The encouragement and promotion of Women's/Gender Studies has been a high priority of ACS since its inception. The ACS Women's/Gender Studies Conference has been held every 2 years since 1993, when the first conference was held at Furman University. The most recent conference took place March 6-7, 2009 at Rhodes College.

The next conference will be held at the University of Richmond on April 1-2, 2011.

Call for Papers!

The Associated Colleges of the South and the University of Richmond are pleased to announce the ninth biennial ACS Women’s and Gender Studies Conference on April 1-2, 2011.  The conference will explore the theme, “Emancipatory Knowledge:  Women’s and Gender Studies NOW.”  This theme encourages participants to consider the following questions: 

• How do women's and gender studies programs offer emancipatory ways of education? 
• How do women's and gender studies classrooms bridge theory and practice? 
• How do women's and gender studies programs teach and develop activists for the 21st century? 
• How do feminist and queer theories potentially challenge other curriculum?

This year’s theme is inspired by the work of Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, sociologist, feminist scholar, and author of the iconic Black Feminist Thought, who is the keynote speaker. Dr. Collins is a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. She is a social theorist whose research and scholarship have examined issues of race, gender, social class, sexuality and nation. Her second book, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, is widely used in undergraduate classrooms in over 200 colleges and universities. She lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad.

The conference will also feature a plenary session on Feminist Media led by Courtney E. Martin and Samhita Mukhopadhyay. Martin is a writer, teacher, and speaker. She recently co-edited Click: When We Became Feminists.  Her next book, Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists is going to press. Mukhopadhyay is an activist, writer and technologist and the executive editor of Feministing.com.  She has written and spoken extensively on race, media, technology and gender, with a specific focus on the intersection of race and gender, whether in popular culture or politics.
 It will also include focused panels based on student papers.

• Visit http://will.richmond.edu to access the call for papers and registration form, beginning in mid-September.
  
  
• Abstracts are due by November 19, 2010 for early submission and January 21, 2011 for regular submission.
  
  
• Contact Holly Blake, hblake@richmond.edu or Melissa Ooten, mooten@richmond.edu, conference chairs, for further information.

On-line Resources of Interest

Note: The following links are provided for informational purposes only and ACS assumes no responsibility for, nor makes any specific endorsement of, the contents, views and opinions expressed therein.

International Gender Studies Resources
National Black Herstory Task Force
Women's and Gender Studies On-line Resources
Women's Studies Resources on the Web
Women's Studies/Women's Issues  Resource sites from Joan Korenman


Women's Studies in Europe is a unique study abroad program offered by Antioch College, a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and one of our partners in the Global Partners Project.  Students explore and examine feminist theory in practice across Europe. Visit the program website for more information.