The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) Program at the College of Charleston is hosting a conference on “Women in the Ibero-American Atlantic, 1500-1800.” The conference will take place at the College from February 18 to 20. The event will highlight three world-renowned keynote speakers, and 16 presentations made by scholars from the United States, Canada and Europe. Topics to be covered will include history, literature, cultural production, medicine, law and religion.
This year’s CLAW conference will shine the spotlight on the very influential roles Spain and Portugal played in parts of the world that were far beyond their European borders, i.e., in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean and West Africa. The topic under discussion is especially timely, because Hispanic influences on contemporary U.S. society are becoming more widespread and apparent.
To open the conference, Prof. Lisa Vollendorf of California State University, Long Beach, will deliver a keynote lecture on literacy and education in Iberia and the Americas on Thursday evening (February 18). There will be four panel session on Friday. Papers will be presented on such topics ranging from healing and writing to religion and military conquest. Prof. Allyson Poska of Mary Washington University will conclude Friday’s sessions with a lecture on “Reframing Gender in the Spanish Empire.” On Saturday, February 20, there will be two panel sessions and a final keynote address by Prof. Bianca Premo of Florida International University. She will speak on “Love, Gender, and Judges in the Spanish Atlantic.”
Dr. Sarah Owens, a Spanish professor at the College of Charleston, is the conference organizer. Conference supporters include: the CLAW program, Department of Hispanic Studies, School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at the College of Charleston, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and the GEMELA organization (Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer en España y las Americas).
For registration details and additional information, contact Dr. Sarah Owens at 843.953.7186 or owenss@cofc.edu. See the CLAW website for schedule and further details.
