Joint annual conference of the Quaker Studies Research Association and Centre for Research in Quaker Studies, Universities of Birmingham and Lancaster
Call for Papers: Quakers, Power, and Minorities
Woodbrooke, Birmingham (UK) and online, 23-24 June 2023.
When communicating Quaker history and values to each other and to the world, Friends have happily acknowledged the Religious Society of Friends as a minority speaking truth to power. However, recent re-evaluations have shown that Quakers exercised power over people minoritised by colonialism and participated in enslavement. Yet many Friends were also effective advocates for change with and on behalf of minorities and the minoritised in areas such as education, housing, prisons, mental healthcare, women’s rights and LBGTQ+ issues. Nineteenth and twentieth century British and American Quakers were also more liberal in their attitudes than most other churches in their attitudes to indigenous people—but what did this mean in real terms? Was ‘not as bad’ a positive outcome when Friends espoused goodness and honesty?
This conference provides an opportunity to re-examine aspects of the Quaker narrative, and to appraise the extent to which Quaker hagiography may have triumphed over inconvenient detail. It is also a chance to reflect on the Quaker understanding of ‘concern’, and if or how local or national meetings support a Friend’s inspiration. Indeed, differences within meetings have also produced minorities and marginalised individuals and groups—what does it mean to be a minority within a minority faith?
What does intersectionality look like in these circumstances?
This conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke and the Quaker Studies Research Association, both of which welcome scholarship from a wide range of disciplines including Theology, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Gender and Queer Studies, as well as different ways of seeing through Use of Language, and Social Construct and Social Change Theories.
Possible topics for papers may include, but are not restricted to:
Papers not connected to the general theme will also be considered.
We welcome individual and panel proposals, the latter with three speakers and one chair.
Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words long and be submitted by 19 th December 2022.
Proposals for and enquiries about the event should be e-mailed to Judith Roads at qconference23@gmail.com
Presenters will be encouraged to consider the gold open access journal Quaker Studies as a place to publish.
This conference provides an opportunity to re-examine aspects of the Quaker narrative, and to appraise the extent to which Quaker hagiography may have triumphed over inconvenient detail. It is also a chance to reflect on the Quaker understanding of ‘concern’, and if or how local or national meetings support a Friend’s inspiration. Indeed, differences within meetings have also produced minorities and marginalised individuals and groups—what does it mean to be a minority within a minority faith?
What does intersectionality look like in these circumstances?
This conference is jointly organised by the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke and the Quaker Studies Research Association, both of which welcome scholarship from a wide range of disciplines including Theology, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Gender and Queer Studies, as well as different ways of seeing through Use of Language, and Social Construct and Social Change Theories.
Possible topics for papers may include, but are not restricted to:
- The theological basis of Quaker ‘concerns’
- Quakers acting under concern
- Speaking truth to power within and outside Quaker circles
- Quaker activities in relation to enslavement and Empire, and with civil rights
- European and American Friends overseas as ‘foreigners in a foreign land’
- The experience of Friends and of Quaker Yearly Meetings in colonised peoples
- Quakers collaborating with other faith groups on social justice issues, and where Friends were either the majority or the minority
- Friends, wealth, poverty, social class and caste
- Disability, illness and prejudice in Quaker groups
- Quaker engagement with political authorities
- Friends dealing with conflict, both internally and externally
Papers not connected to the general theme will also be considered.
We welcome individual and panel proposals, the latter with three speakers and one chair.
Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words long and be submitted by 19 th December 2022.
Proposals for and enquiries about the event should be e-mailed to Judith Roads at qconference23@gmail.com
Presenters will be encouraged to consider the gold open access journal Quaker Studies as a place to publish.