Friday 5th June 2026, online
Keynote speakers and timings to be confirmed.
Tamzin Elliott, Katie-Rose Nandhra and Emma Flynn, PG and ECR reps at Women in French UK-Ireland, invite postgraduate and early career researchers in Francophone women’s cultural production to present their projects at an online showcase. This event will offer you an opportunity to share your work, whether polished or in progress, in a friendly and collegial environment, and to connect with our supportive community.
‘Taboo’ is intended as a broad title that provokes diverse lines of inquiry into the persecutions and prohibitions faced by women, and their continuing transgressions of these boundaries, throughout humanity. As such, it captures the rich variety of research into Francophone women being undertaken by junior academics in French studies and beyond.
‘The meaning of “taboo”,’ writes Freud, ‘diverges in two contrary directions. To us it means, on the one hand, “sacred”, “consecrated”, and on the other “uncanny”, “dangerous”, “forbidden”, “unclean”’ (p. 21). These qualities have given rise to a multitude of questions in French and feminist thought: how have the lives, works and legacies of Francophone women been shaped by cultural taboos, such as religious blasphemy, multiethnicity or anticolonial politics? What restrictions have been imposed upon their gender and sexuality, and how have these been subverted or defied? And how do we understand and represent the historic and persistent taboos of the socialised female body – menstruating, infertile, disabled, intersex or transgender?
Submissions to this PG & ECR Showcase may draw on disciplines including, but not limited to, literature, film, theatre, music, queer studies, trans studies, history, politics, philosophy, linguistics and translation. Whether you are yet to formally begin your research or have recently finished it, we invite you to share with us any aspect of your work that may contribute to our discussions and debates around the theme of taboo. For example, you may like to present:
- An overview of your current research
- A chapter of your thesis or dissertation
- One aspect of your argument
- Your methodology or theoretical framework
- An idea for a new or future research project.
We also encourage proposals for non-traditional presentations, such as interactive workshops or creative interpretations on the theme.
Speakers will have 15 minutes to present and may deliver their presentations in either French or English. The showcase will be held on Zoom on Friday 5th June 2026.
To apply, please send the following to PG reps Tamzin Elliott (tamzin.l.elliott@durham.ac.uk) and Katie-Rose Nandhra (katie-rose.nandhra.25@ucl.ac.uk) by midnight (British Summer Time) on Friday 17th April 2026:
- Your name, institution (if applicable) and level of study
- An outline of your proposed presentation (max. 300 words).
You do not need to hold a membership of Women in French UK-Ireland to participate in the showcase, but we always welcome new members. Independent and unaffiliated junior academics are also very welcome to send in proposals. Information about joining the association, including discount rates for postgraduates and ECRs, can be found here.
Colleagues at all career stages are warmly invited to join us on the day. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the email addresses provided above.
We look forward to receiving your proposals!
Amitiés,
Tamzin, Katie-Rose and Emma
Bibliography
Sigmund Freud, Totem and Taboo, trans. by James Strachey (London and New York: Routledge, 2001)
Pauline Henri-Tierney, Translating Transgressive Texts: Gender, Sexuality and the Body in Contemporary Women’s Writing in French (New York: Routledge, 2023)
Disruptive Discourses by Francophone Women, ed. by Polly Galis, Ciara Gorman and Julie Rodgers (Liverpool: LUP, 2025).
Women in French UK-Ireland 