European Literatures and Gender from Transnational Perspective (EUTERPE)

Project funder

Horizon Europe, Marie S. Curie European Doctoral Network (HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN – 101073012)

Project value

• Total project value: €2.420million
• Total project value to Coventry University: £261,360

Project team

Coventry University team
Professor Suzanne Clisby (Lead) and Dr Jaya Jacobo (Co-supervisor)

Collaborators
EUTERPE brings together 15 universities and associated partners across 9 European countries.

• C.I. Bologna University, Italy
• C.I. University of Granada, Spain
• C.I. Lödz University, Poland
• C.I. University of Oviedo, Spain
• C.I. Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• C.I. University of York, UK

Project duration

1 October, 2022 - 31 September, 2026

Project Objectives

EUTERPE is a €2.42 million network of Gender Studies scholars working with early stage Doctoral Candidates across Europe in partnership with the Coventry University and the University of York in the UK, Oviedo and Granada in Spain, Lödz in Poland, Bologna in Italy, Utrecht in The Netherlands, and coordinated by Consortium leads, Central European University, led by Professor Jasmina Lukic. We are also working in collaboration with a range of non-academic ‘industrial’ partners working within literary and cultural circles in various European contexts.

The aim of European Literatures and Gender from Transnational Perspective (EUTERPE) is to develop a new approach to rethinking European cultural production in the light of current complex social and political negotiations that are shaping European spaces and identities. Funded by both the European Commission and the UKRI, we will provide training for 11 Doctoral Researchers through our cross-European network.

EUTERPE brings together 15 universities and associated partners across 9 European countries to offer an innovative approach to rethinking European cultural production in the light of complex social and political negotiations that are shaping European spaces and identities at present. EUTERPE does so by bringing together gender and transnational perspectives within an interdisciplinary approach to literary and cultural studies.

EUTERPE is training and supervising 11 Early Stage Researchers in interdisciplinary, transnational, gender focused literary studies. The research is organized into 8 WPs within four main areas:

1. Transnational women’s literature and its travels: points of entry and pathways (WP 1, WP2);
2. Translational genres: crossing borders in gender, form, space, and identity (WP 3, WP4);
3. Transnational women intellectuals, multilingualism and decolonising European pedagogies (WP 5, WP6);
4. Transnational literature and cultural production: intermediality as a form of translation (WP7, WP8).

The Doctoral Fellow’s academic training includes two supervisors from cooperating universities, a mobility secondment period, and an industrial internship with an Associated Partner organization to support bespoke employability enhancement.

The Doctoral Researcher who will work with Professor Clisby and Dr Jacobo based at Coventry University, with a six month mobility placement in Utrecht University, will undertake doctoral research and training focused on one of the project’s work package themes: 3. Transnational women intellectuals, multilingualism and decolonising European pedagogies (WP 5, WP6) - The role of transnational literatures in the decolonisation of understandings of gender within the European academe, and specifically work on a research project that explores Transnational women intellectuals, multilingualism and decolonising European pedagogies.

EUTERPE is a multifaceted project with several long-term objectives and outputs in the intersecting fields of gender studies, literary studies, translation studies and European studies. Our project aims include: the mapping of the field of transnational literary studies in Europe as an interdisciplinary field, foregrounding a gender perspective; the creation of an interdisciplinary and intersectional framework for a theory of transnational literature; furthering debates about European identity in academia and beyond by focusing on questions of non-national identity in contemporary European literary and cultural production; and setting the frame for a history of transitional women’s literature in Europe by focusing on women-identified authors in the research of the Doctoral Researchers.

The objectives are:

1. To map the field of transnational literary studies in Europe as an interdisciplinary field, which brings together a range of interconnected disciplines and approaches, with gender perspective as the main integrative component and gender as a key analytical concept.
2. To propose an interdisciplinary and intersectional framework for a theory of transnational literature.
3. To contribute to the furthering of the discussion of European identity in academia and beyond by focusing on questions of non-national identity in contemporary European literary and cultural production.
4. To set the frame for a history of transitional women’s literature in Europe by focusing on womenidentifiedauthors in the research of DCs, in the Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe, and in the Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library, the major results of the project.
5. To produce the open access Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe as a major contribution to several intersecting disciplines: transnational studies, literary studies, gender studies, European studies, translation studies and migration studies. The Dictionary will consist of two parts: the first will be dedicated to theoretical and conceptual issues, and the second will bring together original biobibliographical articles dedicated to major women-identified authors in Europe today.
6. To create the Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library to enhance the cross-border circulation of European cultural wealth by establishing and running an inclusive and flexibly available platform about European transnational literary output. Through the Catalogue all bio-bibliographic entries of the second part of the Dictionary will be onlineaccessible and searchable together with extra links and contents, such as the author interviews of the Podcast Library.
7. To offer comprehensive training in interdisciplinary thinking and intersectional, gender conscious research practices to the employed DCs and to train DCs in socially responsible, open science practices.
8. To provide custom-made employability skills training for all DCs through ‘industrial’ internships within cogent but diverse organizations through associated partnerships across European contexts with libraries, publishing houses, museums, art networks. The associated partners offer important skills training in the fields of academic publishing, lexicographic writing, podcast recording, archival and curatorial work in order to open career choices for the DCs beyond academia.

Impact Statement

Major impact outputs of the project will include 11 PhD theses; a co-produced open source Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe with key concepts and bio-bibliographic entries on leading representatives of the field; and a Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library, which will make accessible all relevant material collected during the creation of the Dictionary. As a complex project, which brings together research, training, and open access publications of innovative and long-lasting value, EUTERPE aims to have a strong influence in the intersecting fields of literary and gender studies, as well as in the connecting fields of transnational studies, translation studies, migration studies and European studies.

Outputs

Key outputs through EUTERPE will include a collaboratively created and unique Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe which will be showcased through a newly created Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library. Through these digitally accessible resources we will enhance the cross-border circulation of European cultural wealth by establishing and running an inclusive and flexibly available library of European transnational literary output.

• 11 PhD theses;
• A co-produced open source Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe with key concepts and bio-bibliographic entries on leading representatives of the field;
• A Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library, which will make accessible all relevant material collected during the creation of the Dictionary.