CfP: Big Berks 2027

The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians invites proposals for its 2027 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Gender, and Sexualities, also known as the “Big Berks,” which will be held at the Hilton Minneapolis June 10-13, 2027. Since its founding, the Big Berks has consistently served as a vital space where historians, educators, activists, and artists from around the world come together for intellectual exchange, mentorship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and community-building, while also adapting to reflect new directions in feminist and historical scholarship. The Big Berks offers plenaries, sessions, workshops, performances, and social events that promote scholarly rigor and transformative dialogue.

Our 2027 theme, “Beyond Boundaries: Gender, History and the Futures We Imagine,” calls us to reaffirm the centrality of feminist, queer, Black, Brown, and trans histories to our collective understanding of the past and to the preservation and progress of democratic life. At a moment when histories of women, gender, and sexualities are under attack—in classrooms, archives, museums, parks, and public discourse—the Berks stands in defense of historical truth and the right to teach, research, and tell stories that reflect the complexity of human experience.

In the face of escalating challenges to equity and inclusion, it is imperative that we recognize and defend against the global anti-gender movement that seeks to undermine decades of progress in human rights and academic freedom while actively erasing women’s, queer, trans, and Black and Brown histories of resistance, knowledge, and care.

Reaffirming the truth that higher education and public institutions are critical sites of resistance against oppression, we emphasize their enduring role as spaces for social justice, transformative scholarship, and collective action. These institutions are not only sites of learning but also living archives of resistance, shaped by generations of scholars, students, and activists who have challenged inequality, preserved marginalized histories, and imagined more just futures.

As a collective and global community of gender scholars, broadly defined, we are called to protect these histories, defend the integrity of truth-telling, and build futures rooted in equity, accountability, and collective liberation.

We welcome proposals that engage a wide range of topics, approaches, and formats, including but not limited to:

• Histories of resistance to censorship, erasure, and political repression.
• Trans, queer, feminist, and intersectional approaches to the study of the past.
• Archival and methodological innovations that recover silenced violences and challenge disciplinary traditions and boundaries.
• Histories of reproductive justice, disability, bodily autonomy, and gender self-determination.
• Public, community, and digital history projects that democratize access to and knowledge of history.
• Global, transnational, and decolonial feminist perspectives that reimagine the scope of the history of women, gender, and sexualities.

The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians is committed to diverse, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary exchange. In recent years, the organization has taken important steps to strengthen this commitment and continues to work toward building a more inclusive and supportive scholarly community. We invite submissions from historians, primary and secondary educators, archivists, curators, artists, independent scholars, community activists and practitioners across disciplines and geographies, representing all career stages from emerging to established professionals. We encourage creative formats—performances, workshops, exhibitions, and digital projects—that foster dialogue and build solidarity across fields and communities.

View the full CFP and submission details.