Historical Documentary Gender Identities in Goumenissa of Greece Multimodal Research Material

The subject of this research proposal concerns the gender representations of women in the border town of Goumenissa, a regional unit of Kilkis in Greece, as these representations are constructed on their speech. Goumenissa has been a meeting place of different origin communities, such as local, Pontiac and east Rumelia populations, after the Turco-Greek exchange of populations in Greek national history during the 1920s.The aim of this on-site research is to investigate and map out the status of the refugee and local women of Goumenissa, in years of turbulence and intensity. The research questions concern three basic thematic units: House working - Working outside, the house - Education/family constraints. What is their insight into family relationships, tradition, education and participation in production? How did they define themselves and were defined by others throughout the historical and social conditions? What kind of imprints did these conditions leave on them? How do they continue today? This on-site historical research was based on individual or group interviews and on professional filmmaking in the area of Goumenissa by the two educators Kiouzepi & Kavallari. The outcome-deliverable has been a historical documentary based on the primary original material coming from the women’s interviews that could be used as a multimodal material within an interdisciplinary approach in teaching social subjects. The theoretical axes of the research are the history of gaze, the cultural studies, the socio-semiotics and the expansion of sources in the local and oral historiography.