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

June 01 - 04, 2017

Rationale: Reading literary fiction and philosophy and creating and experiencing works of art sharpens the teacher’s ability to understand, empathize and participate in the fight for gender and sexual equality. When the arts and the humanities are either banished or become invisible in schools at all levels, we lose a valuable moral catalysts for social, political and educational change.

TalKing Points: (Pedagogically speaking )

• By encountering visual and literary texts (Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females- Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein as a case example) within the present context of violence and atrocities, how to develop upstander pedagogical strategies in advocating empathy that leads to social action towards just and equitable futures for all people.
• The study of literature, philosophy and the arts is also the study of feelings critical to our understanding of contemporary school cultures.
• Contemporary artists in response to the rigid “framing” of paintings, now embrace new kinds of sculpture (Linda’s body armor) and push traditional thinking (a la Socrates, “I know nothing.”) to the recognition that there is no absolute knowledge.
• To better understand how we proceed in the schools to achieve gender equality, we need to understand where we have been. Going forward requires the understanding of our historical roots.