“GENERATIONS:  Exploring Race, Sexuality, and Labor across Time and Space”

June 9-12, 2011, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Proposals due March 1, 2010

The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians is holding its next
conference at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on June 9-12,
2011. 2011 marks the 15th Berkshire Conference on Women’s History and
the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, which was first
celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and is now
honored by more than sixty countries around the globe. The choice of
“Generations” reflects this transnational intellectual, political, and
organizational heritage as well as a desire to explore related
questions such as:

• How have women’s generative experiences – from production and reproduction to creativity and alliance building – varied across time and space? How have these been appropriated and represented by contemporaries and scholars alike?
• What are the politics of “generation”? Who is encouraged? Who is condemned or discouraged? How has this changed over time?
• Is a global perspective compatible with generational (in the genealogical sense) approaches to the past that tend to reinscribe national/regional/racial boundaries?
• What challenges do historians of women, gender, and sexuality face as these fields and their practitioners mature?

To engender further, open-ended engagement with these and other
issues, the 2011 conference will include workshops dedicated to
discussing precirculated papers on questions and problems
(epistemological, methodological, substantive) provoked by the notion
of “Generations.”

The process for submitting and vetting papers and panels has changed
substantially from previous years, so please read the instructions
carefully.  To encourage transnational discussions, panels will be
principally organized along thematic rather than national lines and
therefore proposals will be vetted by a transnational group of
scholars with expertise in a particular thematic, rather than
geographic, field.  All proposals must be directed to ONE of the
following subcommittees and should be submitted electronically.
Please list a second choice for the subcommittee to vet your proposal
but do not submit to more than one subcommittee.  Instructions for
submission will be posted on the Berkshire Conference website (www.berksconference.org) by November 1, 2009.

Preference will be given to discussions of any
topic across national boundaries and to work that addresses sexuality,
race, and labor in any context, with special consideration for pre-
modern (ancient, medieval, early modern) periods.  However, unattached
papers and proposals that fall within a single nation/region will also
be given full consideration.  As a forum dedicated to encouraging
innovative, interdisciplinary scholarship and transnational
conversation, the Berkshire conference continues to encourage
submissions from graduate students, international scholars,
independent scholars, filmmakers, and to welcome a variety of
disciplinary perspectives.  Paper abstracts should be no longer than
250 words; panel (2-3 papers and a comment), roundtable (3 or more
short papers) and workshop (1-2 precirculated papers) proposals should
also include a summary abstract of no more than 500 words.  Each
submission must include the cover form and a short cv for each
presenter. If you have questions about the most appropriate
subcommittee for your proposal or problems with electronic submission,
please direct them to Jennifer Spear (jms25@sfu.ca).

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: March 1, 2010.

*Beauty and the Body, Stephanie Camp

*Migrations : race, gender and activism, Annelise Orleck

*Economies, Labors, and Consumption, Tracey Deutsch

War, Violence, and Terror, Madhavi Kale

Youth and Aging, Jennifer Spear

*Race in Global Perspective, Marilyn Lake

*Health and Medicine, Julie Livingston

*Sexuality, Kathy Brown

Religion: belief, practice, communities, Madhavi Kale

Politics and the State, Margot Canaday

About 24 people attended the meeting.

WITH award

This year, the WITH travel award was presented to three scholars (in alphabetical order):

1. Alexandra Bekasova, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute for the History of Science and Technology. Her paper had the title: The Making of Passengers in Russian Empire: Macadam Roads, Coach Companies, and the Middle Class, 1820-1863. It was presented in session 4: Travel and Tourism on Sunday, Oct 12th.
2. Philip S. Cho, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute for the History of Natural Sciences. His paper had the title: Popular Religion and Artisanal Practice in Late Imperial China: Sericulture songs and the urbanization of silkworm temples in 18th century Jiangnan. It was presented in session 2: Religion in Harmony with Technology on Sunday, October 12th.
3. Min Suh Son, Johns Hopkins University, Dept of History of Science & Technology. Her paper had the title: Beyond Technological Orientalism: New Perspectives in Writing the History of East Asian Technology. It was presented in session 15: New Approaches and Tools II on Sunday, Oct 12th.

WITH travel award prize committee

Many thanks to Bayla Singer who took the time and has designed a nice WITH-letterhead for the congratulatory letters.

Arwen Mohun, University of Delaware has been elected as a new member of the
prize committee at the WITH meeting.

Present members of the WITH travel award prize committee:

• Joan Rothschild, City University of New York Graduate Center
• Bayla Singer, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
• Arwen Mohun, University of Delaware

WITH newsletter

For the 2008 newsletter, please send updated contact information, news of publications, professional achievements, and news you would like to share to Molly Berger at molly.berger@case.edu.

WITH board replacements

• Amy Bix, Iowa State University, (abix@iastate.edu) volunteered to become our
  new treasurer.
• Min Suh Son, Johns Hopkins University, (msoh1@jhu.edu) volunteered to become
  our new web administrator.
• Corinna Schlombs, University of Pennsylvania, (schlombs@sas.upenn.edu)
  volunteered to become our new annual meeting organizer.
• Molly Berger, Case Western Reserve, (molly.berger@case.edu) stays on as
  newsletter editor.

All volunteers received a warm welcome at the meeting. We very much thank Jonathan Coopersmith, the former treasurer, and Melanie McCalmont, the former web administrator, for their enduring commitment.

~~

on behalf of the old and new WITH board
martina blum

Public Conference, 30 May 2008
Charles Babbage Institute, Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN 55455

**** Registration now open ****

Women were active participants in building and programming the first electronic digital computers, and notably prominent in the first generation of computer programmers in the 1950s, but they have faced serious barriers to full participation in the computing professions. Today, computing persists as one of the most gender-segregated domains of modern life. How and when did a male-coded world of computing emerge? How and why has it has continued? What are the exceptions — and promising strategies for change?

The Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota presents a day-long public conference devoted to a much-needed examination of these questions. While the National Science Foundation and other policy actors have devoted immense resources to increasing women’s participation in computing, over the past two decades there has been a striking **drop** in women’s participation in computing education and a corresponding tail-off in the U.S. workforce. Clearly, an important “missing piece” is yet to be discovered. This international conference, with participants from six countries, examines gender and the diverse uses of computing in offices, libraries, schools, mass media, and the computing profession. The eight papers will spark lively audience discussion on these themes:

* Automation, skill, and power;
* Gender discourse and imagery;
* Boundaries and identity;
* Gendered cultures of work and play.

Complementing these presentations is a scheduled poster session, showcasing additional views and innovative projects, as well as a viewing of “Gendered Bits: Identities, Practices, and Artifacts in Computing.” This new exhibit, curated by CBI archivist Arvid Nelsen, explores how gender has shaped the professional identities and material culture of computing. Using materials from CBI’s extensive archival holdings in the history of computing, as well as the Children’s Literature Research Collections, it presents the contributions, struggles, and shifting roles of women as well as raises questions about gender broadly and the specific issues of masculinity. The exhibit in Andersen Library will be open 28 May through 23 July 2008.

Register _now_ for the conference and get a free lunch! For registration, the conference program, travel and lodging details, a bibliography with key literature, and useful links see www.umn.edu/~tmisa/gender/

. Please
direct questions to <cbi@umn.edu>.