CfP: New Perspectives, New Beginnings Menopause Symposium
Menopause has long been understood and portrayed in Western culture as an ending: of fertility, femininity, and visibility. Yet testimony from women is often contradictory, positioning it as the beginning of a new phase of freedom in women’s lives. Recent years have seen increased popular interest in menopause and menopausal women and greater public discourse around issues of women, ageing and representation. Menopause has become a category of cultural production and menopausal women a target for the marketing of a huge range of ‘menopause’ products and services. In many ways ‘menopause’ as a concept has seen a new beginning.
This symposium aims to bring together researchers and stakeholders from a range of disciplines within the arts and humanities to ignite conversations about menopause and build a network of interest to develop and pursue both academic and practice-based work. It is the second event organised by the Scholarly Association of Menopausal Studies, established in 2023, with the aim of connecting multiple disciplines within Arts and Humanities to further understanding of what it means to be menopausal, how menopause is and has been represented, its history and its place in different cultures.
We welcome abstracts for papers, panels, workshops, and creative practice. Topics might include:
- Menopause in music, art and film
- Histories of menopause.
- Creativity and the menopause
- Menopause and Class, Race and/or Sexuality.
- Humour and the menopause
- Representations of menopause.
- Women and ageing in the Arts and Humanities
- Narratives of menopause.
- Tackling menopause through the arts.
- Menopause, technology and the humanities.
- Menopause in different cultures.
Contact Information: Dr Jill Kirby, University of Sussex