War Welfare and Gender Politics in the First World War. Regional and global dimensions

 

Graz cooperation partner: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil Heidrun Zettelbauer, Institute of History
Junior Fellow: Mag. Viktoria Wind

Incoming Senior Fellow: Univ.-Prof. Ingrid Sharp, University of Leeds, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (UK)
Incoming Junior Fellows: Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett, Louise Earnshaw

Period: January 2021 to December 2025
Symposium: December 9/10, 2021

Content:

The project deals with gender politics in local and global dimensions during the First World War. A particular focus is on the areas of welfare and war care and the associated gender-specific rhetoric and practices. The aim is to analyze discourses on gender, war and violence, their patterns and political functions. The focus is on processes of de- and restabilization of gender in war and their connection to discourses of (war) violence.

In terms of content, the project ranges from the investigation of explicitly politically positioned female actors (peace movement, women's suffrage movement, etc.) to the analysis of explicitly anti-democratic war welfare policies under the leadership and participation of protagonists from the nationalist-German or Catholic-conservative milieu. In particular, the focus is on specific negotiations of gendered concepts of citizenship.

From a geographical perspective, both regional contexts (Habsburg Monarchy, German Empire) and global aspects of the topic are discussed. The First World War as the first "global" and first "total war" lends itself to exploring how experiences of war and violence fundamentally affect the cultural constitution of societies and what role gender plays in this.

 

Project activities:

Teaching:
Seminar for Master studends 2020/21: Der Erste Weltkrieg aus geschlechterhistorischer Perspektive (GSO.02008 UB)

Conferences:
November 2021: Gender History * Get Together, Interdisciplinary network meeting on gender history within the framework of the Department of Cultural and Gender History, presentation of the project and the fellows. Chair: Heidrun Zettelbauer
Project presentation Cluster Gender (huk), Working meeting Gender Cluster in the research network Heterogeneity and Cohesion (huk), presentation of the project and the Fellows (online). Chair: Heidrun Zettelbauer
Lecture Ingrid Sharp (Leeds), Women of Aktion. Weiblicher Aktivismus in der Novemberrevolution 1918/19 (online). Chair: Heidrun Zettelbauer 
Dezember 2021: International Conference, Gender Politics and War Welfare During World War One and Beyond (University of Graz, online)
with Cynthia Enloe (Worcester, MA), Holly Furneaux (Cardiff), Hilary Buxton (Ohio), Alison S. Fell (Liverpool), Susan R. Grayzel (Utah), Christa Hämmerle (Vienna), Jessica Meyer (Leeds), Ingrid Sharp (Leeds), Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett (Leeds), Viktoria Wind (Graz) and Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz).
International Conference, Women, Gender Roles And Humanitarian Aid in the Greater War 1912-1925, (University of Brussels, online) including a lecture by Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz) - Between humanitarian aid and political functionalization. Conservative and right-wing women’s activism in voluntary war-welfare in Austria-Hungary (1912–1916).
Follow-up Workshop, Gender Politics and War Welfare in the Greater War (University of Graz), Meeting to prepare a collaborative English-language publication and preparation of an international research network as a continuation of the project conference. With Judit Acsády (Budapest), Hilary Buxton (Ohio, online), Louise Earnshaw (Leeds), Alison S. Fell (Liverpool), Holly Furneaux (Cardiff, online), Susan R. Grayzel (Utah), Christa Hämmerle (Wien), Jessica Meyer (Leeds), Ingrid Sharp (Leeds), Viktoria Wind (Graz), Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz)
Oktober 2022: Symposia Gender – Politik – Religion. Biblische Impulse und aktuelle Resonanzen (Universität Graz) including a keynote lecture by Heidrun Zettelbauer on the topic „Transgression und Re/Affirmation. Die Kriegsfürsorge im Ersten Weltkrieg als ambivalenter Geschlechterraum“
November 2022: Project meeting of the International and Transdisciplinary Research Group on Gender Politics and the Greater War (online)
Dezember 2022: Interdisciplinary workshop, about the potentials as well as challenges in Gender und Aging Studies, „Gender Matters: Aging, Care, and Migration“ (Kriebernegg) and „War Welfare and Gender in the First World War“ (Zettelbauer), with Helen Kohlen (Vallendar), Silke van Dyk (Jena, angefragt), Anna-Christina Kainradl (Graz,), Ulla Kriebernegg (Graz), Viktoria Wind (Graz), Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz).

Lectures:
November 2021:
Ingrid Sharp (Leeds) - Women of Aktion. Weiblicher Aktivismus in der Novemberrevolution 1918/19, (University of Graz, online). Lecture as part of the Gender Cluster - huk network meeting, Chair: Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz)
Dezember 2021:
Lecture as part of the conference „Gender Politics and War Welfare during World War One and beyond“, Ingrid Sharp (Leeds) and Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz) - Introduction, Gender Politics and War Welfare in the First World War and Beyond, 
Holly Furneaux (Cardiff) ‘The Brotherhood of Man’? Fraternisation, Gender, and Race. Chair: Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz)
Alison S. Fell (Liverpool), Susan R. Grayzel (Utah), Christa Hämmerle (Vienna) and Jessica Meyer (Leeds) - Round Table: Current Issues on Gender and War. Chair: Ingrid Sharp (Leeds)
Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz) - Gender and Nation in Voluntary War Welfare Politics (1912–1916). Chair: Jessica Meyer (Leeds)
Viktoria Wind (Graz) - Caring Masculinities in k.(u.)k. Military Sanitation Service? Chair: Jessica Meyer (Leeds)
Hilary Buxton (Ohio) - Communal Care: Colonial Debility and Veteran Welfare in Interwar South Asia. Chair: Jessica Meyer (Leeds)
Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett and Ingrid Sharp (Leeds) - Beyond Humanitarian Aid. Feminist Foreign Policy after World War One. Chair: Susan R. Grayzel (Utah)
Cynthia Enloe (Worcester, MA) - War Wounded: Where are the Women? Chair: Ingrid Sharp (Leeds)
Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz) - Between humanitarian aid and political functionalization. Conservative and right-wing women’s activism in voluntary war-welfare in Austria-Hungary (1912–1916) as part of the international conference “Women, Gender Roles And Humanitarian Aid in the Greater War 1912-1925” (University of Brussels, (online)
Oktober 2022:
Heidrun Zettelbauer (Graz) -  Transgression und Re/Affirmation. Die Kriegsfürsorge im Ersten Weltkrieg als ambivalenter Geschlechterraum. Keynote lecture as part of the conference „Gender – Politik – Religion. Biblische Impulse und aktuelle Resonanzen“, University of Graz.

Publications:

• Heidrun Zettelbauer, Vergeschlechtlichte Konfliktzonen. Kriegsfürsorge zwischen patriotisch-nationalen Geschlechterentwürfen und staatlichmilitärischen Interessen, in: Werner Suppanz/Nicole-Melanie Goll (Hg.), Der Erste Weltkrieg auf lokaler/regionaler Ebene: Graz und das Kronland Steiermark, Brill-Böhlau: Wien 2022 [erscheint im Oktober].
• International and Transdisciplinary Research Group on Gender Politics and the Greater War (Eds.), War Welfare and Gender Politics in the First World War and Beyond. Transdisciplinary Approaches [working title], Vorbereitung einer kollaborativen englischsprachigen Publikation, 2024.
• Viktoria Wind, The Working Soldier? Social Democratic War Correspondence and Militarised Masculinity in Austria-Hungary during World War One, in: Frank Jacob (Ed.), War and Journalism (= War (Hi)Stories 13), Ferdinand Schöningh: Paderborn [2023, invited].