Program Overview

Berkshire Conference

Berkshire Conference on Women's History, Histories on the Edge/Histoires sur la brèche

Toronto: May 22-25, 2014, Proposals due January 15, 2013. For the first time in its history, the Berkshire Conference on Women’s History will be held outside the United States, in Toronto, on May, 2014. A triennial conference hosted by the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians (an organization established in 1930), the Big Berks highlights wide-ranging historical scholarship on women, gender and sexuality as well as films, workshops, activist, cultural, and community event as well as an international book exhibit. As the first Canadian Berkshire conference president, Franca Iacovetta and the University of Toronto will host the conference in collaboration with co-sponsoring units and universities in Toronto and across Canada.

Presentations related to the major theme of Histories on the Edge/Histoires sur la brèche will thematically link discussions of the following subthemes.

• Borders, Encounters, Conflict Zones and Memory/ Frontières, rencontres, zones de conflit et mémoire
• Empires, Nations, and the Commons/ Empires, pays et bien commun
• Law, Family, Courts, Criminality, and Prisons/ Droit, famille, tribunaux, criminalité et prisons
• Bodies, Health, Medical Technologies, and Science/ Corps, santé, technologies médicales et sciences
• Indigenous Histories and Indigenous Worlds/ Histoires indigènes et mondes indigènes
• Caribbean, Latin America, and Afro/Francophone Worlds/ Caraïbes, Amérique latine et mondes afro/francophones
• Asia, Transnational Circuits, and Global Diasporas/ Asie, circuits transnationaux et diasporas mondiales
• Economies, Environments, Labour, and Consumption/ Économies, environnements, travail et consommation
• Sexualities, Genders/LGBTIQ2, and Intimacies/ Sexualités, genres/LGBTIQ2 et intimités
• Politics, Religion/Beliefs, and Global Feminisms/ Politiques, religion/croyances et féminismes mondiaux
• Visual/Material Cultures and Media: Print, Image, Performance, Celebrity/Cultures visuelles, matérielles et médiatiques: imprimé, image, objet, son, performance

Organizers and Co-sponsors:

Local UofToronto co-sponsors include, at UTSC, Office of the Dean; VP- Research, Bissell-Heyd Chair in American Studies; Humanities, Bladen Library; and, at St George, Office of the Dean, FAS; Department of History, Centre for the Study of the United States; Women and Gender Studies Institute; Status of Women Office; Wolfe Chair in Holocaust Studies; History Canada Research Chairs; Centre for South Asian Studies; Centre for South East Asia Studies; Chu Program and Chair for Asia Pacific Studies Centre; Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies; Canadian Studies; Sexual Diversities Studies; Global Order/Disorder Project;

External co-sponsors include Wilson Institute for Canadian History, McMaster University; Vice-Dean, Research, Mariano Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies, York University; History, Glendon College; The Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University; Ontario Women’s History Network; Canadian Committee on Women’s History; and the following: Department of History & Classics, Acadia University; Department of History, University of British Columbia; History, University of Calgary; History, University of Guelph, History, University of Manitoba; Département d’histoire and Faculté des arts et des sciences, Université de Montréal; History, Nipissing University; History and Women’s Studies, St. Francis Xavier, , Faculty of Arts and Office of the Academic Vice-President, Saint Mary’s University; History, University of Saskatchewan; History and Women’s Studies, University of Victoria; History Department, University of Waterloo; History, University of Windsor; History, York University; Departments of English, History, Visual Arts, Women's Studies, Lakehead University; and Individual Donors, Catherine Carstairs (University of Guelph); Lynne Marks (University of Victoria); Wendy Mitchinson (Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo).

The first Canadian Berks president Franca Iacovetta is host with Program Co-chairs Jayeeta Sharma (Toronto), Molly Ladd Taylor (York), Adele Perry (Manitoba).

For more: http://berksconference.org
For questions: bcwh@utsc.utoronto.ca