFIS should be open to men: why exclude half the potential – and very much the actual – researchers in one field if the objective is to promote this field? The other possibility is a conference that acts as a platform and interface for (primarily Scottish) women academics (of any speciality). It was noteworthy that few Scottish women academics showed interest this year (6 out of 20 participants).

 Two perspectives are therefore opposed: while some believe that keeping the objectives as broad as possible may attract more people, others think it unlikely that potential participants would be interested in so undefined an event. Previous conferences had higher numbers, but this year, numbers were a concern, despite the fact that I had made every effort to attract as many people as possible, through thorough advertising and a number of other steps. In order to compensate for the high costs of travelling to, and accommodation in, Aberdeen, fees were waived thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. Other ways of keeping the budget low included catering for part of the food and all the drinks myself and putting up one keynote speaker at my house. Additional attractions such as the exhibition were also meant to make the event as inviting and creative as I could contrive in the writing-up year of my PhD!

 If participants’ numbers aren’t a concern, based on previous years, then there remains to consider that organisers have been hard to find, putting the conference at risk. Currently, there is no volunteer until 2013.

 It has been suggested that future organisers will be free to make their own decisions, which I hope will not arouse ill feelings as it has this year (prior to the event itself).

 3. Organiser’s thoughts

On mixity

This year, we had between one and three men attending most of the time. As far as I am concerned, there was no discernible difference between the times when men were attending and the time when they weren’t. One of them sent congratulations on the lovely atmosphere, which seems as desirable for men as it is for women. In fact it struck me that the atmosphere was very much like that of the French Studies Conference at the Burn, which is a mixed event, but equally informal. Isn’t atmosphere more a question of small numbers and general conviviality, than a question of gender? The only WIF conference I have attended was a larger-scale event where, inevitably, the quality of listening and the level of informality was inferior to either WIFIS or French Studies at the Burn.

 On objectives

Owing to a lack of communication on the conference objectives prior to the conference, I had assumed that WIFIS was to focus on women, and even told one speaker to send another abstract to fit into this prerequisite (renewed apologies to Erika!). I am glad of this misunderstanding. As it was, ‘women’ seemed a vague enough ‘theme’ (not much less vague than that of ‘people’!), and I had trouble shaping the event into sessions. Overall intellectual coherence was something I was unable to achieve, given that I could not afford to reject any abstracts. Yet at least there were enough international speakers interested in the idea of a conference on women to see the project through. Without this ‘theme’, I doubt that many people would have been interested, and my own motivation as an organiser would have dwindled. It worries me that one person manifested interest in organising WIFIS 2011 early in the discussion, but later had second thoughts after an exchange where suggestions for change were expressed, but not really engaged with by the long-term habituées of the conference. If a conference is genuinely floating and underinstitutionalised for the sake its own survival, it should then prioritise, not the statu quo, but what potential organisers have to say – as a matter of fact, that the prospect of a conference without the slightest coherence in its objectives is no great incentive as a thing to spend much effort on, and no great academic credit to attach to one’s name.

 Also consider the possibility of publishing the proceedings: this year, for the first time, it should be noted that two publishers have already shown interest in a publication project (La Licorne and Cambridge Scholars; Erika Fülöp is in charge of this project). Not that I consider publication as the be-all and end-all of any conference, but this is still worth noting.

 Perhaps it would be a different picture if WIFIS attracted more women working in Scotland, but as a matter of fact, the 2010 conference would have been cancelled if it had had to rely on them. Only 6 out of the 20 participants were female Scotland-based academics. Would more women have come, had the conference not focused on women-related papers? I doubt it, since only one woman (Erika) contacted me with an abstract on a different ‘theme’. This lack of interest deserves some thought. Is the need for an all-female conference really there on the ground today?

International annual conference 2009

Featuring an exhibition and poetry reading

With the support of the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews

and of the Society for French Studies.

16 October 2009, Linklater Rooms, University of Aberdeen

 Registration, tea and welcome from 4pm. An exhibition on contemporary poetry and the visual arts will be available. Guest speakers will be heard that evening:

 5pm: Formal welcome by main organiser Clémence O’Connor

5.10: Professeure Béatrice Bonhomme, Université de Nice, ‘Marie-Claire Bancquart: l’exil comme genèse de l’œuvre’
6.10: Wine reception, display of visual-verbal artworks by Geneviève Guétemme

6.40: Dr Geneviève Guétemme, ‘Au seuil du texte’

7.30: Dinner and conference cake

8.45: Professeure Béatrice Bonhomme, poetry reading

 Professeure Béatrice Bonhomme (Université de Nice) is an acclaimed and prolific poet and critic.

Dr Geneviève Guétemme is a Cambridge- and Orléans-based French artist in dialogue with contemporary French poetry. She will be presenting some of the displayed works for the first time.

 17 October 2009, MacRobert 028, University of Aberdeen

 Session 1: Embodying values

Chair: Dr Anne-Lise Feral, University of Edinburgh

9.30: Dr Lidia Radi, University of Richmond, ‘Claude de France, l’ange de Royale Mémoire à la cour de François 1^er’

9.50: Professeure Martine Spensky, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont 2, ‘Républicanisme versus multiculturalisme: les femmes en otage’

10.10: Questions

10.25: Coffee break

 Session 2: Women of letters

Chair: Dr Lidia Radi, University of Richmond

10.50: Dr Cécile Champonnois, Universités de Montréal et François Rabelais (Tours), ‘Des femmes de culture et de pouvoir : Mondaines, écrivaines, spectatrices et actrices au dix-huitième siècle’

11.10: Dr Adriana Bontea, University of Sussex, ‘Femmes par l’esprit’

11.30: Questions

Session 3: Crimes and transgressions

Chair: Caroline Verdier, University of Strathclyde

11.45: Professeure Lucie Lequin, Université Concordia, ‘L’écriture du soi et un certain théâtre de l’obscène dans les œuvres de Nelly Arcan, Ying Chen, Marie-Sissi Labrèche et Catherine Mavrikakis’

12.05: Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger, University of St Andrews, ‘Du fait divers à la mise en fiction : Thérèse Desqueyroux et Christine Villemin, ou le crime transformé en mythe’

12.25: Questions

 12.40: Lunch

 Session 4: New epistemologies

Chair: Dr Adriana Bontea, University of Sussex

14.00: Dr Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University, ‘Mourning in memoriam:  Poetic Epistemology in Nathalie Rheims’s Lettre d’une amoureuse morte’

14.20: Clémence O’Connor, University of St Andrews, ‘Colour, Whiteness and the Unsaid in the Poetry of Heather Dohollau’

14.40: Dr Erika Fülöp, University of Aberdeen, ‘A World of Words: A Little Nothombian Epistemology’

15.00: Questions

 15.15: Tea

Session 5: Filiations, creative and destructive

Chair: Dr Adrienne Angelo, Auburn University

15.45: Dr Áine Larkin, Trinity College Dublin, ‘The Ballet Body Beautiful: Pleasure and Pain in Amélie Nothomb’s Robert des noms propres’

16.05: Dr Katherine Roussos, ‘Un univers à soi : les inspirations créatrices de Christine de Pizan’

16.25: Michèle Schaal, Indiana University, ‘Virginie Despentes, une auteure de la troisième vague féministe’

16.45: Questions

17.00: End of event                                  

For all information, contact clemence.oconnor@gmail.com

 WOMEN IN FRENCH IN SCOTLAND

A one-day conference to be held at the University of Aberdeen

on Saturday 17 October 2009

Old Senate Room, King’s College

Wine reception with poetry reading and presentation of visual-verbal dialogues from 6p.m. on Friday 16 October 2009

Linklater Rooms, King’s College

featuring

Béatrice Bonhomme and Geneviève Guétemme

 The annual Women in French in Scotland conference is organised by women academics in French departments at Scottish Universities and has two broad aims:

- to promote scholarly exchange based on research in French Studies by or about women

- to maintain a network of contacts amongst women teaching and researching in French Studies

http://wifis.edublogs.org/

 Abstracts (200 words) are invited for 20-minute papers in English or in French on topics concerning women in any area of French Studies. Offers of papers on teaching issues and non-literary topics (translation, politics, history, media) are very welcome. Please send abstracts (and queries) to the organisers Elizabeth Macknight (e.macknight@abdn.ac.uk) and Clémence O’Connor (clemence.oconnor@googlemail.com) by May 31st, 2009.

 Further details

WIFIS conferences are warm, stimulating, interdisciplinary events. This year the venue will be at the heart of the 14th-century campus of King’s College, Old Aberdeen, a green and charming location, only a 15-minute walk from the North Sea and a coastal nature reserve. A postgraduate / low wage fee will be available.

                       Accommodation

 King’s Hall www.abdn.ac.uk/kingshall

King’s College, Aberdeen

Tel: +44 (0) 1224 273444

The Jays Guest House www.jaysguesthouse.co.uk

422 King Street, Aberdeen

Tel: +44 (0)1224 638 295

Lillian Cottage www.lilliancottage.com

442 King Street, Aberdeen

Tel: +44 (0)1224 636947

 Professeure Béatrice Bonhomme (Université de Nice) is a prolific poet and critic. She will give a talk on ‘Marie-Claire Bancquart: l’exil comme genèse de l’œuvre’ and will read a selection of her own poems.

For a bibliography, see her page on Poezibao:
http://poezibao.typepad.com/poezibao/2006/10/batrice_bonhomm.html
She is also the editor of Nu(e):
http://www.revue-nue.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=3

Women in French in Scotland 2009

A one-day conference to be held at the University of Aberdeen

on Saturday 17 October 2009

The annual Women in French in Scotland conference is organised by women academics in French departments at Scottish Universities and has two broad aims:

- to promote scholarly exchange based on research in French Studies by or about women

- to maintain a network of contacts amongst women teaching and researching in French Studies

Abstracts (200 words) are invited for 20-minute papers in English or in French on topics concerning women in any area of French Studies. Offers of papers on teaching issues and non-literary topics (translation, politics, history, media) are very welcome. Please send abstracts (and queries) to the organiser Elizabeth MacKnight (e.macknight@abdn.ac.uk).