2011 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (Web)

Time: June 9-12 2011
Place: University of Massachusetts in Amherst
Source: H-WOMEN@H-NET.MSU.EDU

Call for Panels

• Panel: Women anti-fascist activists in exile; DL: ?
• Panel: Health and medicine; DL: 25.01.2010
• Panel: Women, law, ‚victims‘, abortion/infanticide; DL: 15.02.2010
• Panel: Women’s activism and long civil rights mvt; DL: 01.02.2010
• Workshop: Gender and business practices; DL: 22.02.2010
• Panel: Post-WWII corporate culture; DL: 05.02.2010

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• Panel: Women anti-fascist activists in exile

Dear friends, Franca Iacovetta (Toronto) and I are looking for colleagues who wish to join a panel we are putting together for the 2011 Berkshire Women’s History Conference. The current theme is women’s anti-fascist activism in exile during the 1920s-1940s. It could be revised, of course. Our work will focus on new research regarding the Italian anarcho-syndicalist Virgilia D’Andrea and her comrades in NYC. Since we intend this to be a comparative session, we are particularly interested in papers dealing with anti-fascist radicals outside the Italian networks. The conference will be held June 9-12, 2011 at the Univ of Mass, Amherst. Please write to me directly at jgugliel@smith.edu if you are working in this general area and have an interest in joining us.

Thanks,
Jennifer Guglielmo
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Smith College
Neilson Library 4/05
Northampton, MA 01063 US
Tel. 413-585-3712

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• Panel: Health and Medicine

Hello all, I am interested in organizing a panel for the 2011 Berkshire Conference to be submitted under the theme of „Health and Medicine.“  I am seeking panelists whose work relates to countries other than the United States, who study women’s role and/or expertise in healing and/or medical practices.  I am particularly interested in hearing from early modernists.

My own work relates to the significance of midwives and neighborhood women (including enslaved women) in assisting at childbirth and providing testimony at investigations (inquests) into infant deaths in the early republic and antebellum periods in the early republic and antebellum period in the United States.

Please contact me off-list at felicity.turner@duke.edu no later than January 25 if interested in contributing to such a panel.

Thanks.
Felicity Turner
PhD Candidate (expected May 2010)
Duke University
Department of History
Box 90719
Durham NC 27708-0719

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• Panel: Women, law, ‚victims‘, abortion/infanticide

I have a paper that I would like to present at the 2011 Big Berks at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst that deals with early American women, abortion, infanticide, the idea of the ‚victim‘ and the constraints of the law.  I have no set idea of what the panel would like so I am very open to hearing from anyone whose work falls thematically along these lines.  The overall theme of the conference is „Generations: Exploring Race, Sexuality, and Labor across Time and Space,“ so the emphasis is certainly on theme instead of on location or time.

If you are interested in creating a panel, please feel free to contact me at jluther@mail.utexas.edu.

The panels proposals are due on March 1, 2010 so please get in touch no later than February 15.

Jessica Luther
PhD Candidate
University of Texas at Austin
jluther@mail.utexas.edu

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• Panel: Women’s activism and long civil rights mvt

I am putting together a panel proposal for the 2011 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (June 9-12, 2011 in Amherst, Mass.).  Building off the conference theme, „Generations: Exploring Race, Sexuality, and Labor across Time and Space,“ this panel will explore how new scholarship on women’s activism during the long civil rights movement challenges our notion of a „Civil Rights Generation.“ Scholars of the African-American experience have used the generational metaphor as a means of dividing the „civil rights generation“ from the „post-civil rights“ and „hip hop“ generations.  But as the traditional narrative of civil rights has been revised temporally (the long civil rights movement) and geographically (northern and transnational explorations of civil rights) any notion of a stable „generation“ of activists becomes problematic.  Through an analysis of female activism, this panel will explore how this historiographical shift challenges our notion of the „civil rights generation.“  My own paper, „Eroseanna Robinson: The Long Civil Rights Movement and Interracial Pacifism in Postwar America,“ examines the work of an African American war resister and nonviolent activist.  I would also welcome transnational and interdisciplinary approaches to the topic.

If you are interested in presenting on the panel, please send a brief description of your paper (200 words), and a one-page c.v. to wolc@mail.rochester.edu by February 1st.  I am also interested in hearing from published scholars who might wish to serve as the panel’s moderator or commentator.

Sincerely,
Victoria W. Wolcott
Associate Professor
Department of History
University of Rochester

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• Workshop: Gender and business practices

We putting together a workshop for the June 2011 Berkshire Conference that examines the relationship between gender and business strategies at transformative moments in economic history.   Despite the fact that we are starting with papers from the 20th century U.S., we are particularly interested in expanding the countries and time periods covered.  In addition to papers that examine the impact of gender on business practices, we welcome projects that look that the impact of business practices on gender and familial relations.

The workshop will be built around several pre-circulated short (10 pages) papers. See description of workshop format below; it differs slightly from the CFP currently being circulated.

We are committed to the workshop format so please be prepared to meet the deadline for the paper (1+ month before the actual conference) as well as plan on coming to the session prepared to discuss the issues (rather than read your paper).

Currently we have two papers:

1. Nancy Marie Robertson – „The Invisible Hand and the Velvet Glove: women’s departments in American banks.“  With the rise of large impersonal corporations in the early 20th century, female employees redefined the nature of the service offered to customers by banks.
2. Susan Yohn – „Diversity as a Business Strategy (or How Liberal Feminism Saved American Capitalism in the late 20th century).“ This paper discusses how organizations like Catalyst Inc. and Wider Opportunities for Women developed programs to push corporate members to embrace affirmative action initiatives to diversify their employee pools.

If you are interested in participating, please contact us, sending us a brief (one or two sentence) description and title by Feb 15th.  The Deadline for the final proposal is March 1st; if you join this workshop, we would need the information identified below (title, 250 word abstract, short c.v) by Feb 22nd.

Contact nmrobert@iupui.edu or smyohn@verizon.net with questions; please send proposals to both addresses.

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• Panel: Post-WWII corporate culture

Dear H-Women, Betsy More (Harvard) and I are looking for colleagues who wish to join a panel we are putting together for the 2011 Berkshire Women’s History Conference.  The current theme is women in corporate culture in the post-World War II era.  It could be revised, of course. Betsy focuses on working mothers and I study office workers, and both of us are Americanists.  Since we would like this panel to be a comparative session, we are particularly interested in papers regarding working women outside of the United States.

The conference will be held June 9-12, 2011 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  Deadline for panel submissions: March 1. Please write to me directly by February 5 if you are interested in joining us.

Thank you,
Allison Louise Elias
Corcoran Department of History
University of Virginia
ale7c@virginia.edu