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

June 01 - 04, 2017

Who is the proper citizen-subject of the gentrifying city?  As cities shift from industrial-liberal to postindustrial-neoliberal modes of production and consumption, the race-class dynamics of the city shift in response. This panel recognizes the problematic rise of gay neighborhoods as sites of urban redevelopment. Gentrifying gay neighborhoods push out the working poor and raise property values while asserting neoliberal multiculturalism. Neoliberal multiculturalism asserts a state-sponsored “official anti-racism” that nevertheless displaces the poor and people of color in the name of progressive urban change. This roundtable interrogates these dynamics from multiple perspectives. Baldwin and McKenna analyze the development of two gentrifying gay neighborhoods, LA County’s West Hollywood and Seattle’s Capitol Hill, respectively, looking closely at the role the state played in urban redevelopment, either through austerity politics or the state’s recognition of gay business owners as a privileged class of gay citizen-subjects. Brahinsky asks how gender is mobilized among communities facing erasure through urban gentrification. Historically, Oakland CA has seen the widespread foreclosure of black-owned homes, and Brahinsky analyzes the stories of African American women to ask how gender matters in the economic and social struggles facing gentrifying Oakland. Similarly, Priya Kandaswamy analyzes the historic role domestic workers have played in civil rights organizing against both urban segregation and the neoliberal restructuring and gentrification of New York City. Moderator Nan Alamilla Boyd will pose questions but also discuss her research on the role tourist developments play in San Francisco neighborhoods, underscoring the commodification of the city’s racialized and sexualized neighborhoods.