Category Archives: Workshops

Workshop information 9 June

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While the next Feminist Archive South workshop is this Sunday, 11 May from 1-5pm at Mshed and will explore the history of feminist print media, we have details of another workshop below….

Sunday 9 June 2013 @ MShed 1-5pm. All welcome.

Bristol: Voices from the Women’s Liberation Movement facilitated by June Hannam and Kath Holden from the  West of England and South Wales Women’s History Network.

Most women took part in ‘second wave feminism’ at a grass roots, local level. How do we find out why they became involved and what they hoped to achieve? Can we recover their voices and, if we do, how can we interpret them?

This workshop will look at different ways that historians can try to recover women’s voices. The first part will look at documentary evidence, including newsletters, pamphlets and photographs. The second part will focus on oral testimony: participants will be invited to compare  summaries, full transcripts and original recordings of interviews.  The workshop will explore memory and the ways in which participants construct different stories of the movements in which they took part.

June Hannam is an emeritus professor and Kath Holden a visiting research fellow in history at the University of the West of England. They are co-chairs of the West of England and South Wales Women’s History Network. They both have research interests in  gender history. June Hannam specialises in labour and feminist history and Kath Holden in oral history and history of the family.

Recent publications include Katherine Holden: The Shadow of Marriage: Singleness in England, 1914-1960 (2007) and June Hannam, Feminism (2012).

What can history do? What does history mean to you? What does history mean to us? – Call for Contributions

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The Feminist Archive South have funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create a pamphlet that explores how feminist, women’s and other radical histories shape lives, understandings of social change, collective dreams, hopes, disappointments and imaginations.

The pamphlet will be published for the end of the Ellen Malos’ Archives project in September 2013. It will be distributed to schools, further education colleges and libraries in Bristol, the South West and further afield on request (we have limited budget for distribution but can provide free copies should you want some).

We invite people to explore these questions in whatever way they wish, but please do think about the question of what history can do, what it means to individuals and what it can possibly mean to communities, collectives or whatever other way you want to envision/ interrogate/ reconfigure/ think about ‘us.’

Contributions should be written in a non-specialist language as it is envisaged that a wide range of ages and backgrounds will read the pamphlet.

We want to use the pamphlet as a space to explore the practicalities of history making – for example running discussion and memory groups, oral history projects, grassroots archives (on and offline), exhibitions and other ways individuals and communities explore, recover and use history to understand their identities, where they live or the cultures they belong to.

If you work for a feminist or women’s archives, please consider a contribution that tells us about your collection – we plan to have a directory at the back which lists archives and libraries where people can find out about history.

You may also want to consider if digital media has had an impact on the question of what history can do, and how it is shaping individuals and communities right now.

Other contributions can be in the form of

  • Visual art e.g., Illustrations, photos, cartoons, posters
  • Essays and critical writing
  • Philosophical reflections
  • Telling radical histories
  • Profiles of archives, collections, museums, projects, websites/ web resources
  • Practical ‘how to’ articles – e.g., how to use an archive, how to work with historical sources, digital archiving and information management
  • Creative Writing, including poetry
  • Interviews with interesting projects
  • Interviews with people in your community

All written contributions must not exceed 1500 words

All images must be sent as JPEGs 300 DPI

Deadline for contributions

15 July 2013

Please send contributions to [email protected] and contact us for further information

 

Archivist Shadowing Workshops – Call for Participants

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Ever wanted to know how an archivist catalogues a large collection?

The Feminist Archive South is offering a unique opportunity for people to shadow the project archivist as she catalogues Ellen Malos’ collection.

Ellen Malos was a key figure in the Bristol Women’s Liberation Movement. The first Women’s Centre opened in the basement of her house in 1973, and her work supporting vulnerable women has been recognised through an Honoury Doctorate at Bristol University (2006), and in the naming of the Next Link Women’s Safe House, ‘Ellen Malos House’ (12 June 2007). Ellen’s archive comprises rare historical material, including documents that have shaped some of the most significant legal and policy transformations within British history relating to gender quality.

You can attend up to four sessions with the archivist, and they will take place during weekdays in the day-time. You do not have to attend all sessions – although if you want to, this is also fine!

This is a great chance to informally learn the skills, practices and knowledge required to do archival work. You also get the chance to look at a load of interesting material about feminist history!

Even if you do not want to pursue archiving as a career, these activities will be relevant to people interested in the history of gender equality, in particular activism relating to women’s aid and violence against women.

Sessions will take place from April-June 2013. Please contact us to arrange a session.

Participation bursaries are available to cover things like childcare, travel and accommodation costs (if coming from outside of Bristol). Please let us know about this when you make an enquiry.

Next Workshop – 12 May – Exploring and Making Feminist Media

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In the next Feminist Archive South workshop which is taking place on Sunday 12 May at MShed from 1-5pm, we will be exploring and making feminist media.

The representation of women in the media remains a hot topic for feminists today. From 2008-2011 the Bristol Feminist Network undertook major research which can be accessed here.

As well as critiquing existing representations, feminists have a long history of making their own media. From Sylvia Pankhurst’s Women’s Dreadnought, to the multitude of contemporary feminist blogs, women have always made their own media to communicate political ideas and create community.

In the workshop on the 12 May we will be focusing on printed media holdings of the Feminist Archive, which include numerous magazines and pamphlets from the Women’s Liberation Movement, examples of which are included below.

Shocking Pink Cover Spare Rib 4 shrew_ outwrite red rag_2 Bad Attitude 2

As well as learning about the aesthetics, practices and ideas discussed in WLM media, we will also make our own zines and pamphlets in the second part of the workshop.

So come prepared to write, draw, cut, paste and discuss the history of feminist media making!

All welcome!

Workshop this Tuesday 16 April and other information

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This week is the beginning of the Feminist Archive South’s workshop programme. The first workshop is taking place this Tuesday 16 April 7-9.30 pm at MShed. All welcome but please contact us to let us know you are coming! 

Program for Women's Liberation first read at the Ruskin Conference in 1970 - one of the items we will be looking at in the workshop

Program for Women’s Liberation first read at the Ruskin Conference in 1970 – one of the items we will be looking at in the workshop

We’ve also updated information about the workshop sessions taking place later in the year…..

  • Sunday 12th May – 1 to 5pm – We are joined by Hannah Little, ex-archivist at the Glasgow Women’s Library to explore the art and science of archiving.
  • Thursday 23rd May – 7 to 9.30pm – Focus on the content of Ellen Malos’ archives.
  • Tuesday 18th June – 7 to 9.30pm – Exploring the Feminist Archive South’s Greenham Common archive.
  • Thursday 27th June – 7 to 9.30pm – The Bristol Feminist Network will help us to explore the continuities and difference between contemporary campaigns and the activism of the Women’s Liberation Movement.
  • Saturday 6th July – 1 to 5pm – Folk legend and co-author of My Song is My Own Frankie Armstrong will talk about the process of recovering women’s musical folk traditions. Followed by a good old feminist singalong!
  • Saturday 20th July – 1 to 5pm – Special Focus on the history of Women’s Aid in Bristol. Ellen Malos, Gill Hague, Nicola Harwin and others will facilitate this special session on the development of Women’s Aid.

Work on cataloging Ellen’s archive begins!

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This week the work to catalogue Ellen’s archives have begun in earnest. Here a few photos from the very early stages. As you can see, Ellen is already fairly organised, and has over the years cannily used washing powder boxes as a file storage solution.

Box Files Housework Book Files Womens Aid

Ellen was also showing off some of the banners for campaigns and groups she was involved in, including this rather fetching sash.

Womans Right to Choose

DSC00071 copy

If you want to get involved and help the project archivist organise the material, please contact us. Its a great opportunity to learn how a collection is catalogued, and you get some hands on experience doing the work. We are particularly looking for people to get stuck in now, so don’t hesitate if you are interested!

Ellen's BAdges copy

 

Hearing Her: New Feminist Oral Histories

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This symposium will explore why and how oral history has been privileged as a methodology for capturing women activists’ experience in very different countries and contexts.

We will compare interviewing, archiving, interpretation and publicising methods and identify good practice that we can share. We will also identify strategies for future oral-historical research on transnational and cross-cultural feminism.

Featuring seven innovative feminist oral history projects

Join us

Date Thursday 11 April 2013

Time 09:30-16:30

Venue University of Sussex, Silverstone Building, Room 309

Cost and registration The day is free but registration beforehand is essential. Please contact Margaretta Jolly at [email protected]

This event is co-sponsored by The University of Sussex (Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research) and The University of Brighton (Centre for Memory, Narrative, History). We also thank the British Academy for its generous contribution.

Further information http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/mnh
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/clhlwr/

Feminist Archive South – dates for your diary

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As part of the Heritage Lottery project we are holding 8 workshops related to Ellen Malos’ archives and the holdings of the Feminist Archive South. These workshops are free to attend and open to everybody.

The workshops will be an opportunity to explore archive materials and learn about feminist history along the way.

You don’t have to have any prior experience or knowledge (but if you do this is also fine!) We want to create a space where people can bring their own experiences and knowledge to explore what these archives mean today.

We will post more information about the workshops soon, including information on how to book a place. All workshops will be taking place at MShed, the people’s history museum in the centre of Bristol.

A lot of the workshop content will be decided on by participants – we want you to explore the treasure trove that is the Feminist Archive South and learn about what matters to you. You may have a passion for feminist media or Greenham Common peace camp, for example. Or you may want to learn about the campaign for equal pay, the struggle for abortion rights, anti-imperialism, or how feminists used the arts to agitate and inspire.

This is an opportunity to delve deeper into the heritage of an inspirational, revolutionary, challenging and complex social movement, the struggles of which are still being played out today.

In the first workshop on Tuesday 16th April we will explore the question ‘What is an Archive?’ to get us going on our journey. Hope to see you there!

Here is a list of dates of the other workshops.

Sunday 12th May – 1 to 5pm

Thursday 23rd May – 7 to 9.30pm

Sunday 9th June – 1 to 5pm

Tuesday 18th June – 7 to 9.30pm

Thursday 27th June – 7 to 9.30pm

Saturday 6th July – 1 to 5pm

Saturday 20th July – 1 to 5pm