2025 Women’s and Gender History Symposium
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Theme: Gender, Law, and Politics
Date: Thursday, February 20th – Saturday, February 22nd, 2025
Format: Hybrid (Zoom and in-person at UIUC)
Submissions and Contact: WGHS Organizing Committee, wghs.uiuc@gmail.com
Submission Deadline: December 4, 2024 at 5pm CST
The 23rd annual Women’s and Gender History Symposium at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks graduate student paper presentations of 15-20 minutes that explore how gender and sexuality has shaped and been shaped by legal and political frameworks. Submissions need not be confined to the discipline of history or its methods. Creative presentations (e.g. film, poetry, art) are also welcome so long as they fit within the symposium’s format. First-time presenters and MA students are warmly welcomed.
This year’s symposium theme is “Gender, Law, and Politics” and will explore the ways in which gender and sexuality have shaped and been produced by legal and political frameworks. This symposium invites interdisciplinary research which interrogates the intersectionality of gender, law, and politics, including (but not limited to) topics of:
- law, rhetoric, and legal frameworks
- medicine and public health
- politics, policy, and political culture
- migration, mobility, and borders
- crime and the justice system
- war, protest, and activism
- political science and sociology
This year’s keynote speakers are Dr. Neil J. Young (independent scholar and co-host and producer of the Past Present podcast) and Dr. Laura Goffman (History, UIUC). Dr. Young specializes in connections between sexuality, religion, and the U.S. Republican Party, and Dr. Goffman researches the intersections of public health, empire, state building, and social change in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.
A keynote by Dr. Young will open the symposium on the evening of Thursday, February 20, with a reception to follow. Panels will begin on Friday, February 21st, followed by Dr. Goffman’s keynote, with a reception to follow. Panels will continue on Saturday, February 22nd. While the keynote speakers will present in-person at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the symposium will offer a hybrid format via Zoom for panelists who wish to participate and attend remotely.
Please submit proposals (200-300 words in length) together with a CV to wghs.uiuc@gmail.com by December 4, 2024 at 5pm CST.