The IX Congress of the Italian Society of Historians “Gender and History Beyond Boundaries / Gender and History Beyond Boundaries” has ended. The University of the Sicilian capital hosted the works, a model for gender policies implemented with the creation of the Pro-Rectorate for Inclusion and Equal Opportunities and the Artemisia centre.
Understanding how societies construct the roles of women and men, how the feminine and the masculine structure power relations, how those who had homosexual relationships lived in the past, those who did not recognize themselves in the gender assigned at birth or those who had an intersex body. These were some of the fields of investigation of the IX Congress of the Italian Society of Historians, entitled “Gender and history beyond borders/Gender and History Beyond Boundarie” which, from 19 to 22 June, brought together at the University of Palermo the elite of scholars at an international level.
Experts from 25 countries, belonging to more than 100 institutions, of which 11 research bodies (8 Italian, 3 foreign) and 91 universities (35 Italian and 56 foreign, 15 of which non-European), met in 59 panels on numerous themes, over a chronological span that goes from antiquity to the present, in the most diverse geo-political contexts.
“The Congress was a success and a tangible manifestation of the effectiveness of the gender policies undertaken by the University of Palermo with the creation of the Prorectorate for Inclusion and Equal Opportunities and, as a result, of the Artemisia center for the studies of gender policies and the Doctorate – declared Prof. Beatrice Pasciuta, Vice-Rector for inclusion, equal opportunities and gender policies of the University of Palermo – The obligation, coming from Europe, to equip itself with the GEP (equality of gender) has been exploited in a concrete way for changes to the institutional structure and structural investments of which this is one of the first visible results”.
The president of the Italian Historical Society, Raffaella Sarti, took stock of the important event: “The IX Congress of the SIS Gender and history beyond borders was an arena of free and lively dialogue on gender issues between around 250 female scholars, young and senior, coming from around one hundred Italian and foreign institutions, specialists in different periods, areas, disciplines and subjects. The pleasantness of the venues and the convivial events contributed to the atmosphere of fruitful collaboration: a positive example in a context of serious national and international tensions”.
Together with her Ida Fazio (University of Palermo) and Simona Feci (University of Naples L’Orientale) who coordinated the scientific committee: “The Congress spread awareness of the progress made by international and Italian research on the presence of women in non-historical history only in the private sphere, but in the public sphere, in politics, in social movements, in economic exchanges, in the production of artistic representations. A presence that more traditional history struggled to identify, and which today instead represents a consolidated and fully developing field”.
The IX Congress of the Italian Society of Historians was organized with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture, the University of Palermo, the Municipality of Palermo – Department of Culture, the Gallery of Modern Art (Palermo), the Sicily Foundation, the Sicily Region and the Gramsci Institute Siciliano, Soroptimist Palermo, Friends of the Teatro Massimo, National Historical Council. The Center for Sustainability and Ecological Transition of the University of Palermo gave its patronage.
Place: University of Palermo
