The Mobile Domestic Servant: Gender, Class, Language, Mobility

TRANSITION Seminar

How can the figure of the domestic servant help us understand mobility, social change and relations between urban and rural life?

This two-day seminar brings together experts working across history, literature, sociolinguistics, ethnology and related fields to explore domestic service through questions of gender, class, language and mobility.

Domestic servants were a particularly mobile group. Many young women moved from rural communities to towns and cities in search of employment, while domestic service also brought them into close contact with households, social environments and ways of living different from their own. Their experiences therefore offer a distinctive perspective on geographical and social mobility and on broader processes of societal transformation.

Across the two days, the seminar will address topics including rural–urban migration, social and linguistic change, gendered and classed relations within the household, literary and historical representations of domestic servants, and the changing forms of domestic service.

A detailed program will be published closer to the seminar.

Join the seminar

Registration is now open for those who would like to attend the seminar. You do not need to present a paper to take part.

The working language of the seminar is English, and participation is free of charge.

Practical information

When: 30 November – 1 December 2026

Where: South Campus, University of Copenhagen

Working language: English

Participation: Free of charge - Please register here.

For further inquiries, please contact transition@hum.ku.dk.