About Little Berks 2026

Schedule

• 6:00 p.m. Welcome Reception at Norfolk Marriott
• 9:00 p.m. Games & Social Time

• 8:00–9:30 a.m. Breakfast
• 9:45–11:00 a.m. Concurrent Panels
  1A From Midwives to Medicine: Women, Medicine, and Reproductive Justice in Historical Perspective

  Commentator: Natalie Lira, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

  “Mother Knows Best: Mary Bickerdyke and Maternal Medical Authority in the Civil War Era” — Megan VanGorder, Governors State University

  This paper explores the professional legacy of Mary Ann Bickerdyke, a Civil War-era nurse who wielded maternal identity as a form of medical and moral authority, transforming perceptions of women’s professional roles in nineteenth-century America. Dubbed “Mother Bickerdyke” by Union soldiers, her caregiving extended far beyond battlefield nursing, encompassing resource mobilization, palliative care, and post-war advocacy for veterans. Through her work, Bickerdyke challenged traditional gender norms by merging domestic maternal practices with public health initiatives, navigating institutional barriers, and asserting her authority in male-dominated spaces. Using archival sources and digital paleography, the paper examines how Bickerdyke’s care strategies illuminated broader societal tensions around health, gender, and power during the transition from home-based medical care to professionalized medicine.

  “Building a Vital Community Health Service: Planned Parenthood in Maryland, 1957–1974” — Carole McCann, University of Maryland Baltimore

  This paper examines the development of Planned Parenthood of Maryland from a small volunteer-run clinic in the 1950s to a professionally staffed clinic by 1974. Supported by medical professionals, women volunteers, and African American and Jewish community leaders, the organization framed contraception as essential for both women’s health and community wellbeing. Drawing on archival records, the paper argues that the organization’s growth relied on building diverse civic coalitions and securing public funding. However, these strategies also linked the organization to racialized and elitist population control agendas that complicated reproductive autonomy for marginalized women.

  “From Choice to Control: The Marginalization of Midwives in the Early Twentieth Century and Its Effect on Immigrant Women” — Melanie Simone Lorenz, Marquette University

  This paper analyzes early twentieth-century campaigns by American medical professionals to restrict midwifery practice. While previous scholarship has focused on racist attacks against Black midwives, this study highlights how anti-immigrant sentiment also shaped the decline of midwifery. Through analysis of professional journals, organizational records, and municipal health programs, the paper demonstrates how medical authorities removed immigrant women’s autonomy in choosing childbirth practices familiar to their communities.

  1B Constructing and Contesting Whiteness: Labor, Memory, and Maternal Well-Being

  Commentator: Traci Parker, University of California, Davis

  “‘He Says of Good Cotton’: Whiteness, Wellness, and the Work of Free Labor Cotton” — Mariah Kupfner, Penn State

  This presentation examines the material and discursive work of antislavery activists in the Free Labor movement with particular attention to cotton and whiteness. Abolitionists attempted to construct markets for cotton that avoided reliance on enslaved labor, but their rhetoric often conflated moral purity with whiteness. By examining textiles, clothing, and consumer culture, the paper explores how ideas about wellness, morality, and race became entangled in the politics of free labor.

  “Daughters of Massive Resistance and Integration: White Women, White Girls, and Memories of White Supremacy in Norfolk, Virginia” — Rebekah Toussaint, William & Mary

  This paper explores how white women remember the era of Massive Resistance and school integration in Norfolk, Virginia. Drawing on oral histories with women who attended Norfolk Public Schools during this period, the study examines tensions between lived experience, historical reality, and retrospective memory. It considers how narratives of white girlhood shape contemporary understandings of segregation, racial violence, and integration.

  “Neglected Well-Being: Reconceptualizing the Well-Being of Black Mothers within the Child Welfare System” — Shanequewa L. Love, Northwestern University

  Using Black Feminist Thought, this paper examines the paradox of the child welfare system’s mission to strengthen families while marginalizing Black mothers. It reconceptualizes well-being through the experiences of Black mothers navigating the system and argues for more intersectional frameworks of care that recognize structural inequalities.
• 11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Concurrent Panels
  2A Lessons from the Past: Finding Solidarity and Hope in Community Organizing in the 1960s, 1970s, and Beyond

  Moderator and Commentator: Christine Cook, U.S. Army War College

  Organizer: Debra Michals

  “Strength in Numbers: Activist Co-op Businesses and the Promise of a Better Tomorrow” — Debra Michals

  “Black Women Art Ecosystems: Sites of Wellness and Self-Care—Forging Community in Difficult Times” — Tanisha M. Jackson

  2B Nourishing Resistance: Women’s Well-Being and Agency in Global Perspective

  Commentator: Karla Strand, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  “Queen Luise in Pyrmont: Queenship, Politics, and Well-Being during the Napoleonic Wars” — Samantha Sproviero, Temple University

  This paper examines the relationship between queenship and wellbeing through Queen Luise of Prussia’s 1806 visit to the spa town of Pyrmont. Despite being sent to recover from a nervous crisis, Luise remained engaged in political discussions critical to Prussia’s foreign policy. The study analyzes spa culture in early nineteenth-century Europe and explores how royal women negotiated bodily health, political duty, and the performative nature of monarchy.

  “‘Might Over Right’: Female Domestic Violence and the Justice System in Nigeria” — MiChinonso Ihuoma, University of Ibadan

  This paper examines the prevalence of domestic violence in Nigeria and evaluates the effectiveness of the nation’s judicial response. It analyzes legal frameworks, reporting barriers, and public perceptions of justice while exploring why victims often avoid reporting abuse. The study argues for reforms that both strengthen legal accountability and encourage victims to seek justice.

  “Healing Food: The Story of Shukto and Widows of Bengal” — Debottam Saha, Welthungerhilfe, New Delhi, India

  This paper examines the history of the Bengali dish Shukto as both a healing food and a cultural practice among widows. Traditionally prepared from vegetables, lentils, and spices with cooling properties, the dish reflects older traditions of dietary therapy. For widows living under strict social constraints and austere diets, Shukto became both nourishment and a medium through which lived experiences of loss, resilience, and survival were expressed.
• 12:30–2:30 p.m. Lunch
• 2:45–4:30 p.m. Queer History Walking Tour and Local Archives Tour
• 6:00 p.m. Reception at Norfolk Marriott
• 7:00–9:00 p.m. Dinner at Norfolk Marriott
• 9:00 p.m. Games & Social Time

• 8:30–9:30 a.m. Breakfast
• 9:45–11:00 a.m. Concurrent Panels
  3A Struggles and Strategies: Women Claiming Power in Education, Health, and Justice

  Commentator: Katrina Gulliver, Foundation for Economic Education

  “Women Interwove a Trans-local History of Hwa Nan College in the Early Twentieth Century” — Shu Wan, University at Buffalo, New York

  This paper examines the transnational networks that shaped the development of Hwa Nan College in Fuzhou, China. It traces the collaborative educational efforts of women missionaries from Iowa and Chinese students who later studied at colleges in Iowa. Through case studies of three graduates, the study highlights how these women promoted Chinese culture in the United States while strengthening educational institutions in China upon their return.

  “Reclaiming Clio, Restoring the Forgotten to the Narrative, Challenging the Field’s Standard Origin Story” — Jennifer Banning Tomás, Piedmont Virginia Community College

  This paper will discuss the archival research and aha moments that led the speaker to write a book challenging the commonplace claim that there was no field of women’s history in the United States before the 1970s and second wave feminism generated a demand for it. This research enabled her to restore a largely forgotten generation of midcentury feminist historians and archivists to a well-deserved central place in the field’s origin story. These women’s strategies and struggles within the ivory tower set precedents, built important institutions, feminist history networks, and a stable foundation for the field upon which the next generation of feminist historians stood and continued to build. The paper will suggest why this is an important corrective and why their stories should matter to us in 2026.

  “‘F-Stopping the Revolution’: Bettye Lane, News Photography and Feminism, 1969–1990” — Carol Quirke, SUNY Old Westbury

  This paper examines the work of photojournalist Bettye Lane, whose photography documented key moments in the women’s movement. Drawing on archival collections, the study analyzes how Lane’s images helped build a feminist counter-public through movement publications and visual documentation of activism, offering a more intersectional record of feminist history.

  3B Bodies of Work: Gender, Labor, and Visual Meaning

  Commentator: Sonia Hernández, Texas A&M University

  “Narrating the Lives of Sex Workers in Twentieth-Century Iran” — Fatemeh Hosseini, Georgetown University

  This paper analyzes narratives of working-class women engaged in the sex trade published in the Iranian women’s magazine Ittela’at Banuvan. These stories reveal how elite reformers and state discourse framed prostitution, morality, and gender reform. The paper examines the ethical implications of representing marginalized women in historical narratives.

  “Forbidden Yet Familiar: Brothel Interiors, Feminine Labor in the Long Nineteenth Century, and Public and Private Space” — Tulasi Devi Dasi Johnson, University of California, Berkeley

  This paper examines brothels as significant social and spatial sites in nineteenth-century urban life. Through photographs, literary sources, and reform literature, the study shows how brothel interiors blurred the boundaries between domestic and commercial space, revealing the everyday environments and social networks of women working in the sex trade.
• 11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Concurrent Panels
  4A Panel 4A

  Commentator: Audra Jennings, Western Kentucky University

  “Sold Down the River: Digital Histories of the Domestic Slave Trade” — Stephanie Richmond, Norfolk State University

  Norfolk, Virginia was a major port in the domestic slave trade to New Orleans and other Deep South port cities. Between 1800 and 1860, over 20,000 enslaved men, women and children were loaded onto ships just a few hundred feet from the hotel where the Little Berks is meeting this year and taken to New Orleans. Once in Louisiana, they were sold to labor in the sugar and cotton fields of the Mississippi River Valley. This presentation will tell some of their stories and then take interested attendees to the sites of the jail and docks where enslaved people’s lives were irrevocably changed.

  4B Graduate Student Council Roundtable: Crafting Projects and Future Plans

  Commentators: Sonia Gomez, Santa Clara University and Yelana Sims, University of South Carolina

  Mallory Hardesty, Loyola University

  Hadeel Jeanne, University of Massachusetts Amherst

  Kaci DeLisle, University of California, Berkeley
• 12:30–2:30 p.m. Lunch
• 2:45–4:30 p.m. Annual Business Meeting
• 6:00 p.m. Reception at Norfolk Marriott
• 7:00–9:00 p.m. Dinner and Keynote — Dr. Felicia Kornbluh, “Winning Gendered and Sexual Rights in Conservative Times”
• 9:00 p.m. Games & Social Time

• 8:00–10:00 a.m. Breakfast