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

June 01 - 04, 2017

This panel on new directions in historical analysis in gender history in the twenty-first century is envisioned as a follow-up to the 2015 Berkshire Conference panel “Losing their Edge?:  A Critical Evaluation of Key Analytic Concepts in Gender History.”  The 2017 panel brings together an intergenerational group of scholars—Maria Bucur (Indiana University), Anna Krylova (Duke University), and Linda Gordon (New York University)—who continue the critical conversation started two years ago by refocusing it on under-theorized and yet crucial concepts of historical analysis, feminist critique, and contemporary activism such as “narrative,” “dichotomy,” and “intersectionality.”  Bucur extends the critical discussion about “key concepts” and their analytical currency by foregrounding and retheorizing such, not so long ago, deeply problematized category of historical analysis as “narrative.”  Krylova proposes to rethink the gender category’s limitations to analyze those gendered identities that constitute heterosexual relations but do not fit the binary matrix and undertakes a theorization of gender as a non-binary dichotomy.  Gordon probes analytical and political questions, including the question of “class,” clustered around the concept of “intersectionality.”  All presenters draw on their recent work which enables them to explore the past and future use of concepts under consideration in the writing of gender history and to outline new research agendas.  Professors Jean Allman (discussant) and Ashwini Tambe (chair) will contribute their own insights to the conceptual issues raised by the three panelists. The panel, we believe, will contribute to the Sexualities, Gender Identities and Expressions subtheme of the conference.