
[992] WOMEN_HUMANITARI@NS
Where are the women in the history of humanitarian aid? How can a gender perspective help us to better understand the involvement of women in the humanitarian movement? Has humanitarianism allowed women to fight for their political rights?
How can the history of humanitarianism contribute to reconstructing the history of Swiss women from a transnational point of view? To what extent have gender stereotypes hidden the role of female humanitarians in the history of global health?
How can we study the lived experiences of the women and men who have been active in the field to write a history of humanitarianism from below? And what lessons can we learn from this history for present-day humanitarianism?
In order to answer these questions, our research mobilises analytical and interpretive tools which lie at the crossroads of several research areas: the history of humanitarianism, international relations, global health, women and gender, emotions, experience and even visual and material culture and public history. Our research aims to stimulate a critical dialogue about the challenges of contemporary humanitarian action between historians, philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, healthcare professionals, representatives of NGOs and cultural institutions as well as the general public.