Statement on arrests of protesters on college campuses, May 13, 2024
Over the past weeks, hundreds of students, faculty, and staff at universities across the continent have been threatened, arrested and abused by police when engaging in peaceful protests on university campuses. Among those attacked is long-time Berkshire Conference member, Dr. Annelise Orleck, professor of history at Dartmouth College. Dr. Orleck and her colleagues stood in solidarity with their students who protested Dartmouth’s connections to Israel and the war in Gaza and sought the divestment of the university from those connections. Read More>>
Statement on Racism and the Berks, July 5, 2023
The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians apologizes sincerely for the harm experienced at the 2023 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities. The very public racism witnessed at the Fiftieth Anniversary Plenary session is not the only instance of this racial harm, but rather exemplifies continuing racism and inequality in our organization, the historical field, and our wider society. The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians leadership condemns the racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic comments of one of the Big Berks conference co-founders, Lois Banner. We acknowledge harm and apologize to scholars of color for their underrepresentation in decision-making positions and the continuing racism they encounter within our organization and in the spaces we create. Read More >>
Statement to MoAr, June 24, 2023
The Berkshire Conference stands with the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in its condemnation of the Museum of the American Revolution’s (MoAR) decision to rent event space to the Moms For Liberty (MFL), a known hate group. The MFL have been listed among the Southern Poverty Law Center’s growing class of “extremist” groups in this country and have repeatedly engaged in homophobic, transphobic, and racist speech and actions including against LGBTQ teachers in Florida…. Read More>>
2022 Berks AHA Grant, April 8, 2022
The Berkshire Conference of Women’s Historians has been awarded funding from the American Historical Association’s Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations Program, which provides relief to institutions adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This opportunity was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The Berkshire Conference’s project is entitled Creating Student Affiliates and Speakers’ Networks to Diversify and Expand Women’s Histories and Reach. Read More >>
Statement on Anti-Asian Hate Crimes, March 20, 2021
March 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of when much of the U.S. entered various forms of social distancing lockdown as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been a year filled with loss and trauma, disproportionately experienced by those already marginalized in our societies. This public health crisis has been further compounded by the continuation of visible and horrific acts of violence against Black people, perpetrated by the police and everyday citizens who feel entitled to enact hatred, carry out executions, and justify these actions…. Read More >>
Statement on Sedition, January 10, 2021
The United States is a nation founded on the ideals of democracy but also on a system of white supremacy. January 6, 2021 saw seditionists attempt to overthrow the US government and occupy the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Insurrectionists were able to occupy the Capitol because white supremacy allows white people to move freely, rebel, and inhabit their bodies – and state spaces – in ways denied racialized people in the US…. Read More >>
Statement on “patriotic history and diversity”, October 24, 2020
On September 17, 2020, President Donald Trump announced his intention to create a national commission to promote “patriotic education.” The hastily convened “conference” held at the National Archives did not advance our understandings of history, but served only to mobilize white supremacist ire with its attacks on the New York Times’ 1619 Project and other historical scholarship that focuses on previously unseen groups…. Read More >>
