Project history

Karin guides us at the big square in Västerås

A visit to the investigation area Västmanland 2021

Discussion around a table

Meeting with CEDAR in Umeå 2022

The GaW team in front of the building of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.

A visit at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam 2023

Following are some important points in the history of the research project and the database:

  • In the spring, Anna Hultén at the Uppsala University Library, gave the GaW researchers a QGIS course including two workshops.
  • All GaW researchers gathered in the GaW lab and worked full time in the new register tool in the GaW database 2-5 May.
  • Workshop at IISH in Amsterdam, 14-17 May, in cooperation with Karin Hofmeester (host) and Danielle van den Heuvel. All current researchers in GaW participated, as well as researchers in Amsterdam. The presentations and discussions were mostly on the possibility of comparative studies and method development.
  • In August, we were visited by the system analyst Josef Höglund from CEDAR, Umeå University when we had 'LAN day' and everybody registered verbs in the database.
  • Caroline Laske, lecturer and research fellow at the University of Louvain, Belgium, is guest researcher during a week in September.

  • In May, some of the members of GaW went to Umeå University and had a meeting with system analysts at CEDAR about the further development of the database.
  • In May, PhD student Eliska Bujokova from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, visited GaW at Uppsala University, and for five months, PhD student Birgit Dober from the University of Vienna was a visiting researcher at GaW.
  • Master’s student Asger Wienberg, Lund University, did an internship with GaW in the spring.
  • Professor Karin Hofmeester, Amsterdam/Antwerp, was a visiting researcher at GaW for a month during the autumn.
  • Master’s student Sigrid Ejemar, Uppsala University, did an internship with GaW in the autumn.

  • By 11 January, there were 19,562 verb phrases collected within the GaW2 project (43,920 in the whole database).
  • A project meeting was held at Haga Castle, August 23–25, with the following researchers in GaW2: Maria Ågren, Jonas Lindström, Karin Hassan Jansson, Marie Ulväng, Sofia Ling, Caroline Lindroth, Christopher Pihl, Örjan Kardell, Carl Mikael Carlsson, Jezzica Israelsson , Linnea Henningsson.
  • Bob Pierik, Amsterdam, visits the GaW group as a guest researcher during the autumn.
  • Master’s student Romain Rafai, Uppsala University, did an internship with GaW in the autumn.
  • In November 2021, the scientific advisory board convened in Uppsala. The board consists of Joachim Eibach, Bern, Danielle van den Heuvel, Amsterdam, Amy L. Erickson, Cambridge, Mark Hailwood, Bristol, Ann-Catrin Östman, Åbo, Hilde Sandvik, Oslo, Leif Runefelt, Södertörn och Ulrika Holgersson, Lund.

  • Linnea Henningsson is employed as a research assistant in February.
  • Sofia Ling is recruited as project coordinator from August.
  • Master student Niklas Pettersson did an internship with GaW in the autumn.
  • The PhD project of Caroline Lindroth, the mining city of Sala is included in the GaW2-project.
  • In January, the scientific advisory board convened in Uppsala. The board consists of Joachim Eibach, Bern, Danielle van den Heuvel, Amsterdam, Amy L. Erickson, Cambridge, Mark Hailwood, Bristol, Ann-Catrin Östman, Åbo, Hilde Sandvik, Oslo, Leif Runefelt, Södertörn och Ulrika Holgersson, Lund.
  • Because of the ongoing pandemic (corona), no conferences, workshops and sessions were organised in real life. In June a seminar online was held with the Dutch ‘Freedom of the Streets’ project.
  • A monograph about the verb-oriented method and the area of investigation in GaW2 is published, Fantastiska verb. Hur man fångar uppgifter om kön och arbete, Västmanland 1720-1880, Jonas Lindström ed. (Opuscula).

  • The so-called petitions project is granted funds within the research program DIGARV. The project is a collaboration between Uppsala University and the National Archives (Riksarkivet and Landsarkivet, Uppsala). Within Uppsala University, the Department of History, the Department of Linguistics and Philology and the IT Department participate. Markus Falk, Linda Oja, Tomas Wilkinson and Jezzica Israelsson start working on the petition project.
  • Örjan Kardell is employed as a researcher starting in May. Sarah Vorminder is employed as a research assistant, beginning in August.
  • Professor Carmen Sarasúa, Barcelona, has been a guest researcher at GaW in the autumn.
  • Maria Ågren is awarded distinguished professor grant by the Swedish Research Council (VR).

  • Caroline Lindroth is accepted as PhD student in GaW as of January.
  • The scientific advisory board of GaW2 meet for the first time in Uppsala in January. The board consists of Joachim Eibach, Bern, Danielle van den Heuvel, Amsterdam, Amy L. Erickson, Cambridge, Mark Hailwood, Bristol, Ann-Catrin Östman, Åbo, Hilde Sandvik, Oslo, Leif Runefelt, Södertörn, Ulrika Holgersson, Lund.
  • GaW organises the conference "Doing House: Social, Cultural and Political Practices in Early Modern Europe" at Vitterhetsakademien in June. The conference brings together junior and senior scholars from the Swiss research group "Doing House and Family" and the Danish-Swedish research group LUMEN (Lutheran Mentality).
  • As of 1 June, 28 312 verb phrases describing sustenance activities have been registered in the GaW database, 21 432 of which have been quality checked and made publicly available.
  • Karin Hassan Jansson and Jonas Lindström publish their jointly written monograph Horet i Hälsta: En sann historia från 1600-talet (Natur & Kultur 2018). The book was written within the GaW project.
  • Danielle van den Heuvel and her team of researchers ('The Freedom of the Streets') visit GaW to discuss metod and database questions.

  • The main results from GaW1 are published in the multi-authored monograph Making a Living, Making a Difference: gender and work in early modern Europe (Oxford University Press 2017). Reviewers state, among other things, that the book ”is a work of formidable primary and secondary collaborative research which will shape the direction of studies of gender and work in early modern Europe for the foreseeable future” [Gender & History, Vol.30 No.1 March 2018, pp. 296–297].
  • Maria Ågren publishes the monograph The State as Master: Gender, state formation and commercialisation in urban Sweden, 1650-1780 (Manchester University Press 2017). The book was written within the GaW project.
  • The GaW team organises a workhop for junior scholars from Sweden and Finland in November 2017.
  • Riksbankens Jubileumsfond [The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation] grants 4 264 000 SEK to the infrastructure GaW. Kungliga Vitterhetsakademien grants 250 000 SEK for the same purpose.
  • Systems analysts at CEDAR, Umeå university, are tasked to upgrade the web applications of the GaW database.

  • Sofia Ling publishes her monograph Konsten att försörja sig: Kvinnors arbete i Stockholm 1650-1750 (Stockholmia Förlag 2016). The book was written within the GaW project.
  • The Wallenberg Foundations decide to prolong Maria Ågren's Wallenberg Scholar grant with another 15 milion SEK for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2021, making it possible to realise the GaW2-project. Karin Hassan Jansson and Jonas Lindström are appointed research leaders.
  • Marie Ulväng and Carl Mikael Carlsson are hired as postdoctoral fellows and Jezzica Israelsson is accepted as PhD student in GaW, all as of 1 January 2017.

  • The research project and database are presented at the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (Kungliga Vetenskaps Societeten i Uppsala), the Center for Gender Research, and Folkuniversitetet.
  • Results from GaW are presented at the Nordic Women’s and Gender History Conference (Nordiska Kvinno- och Genushistorikermötet) in Stockholm and at the International Congress of Historical Science (Världshistorikerkongressen) in Jinan, China. In conjunction, a segment is produced for Swedish Science Radio (Vetenskapsradion).
  • The database and its methodology are presented at seminars held at Swedish Academy Dictionary of the Swedish Language (cf. OED) in Lund, Cambridge University, and Gothenburg University.
  • GaW is identified as infrastructure of potentially national interest by Uppsala University.
  • GaW’s new website is launched. The database, which contains roughly 19 000 activities and 500 000 words of digitized source text, is accessible for other researchers, students, and the general public.
  • A meeting with the scientific advisory board of GaW is held in Uppsala.

  • A frozen version of the database, GaW 2014, is created as a basis of the research project’s final report, Making a Living, Making a Difference.
  • In Autumn 2014 the GaW-team takes part in a historic conference at Glasgow University about the work of women. As a direct result of the conference, an application is made to the Leverhulme Foundation for a corresponding European project, with Alexandra Shepard as the lead applicant. The project is approved Spring 2015.
  • Maria Ågren presents the research project and the database at a conference in Rome.
  • Rosemarie Fiebranz is appointed senior lecturer in history, with special emphasis on historical research infrastructure.
  • Julie Hardwick, University of Texas, and Sheilagh Ogilvie, University of Cambridge, are guest researchers for the project.

  • In Spring 2013 the Department of History enters a new three-year service agreement with DDB for the GaW database.
  • The development of a new extraction tool is completed in March 2013.
  • Rosemarie Fiebranz participates at a conference in Sheffield and Maria Ågren lectures at Jyväskylä University and Arbetets Museum in Norrköping.
  • Together, the entire project team (16 people) publishes the article "Praktiker som gör skillnad: Om den verb-inriktade metoden” in Historisk tidskrift’s thematic issue on Method (133:3).
  • In December 2013 GaW is granted more than 4 million Swedish crowns by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Memorial Fund. This grant is to be used to improve the geographical scope of the database as well as to create a more efficient and effective website.

  • At Uppsala University’s internal evaluation of the quality of research (KoF 2011), the GaW database is identified as especially interesting and valuable: “We find the GaW database to be a highly innovative and valuable project which represents both continuity and renewal in research [---] We strongly recommend that the university allocates the necessary funds to maintain and ensure the long-term preservation of the database”.
  • The anthology Levebröd: Vad vet vi om tidigmodern könsarbetsdelning? (Opuscula Historica Upsaliensia 47), edited by Benny Jacobsson and Maria Ågren, is published.
  • August 23-24, a project meeting is held at Strömsberg outside of Enköping with all members of GaW.
  • During October 2011 work is begun to develop a better extraction tool for the database.
  • Kirsi Vainio-Korhonen from Åbo University is guest researcher for the project.

  • The chair of the Department of History signs an acknowledgement of receipt of the database. A three-year service contract with DDB takes effect.
  • Amy Louise Erickson from the University of Cambridge is the project’s first guest researcher.
  • In Spring 2010 a new grant for research infrastructure is sought from both VR and Riksbankens jubileumsfond. Both applications are approved to grant the entire amount requested. Because regulations do not allow for collecting two grants for the same purpose, the VR grant is chosen.
  • The VR grant includes a sum earmarked for the development of an automated “verb identification tool”. This concrete work is carried out by Eva Pettersson as a Ph.D. project, under the supervision of Joakim Nivre at the Department of Linguistics and Philology at Uppsala University.
  • The entire project team (14 people) participates at a conference in Cambridge in September. Rosemarie Fiebranz presents the GaW database at a workshop in Strasbourg, organized by the European Science Foundation.

  • A management team for the database is appointed. The team is responsible for the registration project, including day-to-day decisions regarding what to include.
  • In June 2009 Maria Ågren is awarded a grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (Wallenberg Scholar). The grant extends to 31 December 2014 and makes it possible for a large research group to collaborate on the same questions, as well as to work cooperatively to collect and process material.
  • The functionality of the database is subjected to rigorous testing during the autumn.
  • Rosemarie Fiebranz and Jonas Lindström present the database at a conference in Barcelona.

  • The application to VR is approved, with funding granted from May 2008.
  • Rosemarie Fiebranz is named project coordinator.
  • The Demographic Data Base at Umeå University (DDB) is commissioned to develop a specially-designed database.
  • A focus group of scholars is appointed.

  • Maria Ågren receives funding from the Department of History to make an inventory of source material and to write an application to the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, or VR) for a grant to develop research infrastructure.

Jonas Lindström awarded by the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy

In 2022, Jonas Lindström, research leader of the Gender and Work project, received a prize from the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for his “significant contributions in the intersection between history, especially history of work, and digital humanities.”

Jonas Lindström

Maria Ågren awarded by the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala

In 2021, the project leader of GaW Maria Ågren recieved the prize for significant interdiciplinary research from the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala.

Maria Ågren

The Rudbeck Medal to Maria Ågren

The Rudbeck Medal of Uppsala University 2020 was awarded to Maria Ågren, among others, with the motivation that she:

under a long time [has] done research within the project Gender and Work. Her scientific activities is distinguished by methodological new thinking on complicated issues. She has built up an extensive infrastructure of research with interdisciplinary cooperation between different scientific fields.

Read more about the Rudbeck Medal on the UU main web.

Rudbeckmedaljen

The Disa Prize to Karin Hassan Jansson och Jonas Lindström

The Disa Prize for popular science writing of 2020 was awarded to Karin Hassan Jansson och Jonas Lindström for their book Horet i Hälsta. En sann historia från 1600-talet (The whoredom in Hälsta: a true crime story from the seventeenth century).

Read more about the Disa Prize on the UU website

Karin Hassan Jansson och Jonas Lindström

Researchers sit in a row on a bench

Conference in Cambridge 2010

A group pictureof the partcipants at the meeting

Project meeting in Strömsberg 2011

Researchers sit around a seminar table.

Focus group meeting in Uppsala 2015

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