News from WG1
By Katelin Marit Parsons (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, Reykjavík, Iceland) and Joana Maria Pujadas Mora (Open University of Catalonia, Spain)
Our working group has made major progress on the online map and catalogue: we now have over 60 entries on the online map, representing libraries and archives across Europe. In addition, we have over 200 complete catalogue entries for our catalogue of primary sources. This will be an important resource for researchers of women’s migration, and a key goal for the working group is to expand catalogue coverage to include all COST member countries. Another priority for 2022–2023 is to locate women’s archives and libraries in Europe.
New member Božena Miljić from Montenegro joined the working group in June and has already uncovered exciting sources for Montenegro. The working group will continue to meet monthly online during the autumn and winter 2022–2023. We look forward to gathering again in person in March 2023 at our next WG1 meeting, which will be hosted by Mateusz Wyżga in Kraków, Poland.
Working Group 1 held a 3-hour event in Sofia on 15 September, led by Tatjana Šarić. The theme of the event was the primary sources on the women represented on the landmark maps and as well as searching for documents on women migrants in general. The event allowed us to collaborate with other members of the Action.
The next grant period will see changes to our leadership. Joana is unfortunately unable to continue as co-leader, and Katelin will take her place. Tatjana Šarić (Croatian State Archives, Croatia) has offered to take the position as leader of WG1. She has already hosted the working group at our WG1 meeting in June at the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb. Her experience as a senior archivist and research scholar will be valuable as we continue our search for migrant women in European archives.
We thank Joana for her valuable work and look forward to continuing our work in 2023.
News from WG2
By Veronika Čapská (Charles University, Czech Republic) , Pirita Frigren (University of Pori) & Bénédicte Miyamoto (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Fiona Bakas (Universidade Lusófona).
WEMov’s Working Group 2 organised its meeting in Prague, Czech Republic on 27-28 June, 2022, on some of the hottest days of the Czech summer! WG2 leader Veronika Čapská very efficiently led and chaired the meeting which was held at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. We had a guest lecture from Jessica Cronshagen (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany) on ‘Identity and Memory in the Correspondence of 18th Century Female Missionaries of the Moravian Church in Suriname’. After a light lunch, WG2 members’ presentations of research relating to WEMov themes took place. María Amor Barros del Río (Universidad de Burgos, Spain) presented her research on ‘Women Returned from the Irish Diaspora: Social Practices of Inclusion and Exclusion.’; Igor Lyman and Viktoria Konstantinova (Berdyansk State Pedagogical University) joined us remotely from Ukraine, presenting on ‘Memory of Transcultural Communication of a Female Migrant from the Southern Ukraine to Bukovina’; then Fiona Eva Bakas (Lusófona University, Lisbon) presented on ‘Diaspora Tourism and Memory-Making through Heritage.’ Last but certainly not least, Pauliina Räsänen (University of Turku, Finland) presented on ‘Female Magicians as Transcultural Actors: Sidonie Roman and Pauline Schmid on the Public Arena of Performance Stages’. To end the day we had a very nice meal in a Vietnamese restaurant with Belarusian emigré scholar, Dr. Alena Marková. The 2nd day was devoted to a WG2 meeting, where more efficient ways of collecting and storing the data for the Landmarks map was discussed amongst other topics. Then the WG2 walking tour project was initiated by introducing a walking tour called: “Prague through the lenses of migration and gender history” (organised by Veronika Čapská).
To start off the new academic year and after a summer rest, WG2 (co-)leaders held a data preservation meeting on 9th September with WEMov’s Action chair in September and jointly formulated their objectives for the grant period 3. WG2 plans to concentrate on editing the data for the map of migrant women landmarks, on developing walking tours and on joint publications, among other activities. In GP3, WG2 monthly online meetings will take place on Fridays at 11:00 CET.
News from WG3
By Nicoleta Roman (Nicolae Iorga Institute of History, Bucharest, Romania) & Beatrice Zucca (Cambridge University, UK)
On Saturday, 30 April 2022, WG3 was present at the Nicosia, Cyprus, annual meeting. The event was organised by George Kazamias, WG3 member, at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation. Umut Erel WG3’s invited keynote speaker with a lecture entitled « Migrant Women Enacting Citizenship ». With the help of Nina Drejerska the WG3 meeting had a hybrid format (in person and via Zoom) and the members of group were updated on the development of the activities.
Beatrice Zucca is the editor of the collective volume Gender and Migration in Historical Perspective. Institutions, Labour and Social Networks, 16th to 20th Centuries, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, which gathers many authors from the network. This book is the result of the initial meeting that led to creating this network.
The Unknown stories project – Across Europe, from early modern to present time. Migrant women and their unknown success stories – is officially closed now. It continues its trajectory towards publication.
Since 15 June, WG3 has started to explore the creation of datasets on women and migration, a project that will be at the core of its activity for the future. Its structure was discussed in Sofia meeting at the Datasets transcribathon on 16 September 2022. WG3 members and colleagues from other working groups are encouraged to suggest ideas, feedback and information that might help develop the project to its coordinators: Nina Drejerska & Selma Smajlović at nina_drejerska@sggw.edu.pl & selmasmajlovic12@gmail.com (candidates for co-WG3 leadership in GP3).
The next WG3 meetings are scheduled via Zoom on: October 26 & November 18. 2022.
WG3 new members: Tatiana Sitchinava, So Young Chang, Inta Mierina & Chiara Giordano.
News from WG4
By Sónia Ferreira (Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia, Lisbon, Portugal) & Miguel Oliveros Mediavilla (Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, Spain)
WG4 continues to develop its work of collecting biographical accounts of migrant women in Europe as well as of men, who have, in some way, contributed to or participated in this process. Between 30 June and 1 July, we had our annual meeting in Madrid at the Antonio de Nebrija University, where we discussed our collective production, visualized the material already collected and identified the missing categories, to obtain a large and representative visual sample of the migratory reality in Europe. We had as a keynote speaker, the director and producer Beri Shalmashi, who visioned the material we produced and sought with us solutions to the challenges, that a collective production of this nature, entitles. We also discussed the future paths for Grant Period 3, among which we highlight the conception of a virtual exhibition about objects of migration, as well as a catalogue that brings together texts and photographs of the material on display. We intend to integrate visual material about objects of migration in our final documentary, but also give it visibility, in other media, such as an exhibition or a publication.
Concerning the broader work with the network members, we presented some of the material already finalized in the exhibition organized in the Ethnographic Museum of Sofia, in the context of the WEMov meeting, that took place between the 15th and 16th of September. We also made a presentation of our general work, and invited colleagues to join us in the production of filmed interviews, trying to fill in the missing categories, we have already received proposals for new interviews.
The working meeting of WG4 took place on 30 June – July 2022 in Madrid at the University of Antonio de Nebrija – Global Campus. We discussed cooperation on performances, in depth the work done so far and made both theoretical (categories and classifications) and methodological decisions. We also made practical decisions on how to proceed. Solutions to film practices and processes with Beri Shalmashi, our guest speaker, was valuable input to our work. Overall, it was great to be in Madrid and be able to discuss our work together in person and make strong informal networking in our spare time.