You find the Call for Responses and the Selection of Papers in this file: Call for Responses_Women and Health_Madeira 2025

Call for Responses

5th Crosscurrents Conference—Women and Health in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic World

4 - 6 December 2025, Venue: University of Madeira – Rectory Building (Madeira Island, Portugal)

Organised by Intercontinental Cross-Currents Network and University of Madeira, Faculty of Arts and Humanities - Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

We welcome response proposals addressing the main themes of the accepted individual papers, which can be found here on the following pages.

Each response proposal should engage directly and substantively with only ONE of the accepted individual papers.

We encourage response proposals that focus on:

• Constructively critiquing arguments, methods, or conclusions.
• Suggesting extensions (research, applications, theory).
• Discussing broader implications and contexts.
• Raising key questions or identifying tensions for future study.

Also, your response should enhance the transatlantic and transnational scope of the original paper.

Your response proposal should include:

• A 150-word abstract of the proposed response (rough collection of potential ideas suffices).
• A brief biography (150 words), including the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information.

Responses should last 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the number of contributors.

Please submit your response proposal to crosscurrents@amerikanistik.uni-halle.de by July 25, 2025, with the subject line: “Response – Women’s Health Conference.”

The 5th conference of the Intercontinental Cross-Currents Network will take place at the University of Madeira, December 4–6, 2025. Deadline for abstract submission: 31 March, 2025. 

Abstract:

We invite contributions on the theme of “Women and Health in the Nineteenth Century Transatlantic World” that explore the intricate relationship between health discourses and concepts of womanhood, as well as the experiences and realities that women encountered, engaged in, resisted, or helped create. We encourage cross-disciplinary studies and comparative transnational perspectives.

After the conference a selection of papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume or a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal.