U-M and MSU Gender Research Institutes Collaborate on Fall 2020 Conference on Women’s Suffrage, Past and Present

November, 2019

In a historic collaboration, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University's Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) and Department of History will jointly present the Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP) conference, November 19-21, 2020 at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing, Michigan, near the state capitol. 

This multi-day meeting will bring together academics and activists to explore the critical history of women’s suffrage and political power, and the future possibilities for expanding gender equity in political participation and representation in the United States and across the globe. This conference intends to have a particular focus on womxn of color and will conceptualize suffrage broadly as encompassing civic participation and political power within and outside of electoral politics, and will include a critical perspective on the role of white supremacy in the suffrage movement. There will also be a portion of the conference dedicated to women’s power in higher education, with a view to drawing links between the exclusion of diverse women’s voices in the academy, and women’s broader political power.

The GWSPP conference is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States, the 40th anniversary of the GenCen’s Gendered Perspectives on International Development Papers Series, the 30th anniversary of the Re-Visioning Knowledge and the Curriculum: Feminist Perspectives conference at MSU, and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at U-M.

Conference organizers are now accepting proposals for individual papers, panels, individual discussion sessions, and conversational discussion panels. Topics could include women's political leadership at the local, national, and international levels, race, class, sexuality, and dis/ability within movements for women's rights, and women in academic or community leadership, with a special focus on potentials for solidarity, activism, and/or transformation. Proposals will be accepted through March 6, 2020. IRWG will provide funding support for up to 5 U-M graduate student presenters to attend the conference.

More information about the conference, presentation formats, and proposal submission guidelines are available online at: https://gencen.isp.msu.edu/gwspp/about-conference/.

Questions? Contact Heidi Bennett, IRWG Event Planner at 734-764-9537 or heidiab@umich.edu