States of The Field -- Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies 50th Anniversary Symposium

Academics
Symposium
A logo featuring the text "STATES OF THE FIELD" in a stylized, layered font with deep purple and maroon outlines. The word "FIELD" is the largest and anchored at the bottom. To the left of the word "FIELD" is a maroon feminist symbol—a circle with a cross at the bottom—containing a raised, clenched fist in the center. The entire design is set against a plain white background.

The Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst was first established in 1974 as a three-year pilot program in Women’s Studies. Now, fifty years later, the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality has been solidly, if unevenly, institutionalized within the US university. At the same time, it is difficult not to feel that the field has been returned to temporary status as we collectively – as scholars, as workers, as people – face intensifying racialized/gendered scrutiny and surveillance; blatant attacks on our many minoritized communities; the fully corporatized university; rising global authoritarianism and the many horizons of thought it seeks to blot out.

Given this context, we invite you to mark and celebrate 50+ years of WGSS at UMass with us by doing what we do best – thinking together about danger and possibility. In addition to a keynote by Dr. Inderpal Grewal, this conference will bring together our respected colleagues and collaborators from across the country for panel discussions on abolition, WGSS in the corporate/authoritarian university, the legacy of feminist science studies, and more. Our goals are threefold: to take stock of where we are, to story and re-story how we got here, and to discuss, frankly, our many tasks as we face the present.

Confirmed Speakers Include: Roderick Ferguson (Yale University), Abigail Boggs (Wesleyan University), Kandice Chuh (CUNY Graduate Center), Che Gossett (University of Pennsylvania), Chandan Reddy (University of Washington), Erica Meiners (Northeastern Illinois University), Elena Shih (Brown University), Emma Heaney (New York University), Joanna Wuest (Stonybrook University), Xan Chacko (Brown University), Rebbeca Herzig (Bates College), Sushmita Chatterjee (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Alex Deschamps (University of Massachusetts), Arlene Avakian (University of Massachusetts), Karen Lederer (University of Massachusetts), Dayo F. Gore (George Washington University), Ann Ferguson (University of Massachusetts).

In person and On campus event posted in Academics