Call for Papers: Women Scientists, Development and Environmental Citizenship: Scientific Transnational Organizations and Public Activism, University of Trieste - Department of Humanities, April 20-21, 2023

 Call for Papers: Women Scientists, Development and Environmental Citizenship: Scientific Transnational Organizations and Public Activism, University of Trieste - Department of Humanities, April 20-21, 2023

The  Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Trieste is  organizing a conference on April 20-21, 2023 in Trieste, dedicated to  women's activism in science, development and environmental justice in  the context of transnational organizations during the Cold War.

In  the second half of the twentieth century, beginning with the so-called  "Atomic Age," a realization gradually took hold among scientists of the  two opposing blocs that dialogue for the peaceful use of nuclear energy  would help save the world from atomic cataclysm. At the same time, the  activism of some/all scientists manifested a strong critique of the  development model that had characterized the postwar years. FAO's World  Food Program in 1961 and Rachel Carson's famous Silent Spring  study-denunciation in 1962 paved the way for understanding the links  between environmentalism, economic and social development, and the role  of science. There then gradually emerged the need to analyze, and stop,  the environmental and human consequences that unsustainable development  was bringing to the planet and the poorest people.

During  the 1960s and 1970s, the process of decolonization also led to a more  pronounced prominence of the new countries that emerged from the  dissolution of European colonial empires. This also redefined the  concept of development, in connection with the debate on human rights  and environmental sustainability, which began to gain progressive  prominence in national politics, international relations and the agenda  of International Organizations.

Along  with purely economic issues, women's rights issues also emerged,  intersecting with the debates of the feminist movements of the 1970s and  1980s. In fact, as Regina Laub and Yianna Lambrou have pointed out, it  was female scientists such as Helen Caldicott, Rosalie Bertell, Dorothy  Hodgkin, and Emma Reh who denounced the nefarious effects of the arms  race (particularly atomic) and emphasized the importance of enacting  effective development policies for the world's most backward areas, and  using different criteria to analyze global problems.

These  elaborations also found space at the international level if one  considers the importance of documents such as the Declaration on the  Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW, 1967) later to  become the Convention (CEDAW) in 1979. To this must be added the  important presence of women scientists at the UN conferences in Mexico  City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1985), where  the links between women's rights, environmental justice and sustainable  development emerged ever stronger. Beginning in the late 1960s, as  Devaki Jain analyzed in 2005, a series of studies and campaigns were  launched within the so-called Onusian system (which includes all related  agencies, such as WHO, UNDP, UNESCO, FAO and ILO) that influenced and  were influenced in turn by the presence of women scientists who through  channels that were not always official and structured – networks and  associations such as Pugwash, Femmes d'Europe, Women in Science and  numerous NGOs – attempted to influence global choices and perspectives.  At the same time, beginning in the late 1970s, grassroots movements  sprang up in different parts of the world that combined claims about  respect for the environment with demands for greater social and racial  equity. Within these, women's activism played a key role in creating a  transnational network and codifying the concept of environmental justice  on a global level.

The  conference is part of the PRIN-2017 research project "Inventing the  Global Environment: Science, Politics, Advocacy and the  Environment-Development Nexus in the Cold War and Beyond."

The discussion topics and perspectives to be addressed by the papers are as follows:

-  How has women's activism through associations, transnational networks,  or international agencies (such as UNIFEM, TWOWS, INSTRAW) influenced  the orientations and studies of major international organizations,  particularly the UN and related agencies.

-  How has the activism of women scientists and scholars in general  changed, particularly in so-called developing and Third World countries  but not only there, the relationship between development, environmental  justice, and human rights? What have been the connections between  Non-Governmental Organizations, activism of women scientists such as  Rachel Carson (for the Western world) or Wangari Maathai (for Third  World countries) and the creation of women leaders within environmental  and environmental justice movements.

- How can the categories of gender, race, and class explain North-South relations with respect to environmental issues?

-  How have local and global dimensions helped guide the environmental  debate and what has been the contribution of women to this discussion?

-  How has women's activism been incorporated into policymaking on  environmental protection, environmental justice, and development by  states of the two opposing blocs?

-  The impact of women's activism in the development and evolution of  concepts and practices related to environmental justice and development.

-  How have agricultural and food policies of National Governments or  International Organizations changed the status of women? Both from  cultural, labor and political perspectives.

Please send abstract of 500 words maximum, with one-page CV of the author, to

Elisabetta Vezzosi (vezzosi@units.it) and Federico Chiaricati (FEDERICO.CHIARICATI@units.it) by October 15.

With an abstract of 500 words maximum, accompanied by a one-page CV of the author.

Selection will be announced by November 10.