WiF 2023 Archive

The WiF UK-Ireland 2023 Conference was held at Hinsley Hall, Leeds, from 26th-28th May. We were delighted to welcome so many of our members to our first conference as a formalised Association, and are equally delighted to share with you some photos from the event. These can be found in a gallery below the conference report, written by our Postgraduate Reps Ally Pugh and Emma Flynn.

A digital archive of the material associated with this event – the call for papers, digital conference pack and the programme – has been made permanent on our website and is available to view here.

Conference Report

Women in French UK-Ireland Biennial Conference 2023

Femmes et/en crises

Women and/in crisis

The 2023 Women in French UK-Ireland conference was special for a number of reasons. It was our first conference as a formalised association; it was also the first time the WiF UK-Ireland community had been together in person since before the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2023 conference saw us return to Hinsley Hall in Leeds, and delegates came from as far afield as Australia and the US. The conference brought together long-time WiF members with newer colleagues, for a weekend of academic brilliance, generosity, and connection. The conference was organised by Caroline Verdier and Véronique Desnain, with the assistance of WiF UK-Ireland Web & Media Officer, Ciara Gorman.

Delegates arrived on Friday lunchtime and were welcomed by Caroline and Véronique. The panels on Friday afternoon focused on topics including motherhood, crisis, the body, childhood, and Leïla Slimani’s Chanson douce (2016). We also ran a ‘One Book, One WiF’ session, in partnership with WiF North America. The aim of ‘One Book, One WiF’ is to help promote critical interest in lesser known French and Francophone women writers and thus to increase the readership of their corpus. The 2023 text was La Vérité sort de la bouche du cheval (2018) by Meryem Alaoui, which delegates discussed in a session led by Stephanie Schechner.

Following a conference reception (kindly sponsored by Peter Lang), Lou Sarabadzic and Caroline Verdier launched their exhibition, ‘Reframing the HPV Narrative’. This exhibition was on display for delegates to engage with throughout the weekend. Later in the evening, delegates were invited to attend a screening of the film L’événement (2021), an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s work of the same name. The film was chosen in celebration of Ernaux, who in 2022 became the first French woman to win the Nobel prize in literature, and for its affecting depiction of a femme en crise. The film was introduced by our Co-Postgraduate Representative, Alexandra Pugh.

Day 2 began with a fabulous breakfast at Hinsley Hall, and then it was right back to panels at 9am. We started with papers on caring and crisis, crisis in the domestic sphere and migration crises. After a break for tea and coffee, we moved onto panels on trauma, activism and our ASMCF-sponsored panel, ‘Corporeal & Clandestine Responses to Crisis’. Some delegates then made the most of the sun with an excursion to Ilkley Moor, where there was walking, great chats and, most importantly, ice cream! Other delegates took some time to chill in the beautiful grounds of Hinsley Hall. Saturday evening kicked off with papers on eco-feminism, and a much anticipated WiF Australia panel on love in crisis. Afterwards, it was dinner and drinks before our plenary session at 8pm. The plenary was a real highlight, featuring writers and artists Samira Sedira and Lou Sarabadzic in conversation. The conversation was themed around la geste artistique, with Samira and Lou reading from each others’ work and discussing their respective creative practices. This insightful, warm and funny session was the perfect way to end our second day, before retreating for nightcaps and much needed sleeps.

Sunday, our final day, began with panels on language, cinemas of crisis, and round two of bodily crises. Our final sessions on crisis and creation and crise sociale/crise personelle ended things on a high before we moved to our final event of the weekend: our plenary discussion and planning for WIF UK-IRE 2025! The discussion was buzzing with excitement and ideas, as we heard from members of the WIF UK-IRE committee about our first year as a formalised association and looked to the future. It was humbling and heartwarming to reflect on the amazing work of our WIF UK-IRE founding members, and connect with newer scholars. Consensus was reached on our exciting next conference theme and big plans were made!

Matilda Nevin and Beth Kearney were jointly awarded the prize for the best postgraduate paper at the conference, with congratulations! It was decided that Jasmine Cooper and Adina Stroia will be taking the reins as organisers of the 2025 WiF UK-Ireland conference.

We headed home on Sunday, after a stimulating weekend full of warmth and collegiality. Thanks are due to the staff at Hinsley Hall, who helped the weekend run smoothly. Congratulations to Caroline Verdier and Véronique Desnain, who organised the conference so brilliantly, and thank you to Ciara Gorman for her expertise.