Women, knowledge, and academic institutions: a Paduan debate three-hundred years later

On 26 and 27 June 2023 the international conference "Women, knowledge, and academic institutions: a Paduan debate three-hundred years later" will take place at Palazzo Bo in Padua. 

The event is organized by the Elena Cornaro University Centre and DISLL, DISSGeA and FISPPA Departments. 

June 16th 2023 marks the three-hundredth anniversary of a seminal conference that took place at the Accademia dei Ricovrati (currently Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti) in Padua in 1723. The debated topic, sponsored by the naturalist and President of the Academy Antonio Vallisneri, was whether women ought to be allowed to cultivate the sciences and the arts and whether they should be given access to scientific institutions.

The event does not intend to be a commemoration of a three-hundred-year-old dispute: it rather aims to turn the early modern debate into an opportunity to ask again some of the key questions that continue to be urgent today, vis-à-vis contemporary interpretations of the role of the sciences in a changing global scenario and the position of women scientists in it.

The two - day conference will be streamed live on the Elena Cornaro Centre's Youtube channel.