Lilith: A Feminist History Journal: Number 30

Description

The 2024 issue of Lilith benefited from some unusual contributions from international scholars from South Africa, Finland, the US and the UK, and from Australian-based researchers at the University of NSW, The Australian National University, Western Sydney University, the University of Melbourne, the University of New England, James Cook University, the Australian Catholic University, Charles Darwin University and the University of Wollongong. Many of these researchers participated in our 2023 Lilith Symposium at ACU Melbourne on ‘Gender & Joy’ in feminist history, which benefitted from inspirational keynote addresses by Professor Katie Barclay (Macquarie University) and Dr Yves Rees (La Trobe University). This issue contains articles on historical themes as diverse as African pottery, theology, poetry and Black women’s joy, Paris trans identity and cabaret theatre, First World Wartime cross-dressing, British Enlightenment women’s writing, early twentieth-century domestic servants in South Australia, and working girls’ clubs in Chicago. Our eight book reviewers evaluated works on visual cultures of pregnancy, Japanese biopolitics of reproduction, international women peace advocates, women in the Whitlam government, the wife of George Orwell, the global history of courtship, and both Pakistani and Australian histories of motherhood.

As in other issues of Lilith in recent years, 2024 saw a balance of local Australian histories which uncovered new aspects of gendered concepts and identities of the past, along with comparative intercultural inquiries, highlighting the importance of internationalisation in movements beginning on one context but later influencing several others. This volume also showcases the engagement in history of scholars from other disciplines who share our desire to honour and celebrate the joy, laughter, struggle, resilience and survival of women and gender-diverse people of different races and cultures, past and present, across the world.