Gender and Conflicts in European History. Intensive Summer Programme Organised by MATILDA – European Master in Women’s and Gender History

About

Explore the role of gender in shaping conflicts throughout European history — from the Middle Ages to
the present.
The 2026 International MATILDA Summer School offers a vibrant, interdisciplinary programme led by some
of Europe’s top scholars in women and gender history.
You will acquire new tools to analyse how gender has influenced societies, cultures, and power dynamics
across time and borders and you will discuss topics such as:
o Family, kinship, and property in medieval Europe
o Gender and labour across centuries
o Women’s knowledge and cultural authority
o Nationalism, gender, and political identity
o Masculinities in the modern and contemporary age

The MATILDA intensive summer programme focuses on women's and gender history, from the Middle Age
to the contemporary time. It aims to enhance knowledge on historical research but also the capacity of
reading the complexity of present time and its transformations.

The programme is structured in three parts.

1. SUMMER SCHOOL: Gender and Conflicts in Historical Perspective
o a keynote lecture
o five introductory lectures held by professors specialists of gender history which will focus on
substantive issues and methodological approaches in different historical periods
o a workshop where Master and PhD students present and discuss their research. The
students will be required to:
1. read the required reading,
2. participate actively in the discussions of lectures and seminars and either present
their own research (including a written exposé in English, length: approx. 6000
words) or a written essay in English (length: approx. 3000 words) discussing a
specific topic covered at the summer school (including additional secondary
literature, i.e. 2-3 articles or a book, apart from the required reading on the
selected topic).

2. INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP: “Naming a gendered world, past and present”: historians, political
scientists and literary scholars challenge the censorship of speech
The MATILDA intensive programme also aims to actively engage students and professors in a discussion on
very contemporary issues like the language of official communication and the censorship of speech that
reflect real agenda and precise policies of certain current governments:
In partnership with the Centro di Ateneo Elena Cornaro per i saperi, le culture e le politiche di genere, we will
organize an interdisciplinary workshop entitled «Naming a gendered world» to explore some of the
«hundreds of words» the administration of the US President Trump has banned or restricted the use on
official websites, documents and other public texts. Among these words are: «women», «men», «gender»,
«equality», «feminism», «gender-based violence», but also… «historically».
Historians, political scientists and literary scholars will challenge the censorship of speech.

3. THE PADUA CULTURAL HERITAGE: a gendered historical reading
Finally, the MATILDA Summer School features three excursions in Padua cultural heritage to engage
students and professors in an artistic experience:
o A guided visit to the Scrovegni Chapel
o A guided visit to the Baptistry and its frescoes (an amazing example of medieval female
artistic patronage by Fina Buzzacarini, the wife of the lord of Padua, 2nd half XIVth cent.)
o A tour in town with the collaboration of the Association “Mi riconosci” through sculptures dedicated to women in the Paduan public space reading the complexity of present time and its transformations.

Target group

Target: Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD students

Fee info