2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This roundtable takes up questions of history-writing beyond the formal bounds of academia. Over the past decade, the profession has moved away from the idea that narrative history, as a form, inherently favors those who hold power and authority, recognizing instead that the narrative form is one way to make audible the voices of more marginalized historical actors. At the same time, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates alike have become more interested in reaching more popular audiences, whether via print, social media, performance, or public events.

Our three participants and our moderator have all expanded the writing of history in various ways, as published authors of narrative history, non-fiction, fiction, and plays, and as the creators of oral history projects. Both within and beyond the academy, we have concerned ourselves with issues including the intersection of African American and Native American lives, sex across racial categories, the legacies of the Civil War, HIV/AIDS, queer lives and politics, Hurricane Katrina, gentrification, and Israel/Palestine.

Potential topics for our roundtable discussion include: writing non-academic forms of prose, including the use of creative non-fiction; writing and teaching narrative history, rather than focusing on thesis and argument; the uses of grassroots oral history; the place of narrative drive and character-building, including documenting perspectives and emotions; writing historical fiction; and the place of the writer in the history being told. We expect a lively conversation among ourselves and with our audience.