Dear Students, Faculty and Staff of the Department of History,
We are continuing our departmental tradition of organizing weekly research seminars. In these seminars, professors and researchers provide insights into their current work.
On Tuesday, 15.03.2022, 17:40 PM CET, we will have a lecture by Veronika Helfert, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Central European University
Title: Reflections on Labour Activism. Migrant Women in the Textile Industry in Austria, 1960s to 1980s
Zoom link will be shared on the day of the seminar here:
Abstract:
In contrast to public belief – and often repeated in scholarship – many women have been recruited in Yugoslavia and Turkey to work in sectors just as the textile industry in Austria from the 1960s to the 1980s. They faced a double marginalization as migrants and as women. In this lecture I explore how the double marginalization shaped labor activism. I sketch how shop stewards and top-level functionaries in the Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers Union (TBL) and the Women’s Department of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) relate to the issue of migrant labour, and examine the scope of activism for women migrant workers in the Austrian labour migration regime.
Bio:
Veronika Helfert is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Central European University Vienna/Budapest in the Research Project “ZARAH: Women’s labour activism in Eastern Europe and transnationally, from the age of empires to the late 20th century” (https://zarah-ceu.org/). Her research interests are Women’s and Gender History of Protest and Revolution, Women’s Suffrage and Labour History in the 20th Century. Recent publications include "Women, Stand up! A Women’s and Gender History of the Austrian Revolution and Council Movement, 1916–1924" (2021) (in German).
We welcome all members of the department!
Daniela Munteanu and Jan Hennings