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

June 01 - 04, 2017

     The architecture of public space historically has thwarted physically and cognitively atypical bodies. Using diverse methodologies, our presenters explore disability's construction as a gendered category enforced by the state. Guiding questions address historical legacies of ableism and ways in which activism reclaims public spaces. How can critical disability studies and feminist history counter ableist propaganda? How can crip feminist messages move into public places? Why are certain bodies, movements, and expressions more effective in formal settings and others more meaningful in the street? How does ableism affect the particularity of violence in carceral institutions? And how can museums be sites of social justice work in explaining and countering ableism?

     Dancer Alice Sheppard begins the discussion at the intersection of politicized state space and disability, demonstrating aspects of the artistry of disabled movement.  Professor Susan Burch analyzes how settler colonial gender norms shaped lives inside and outside a federal asylum for indigenous people and her activist-scholarship with descendants of people detained  there.  Professor Kim Drake draws upon writings by formerly incarcerated women to consider embodied histories of violence and humiliation from state systems and routines.  Our obligation to translate what we know about disability into registers that are useable by people who should be benefitting from it includes access to intimate public space. Professor Alison Kafer discusses gendered public bathrooms as a site for cross-movement activism. Curator Katherine Ott reflects on how history museums can be important sites for social justice work and juggernauts of propaganda that penalize disability.