The 22nd annual Women’s and Gender History Symposium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks graduate student paper presentations of 15-20 minutes that foreground the social, cultural, and political implications of space and place in histories of women, gender, sexuality, and/or queerness. Alternative presentations (e.g. film, poetry, art) are welcome so long as they fit within the symposium’s format.
Over the course of history, gender and place have been mutually constitutive. Spatial, material, and environmental conditions shape and are shaped by gendered social practices. This symposium invites interdisciplinary research which interrogates the spatial and social situatedness of gender, including (but not limited to) topics of:
- migration, mobility, and borders
- environmental studies
- places of war, protest, and activism
- domesticity and the myth of the public/private divide
- architecture and urban planning
- digital spaces
- critical geography and GIS
Submissions need not be confined to the discipline of history or its methods. First-time presenters and MA students are warmly welcomed.
This year’s keynote speakers are Dr. Jessica Zychowicz (Director, U.S. Fulbright Program in Ukraine and IIE: Institute of International Education Kyiv) and Dr. Rosalyn LaPier (History, UIUC). Dr. Zychowicz’s work on Ukrainian feminist art, protest, and places of freedom brings timely and critical discussion to the conference. Dr. LaPier researches Indigenous knowledge, environmental feminism, and sacred landscapes.
A reception will open the symposium on the evening of Thursday, February 29. Panels will take place the afternoon of Friday, March 1st, and the morning and afternoon of Saturday, March 2nd, 2024. While the keynote speakers will present in-person at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the symposium will offer a hybrid format via Zoom for panelists who wish to participate and attend remotely.
Submissions and Contact: 2024 WGHS Organizing Committee, wghs.uiuc@gmail.com
Submission Deadline: November 30, 2023 at 5pm CST
Please submit proposals (200-300 words in length) together with a CV to wghs.uiuc@gmail.com by November 30, 2023 at 5pm CST.
Tabitha Cochran, on behalf of the 2024 Women's and Gender History Organizing Committee
