Membership
You may now join or renew your membership online. Click here for details.
The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, ("The Little Berks"), is a women's organization that meets once or twice a year in a scenic location in the Berkshire Hills of New York or Massachusetts for a weekend of relaxation and informal talk about history. It has been meeting like this for the last 70 years. This weekend retreat provides a forum for women historians to network and to share their views, work and ideas. The retreat itself, like the organization, is often referred to as "The Little Berks") The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians also administers annual First Book and Article Prizes and it awards scholarships in cooperation with the Coordinating Council for Women in History (the CCWH/Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Graduate Student Fellowship). If you join the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, you would be eligible to attend the weekend retreats, and might end up serving on the book or article prize committee, or as an officer, trustee or member of the nominating committee. You would also receive a newsletter. There are no regional or national residency requirements for membership in the Little Berks, however those people willing or able to attend the annual retreats (which have traditionally been in the New England area) may get more benefits from membership than those who cannot. The Little Berks is an organization for historians who are women. You do not have to work on the history of women or or women's or gender studies to be a member, and many of our members work on other fields. Nor do you have to work on American or European history; indeed we especially welcome new members working on other areas of the world.
Prospective members may wonder what our relationship is to the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (also known as "The Big Berks"), the internationally famous women's history conference held every three years. The answer is that The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians originated and now sponsors and helps plan the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, however unlike The Little Berks, The Big Berks is not a membership organization or a series of retreats. Rather it is a scholarly conference in the usual understanding of that term. You do not have to be a member of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians to attend or give a paper at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women; indeed most attendees and paper-givers (and, for that matter, most Big Berks Program Committee members) are not members of the Little Berks.
The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians invites all women professionally engaged in history, pursuing graduate study in history, or dedicated to historical inquiry to join by using our online membership forms. Alternately, you may print out a membership form and mail it tous with your payment.
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