We are inviting paper proposals for a panel that seeks to contribute to a gendered perspective of the history of Latin American exile, preferably with a focus on the twentieth century. Papers should add new complexity to the understanding of exile, which scholars have often gendered as particularly male. Few studies have addressed the (re-)construction of male and female identities as they were (re-)shaped in the course of exile. We do not know enough about the gendered social and cultural characteristics of the community life Latin American exiles established in different parts of the world, or about the (re-)production of gender relations when men and women exiles negotiated political and social spaces/identities in receiving societies and (re-)shaped ties to their home countries.

Papers could address, but are not limited to, the following questions:
To what extent have the journeys refugees took to new cultural and political environments also represented journeys to new gendered identities? Were men and women in exile addressed differently by political leaders and/or the citizens of receiving societies they met? How have exiles transformed their relationships to fellow-members of exile communities and to new communities they built in the course of their exile experience? What was the impact of life abroad on the exiles’ personal understandings of masculinities and femininities? What were the gendered complexities of homecoming? Are there characteristics of relocation and/or return that can be seen as distinctly male or female practices? How have returning exiles, women and men, contributed to the (re-)making of the political, cultural, and gendered environments in their home countries?

The European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC) will take place in Ghent, Belgium, between April 13 and April 16, 2010.

Please submit a paper title, abstract, and a brief CV off-list, by
March 20 to:

Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney
Department of History
University of Arizona
jadwiga@email.arizona.edu