Berkshire Conference on Women’s History, Toronto, Canada, May 22-25, 2014, Website

Call for panelists from Jennifer Macias: I would like to propose a panel for the upcoming Berks (22-25 May 2014, Toronto) on transnational understandings and experiences of family structures. This may include work on family planning such as birth control, adoption, abortion, religious doctrines or government policies. This may also include scholarship on the influence of nationalism or assimilationist policies on the family structure. Finally, this may include work on twentieth-century religious movements and/or policies, as well as their influences on the family structure overall.

My own paper will look at Mexican-American families in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States from 1945-1960. I am interested in the ways in which Mexican-American families both worked within and rejected nationalist doctrines of assimilation, culminating eventually in the creation of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. Additionally, I will be looking at the ways in which Mexican-American families used various forms of family planning contingent on their location in the Rocky Mountain west. I am also interested in the influence of religion in the development of Mexican-American family structures, including the influences of Catholicism and Mormonism. I am interested in other papers for this panel which relate to Canada, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Africa, or the Middle East in order to be able to fully create a transnational
perspective.

In addition to 2 co-panelists, I am also interested in hearing from scholars interested in acting as chair or commentator for this panel. Please respond to Jennifer.y.macias@gmail.com by Friday December 21. For co-panelists, a brief synopsis of your proposed paper topic would be greatly appreciated.

Jennifer Macias
PhD Student
University of Utah

Source: H-WOMEN@H-NET.MSU.EDU