As part of Women’s History Month celebrations throughout March, Swansea University’s History Department organised a panel, looking at a series of objects illuminating women’s identities and experiences in the past. It also focused on how women have historically been portrayed and represented.
Using the wider themes for this year’s International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, of ‘Inspiring Inclusion’ and ‘Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion’, respectively, academics each chose a particular object to help highlight the importance of focussing on women’s contributions to history.
The event both aimed increasing the visibility of women throughout history as well as celebrating female academics and gender-based research across Swansea University’s Department of History, Heritage, and Classics.
Some of the artefacts selected to help guide discussions were, Caputi Hydria, an Athenian vase including the only known image of a female vase painter. a triangular basalt stone representing the goddess Aphrodite, which sparked a debate around female beauty standards and a sculpture of female tin plate workers, helped the panel to reflect on women’s role in the steel industry.
The panel was made up of female academics in the Department of History, Heritage and Classics: Maria Pretzler, Ersin Hussein, Louise Miskell, Mai Musie, Louise Coyne and Imogen Dobie. The event was well attended by staff, students and postgraduate researchers.
Academic, Louise Coyne, commented:
“The key outcome of the presentations was that they showed students different ways in which they could consider women’s roles across places and time periods. It was a fantastic showcase of the brilliant research currently being conducted by female classicists and historians at Swansea. After the event, we enjoyed a lot of informal chats with students about women’s history as well as crisps and cake! With the success of this panel, we are hoping to run similar events in the future.”
To find out more about History and Heritage courses at Swansea University please visit - https://www.swansea.ac.uk/history/