Honoring Our Past, Securing Our Future: Resilience and Reclamation in Higher Education

media release: Co-Convened by UW System Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium and UW System Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian

Early Bird Registration opens January 2024. ***Thanks to a grant from the Anonymous Fund, the Conference is FREE for All UW System Students***

About the Conference: As we return to our first in-person conference since 2019, we celebrate the deep institutional roots of social justice-oriented scholarship, pedagogy, and community engagement on our campuses. Many of the women’s, gender, LGBTQ+, and cultural programs and centers founded in the 1970s and 1980s are approaching milestone anniversaries. Despite their critical roles in interdisciplinary scholarship and community engagement, these services are now fighting for survival against budget cuts and direct political attacks. At a moment when rollbacks to affirmative action, academic freedom, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ protections, and other human rights are overwhelming, this year’s theme illuminates the long history of resistance and resilience that has always pushed against interlocking systems of power and oppression. “Honoring Our Past, Securing Our Future” asserts that scholarship, research, and community partnerships are more urgent than ever in the fight against injustice. Collaboration, communication, and connection across disciplinary and institutional divides are essential to our continued success and longevity.

This Year's Featured Events are:

Friday, April 12, 2024: Keynote by Dr. Leigh Patel, featuring a reading guide for No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Ed; Plenary by Ms. Magazine, featuring 50 Years of Ms.: The Best of the Pathfinding Magazine That Ignited a Revolution; Writer's Workshop hosted by Ms. Magazine

Saturday, April 13, 2024: Hmong Studies in the University of Wisconsin System Plenary moderated by Dr. Kong Pheng Pha; The African Women’s Studies Centre and the Future of Global Feminism: A Dialogue Between Dr. Wanjiku Kabira and Dr. Fabu Carter

The 2024 Conference takes place at the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus.  Please reserve your rooms in advance to guarantee lodging near the conference center.

Lodging is available at the Fluno Center, about two blocks from the conference space.