We are pleased to announce the upcoming conference "Considering Women in the Early Modern Low Countries," to be held on April 24 and 25 at the Rubenianum in Antwerp, Belgium. This international event brings together twenty-six eminent scholars of history, art history, and literature, and it will be the first conference to focus on women and gender in both the Protestant Dutch Republic and the Catholic Southern Netherlands. The conference program appears below, and further information is available at https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/consideringwomen/.

Registration for the conference is now open, and due to limited capacity at the venue we encourage those interested to register early. Questions may be directed to Dr. Amanda Pipkin at apipkinuncc.edu or Dr. Sarah Moran at Sarah.MoranUAntwerpen.be.

Program:

Friday, April 24, 2015

8:30-9:00: Coffee and Registration

9:00-9:15: Welcome

Véronique van de Kerckhof, Rubenianum

Luc Duerloo, University of Antwerp

9:15-9:30: Introduction

Amanda Pipkin, University of North Carolina Charlotte

9.30-11.00: Panel I: Writing and Public Culture

Panel Chair: Lia van Gemert, University of Amsterdam

Judith Keßler, Radboud University Nijmegen: “The Perception and Self-Fashioning of the Antwerp Poetess Anna Bijns (1493-1575) in Male Vernacular Literary Society”

Martine van Elk, California State University Long Beach: “Publicizing Female Virtue: Mariamne in Plays by Elizabeth Cary and Katharina Lescailje”

11:00-11:30: Coffee break

11:30-13:00: Panel II: Picturing Nuns

Panel Chair: Paul Vandenbroeck, Royal Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp

Andrea Pearson, American University: “Disability and Salvation in a Mechelen Besloten Hofje”

Margit Thøfner, University of East Anglia: “‘Adorned With the Pictures of Many Devout Women’: Portraying Nuns in the Low Countries”

13:00-14.30: Lunch

14:30-15:30: Keynote Address I

Martha Howell, Columbia University: “The Problem of Female Agency: Assessing Gender Relations in the Early Modern Low Countries”

15:30-16:00: Coffee break

16:00-18:00: Panel III: Feminine Ideals and Transgressions in the Dutch Republic

Panel Chair: Judith Pollmann, Leiden University

Martha Moffitt Peacock, Brigham Young University: “The Maid of Holland – Allegory or Role Model?”

Manon van der Heijden, Leiden University: “Criminal Women in Early Modern Holland”

Mirjam de Baar, University of Groningen: “Representations of Female Dissenters in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic”

Saturday, April 25, 2015

9:00-9:30: Coffee

9:30-11:00: Panel IV: Aesthetics of Authority and Aging

Panel Chair: Bert Watteeuw, Rubenianum

Cordula van Wyhe, University of York: “The Fabric of Female Rule in Leone Leoni’s Statue of Mary of Hungary, c. 1555”

Frima Fox Hofrichter, Pratt Institute: “Wrinkled Old Women (WOW!) – The Overlooked in the Early Modern Period”

11:00-11:30: Coffee break

11:30-13:00: Panel V: Writing & Convent Culture

Panel Chair: Ellen Decraene, University of Antwerp

Patricia Stoop, University of Antwerp: “Religious Women and the Writing of Vernacular Sermons in the Southern Low Countries (1550-1600)”

Ping-Yuan Wang, Ohio University Lancaster: “Sisters for Life: Narratives of Sisterhood in the Visitandine Necrologies in the Spanish Netherlands, ca. 1668-1715”

13:00-14.30: Lunch

14:30-15:30: Keynote Address II

Diane Wolfthal, Rice University: “Foregrounding the Background: Images of Dutch and Flemish Household Servants”

15:30-16:00: Coffee break

16:00-18:00: Panel VI: Marriage, Money and Work

Panel Chair: Adriane Schmidt, Leiden University

Danielle van den Heuvel, University of Kent: “Considering the Economic Role of Women in the Dutch Republic”

Tine de Moor, Utrecht University: “Yes, I do! Marriage Patterns in Early Modern Amsterdam”

Katlijne van der Stighelen, University of Leuven: “Anna Francisca de Bruyns (1604-1656): The Artist, the Mother and the Wife. A Contextual Approach to Her Early Career”

18.00-18:15: Closing Remarks

Sarah Moran, University of Antwerp & University of Bern

18:15: Reception