Nuns and Lay Religious Women in Early America (11/15/02; 9/24/03-9/27/03)

Proposed Panel: Blessed be the Peacemakers: Nuns and Lay Religious Women in Early America, 1700 - 1865.

Society of the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) Conference
September 24-27, 2003
Fort Worth, Texas
SSAWW website: http://www.unl.edu./legacy/SSAWW.html

Proposals and papers are sought for a proposed panel on nuns and religious lay women in early America. While long overdue research has been accomplished (Margaret Susan Thompson, and Mary Ewens as example), much remains to be recovered and examined. Often these women are relegated solely to religious historians. What happens when these women (and their writing) is taken as a subject of literary study? What do we make of the women who provided education, health care and religious instruction for women of all colors? How are thier lives and writing influenced by class, geographical location or gender? Do these women operate "between genders"? Is there a special place for them within the *canon*? Broad discussions of these issues are welcome as well.

Please email or postal mail 250 word abstracts no later than November 15, 2002 to:

Diana Vela
Department of English
TCU
P.O. 297270
Fort Worth, Texas 76129
d.m.vela@tcu.edu