Call for papers: How Women Shaped the Nordic Enlightenment II: The Political Public Sphere

This conference addresses women's contributions to the political public sphere in the Nordic Enlightenment.

Scholarship of recent years has challenged the pervasive assumption that the conceptual development of political ideas such as liberty and equality during the European Enlightenment was driven exclusively by male thinkers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Baruch de Spinoza. It has been shown that women played a previously underestimated role as political actors and as contributors of political thought. This has not only led to a more nuanced understanding of how the Enlightenment as an intellectual movement unfolded but also to an expansion of what counts as political thinking – now including considerations of marriage, friendship, as well as the equality and liberty of women and other marginalized groups – and where it took place.

While this research illuminates the complexities of the European Enlightenment, the extent of Nordic women’s contributions to the Enlightenment as it evolved in the North remains an open question. With this conference we want to discuss and provide answers to this question by analyzing how women shaped the Nordic Enlightenment, from the perspective of their participation in the political public sphere. Taking into account the particular political settings in the North, such as the strikingly early freedom of the press periods in the kingdoms of Sweden-Finland and Denmark-Norway and the outstanding role queens played in these kingdoms, we aim to investigate how women debated political topics and influenced or took part in political decision-making. By focusing on the various ways in which Nordic women made an impact in the political public sphere, the conference aims to expand our knowledge of how women shaped the development of politics and political ideas in the Nordic Enlightenment.