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

June 01 - 04, 2017

This panel seeks to uncover discourses that shape knowledge on sexuality in time and space. A range of locations simultaneously embrace both coercion to define sexuality in a rigid form and contestation of the existing definitions of sexuality. These locations include historical archives and libraries, academic journals and medical publications, court decisions and everyday expertise. Currently, despite legislsations and higher tolerance to the Other, the struggle for recognising people as they are is far from finished. There has been a global neo-conservative backlash which revived the rhetoric of 'traditional values' affecting both LBGTQI communities and women in their traditional 'abortion' fight. In this panel, scholars will examine historical aspects of dealing with homosexuality via social movements and contemporary attempts to define it in archives, academic publications and court rooms. The main focus is on how academic discourses shape and influence identity politics in various social, political, cultural and economic conditions. The panel seeks to discuss the following issues: (1) social constuctivism vs 'born this way' concept: how do academic meet activism; (2) where does conservatism come from? employing traditional values' in tranforming societies; (3) rights vs identities: how does sexuality play into scholarship; (4) our current phobias: why to blame 'sex'?