Workshop Programme

Supportive Practices? Letters to Social Movement Activists

November, 27^th 2023, University of Vienna,

Campus of the University, Spitalgasse 2-4, Old Chapel, 2.8 (Passage from courtyard 1 to courtyard 2)

08:45 Welcoming Remarks: Birgitta Bader-Zaar

08:55 Opening Presentation:

Letters to Prominent Activists – A Comparative Perspective on Social Movements (Corinna Oesch)

09:20 – 11:00 Panel 1: Letters to Women’s Movements’ Activists

‘Do not think my dear Madame, that I do not know you’: Letters to Rosika Schwimmer, 1896 – 1948 (Dóra Fedeles-Czeferner)

Exploring Epistolary Relationships: Black Women’s Letters to Mary Church Terrell, 1880 – 1920 (Alison M. Parker)

Asking for Support: Letters to Women Pacifists, 1919 – 1939 (Clara-Anna Egger)

Discussion: (Chair: Amelie Herzog)

11:00 – 11:20 Coffee Break

11:20 – 13:00 Panel 2:  Letters to Labour and Socialist Activists

Of Comrades and Contraception. Letters to Socialist and Doctor Fritz Brupbacher in the Swiss Labour Movement around 1900 (Tabea Herzog)

Weaving the Network: The Role of Correspondence in the Development and Spread of the Socialist Women’s Movement, 1907-1917 (Minja Bujakovic)

‘That I got up the courage and turn to you in my great despair.’ Letters to comrade Käthe Kern of the Women’s Secretariat, 1946 – 1949 (Anna Leyrer)

Discussion (Chair: Zsófia Lóránd)

13:00 – 14:20 Lunch Break

14:20 – 16:00 Panel 3: Letters to Prominent Activists in Contemporary History

Encouragement and Accusations of Fascism: Günther Schwab and the Rise of a Far-Right Ecology Movement, 1960 – 1990 (Stefan Rindlisbacher)

A Tale of Correspondence between Women Workers and Women Unionists, 1980 – 2000 (Mamatha Gandham)

Letters from Lockdown (Fabio Vighi)

Discussion (Chair: Judith Leitner)

16:00– 16:20 Coffee Break

16:20 Concluding Remarks and Reflections