Program Highlights
🎥 Plenary: "The Journey Not Only the Arrival, Critical Connections Not Only Critical Mass: (Re)Thinking Feminist Movements"
James and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation Speakers: Dr. Deloris Ann Berrien-Jones, Aurora Harris, Dr. Gloria House, Alice Jennings, Dr. Scott Kurashige, Tiffany Lee, and Julia Putnam
Facilitated by President Heidi R. Lewis
This presidential address and opening discussion augments “The Journey Not Only the Arrival, Critical Connections Not Only Critical Mass: (Re)Thinking Feminist Movements,” the theme for our 2024 annual conference in Detroit and the title of President Heidi R. Lewis’ Presidential Address. Detroit was Grace Lee Boggs’ home for over 60 years and the place where she founded the National Organization for an American Revolution with her husband Jimmy 45 years ago. So, our theme honors two of her quotes, “activism can be the journey rather than the arrival” and “movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass.” Our conference is a space where we gather to think about, discuss, and develop strategies to resist myriad forms of subjugation and oppression.
We gather to teach and learn from one another, to support and care for one another, to celebrate one another, and to share in each other’s pain and joy. At the same time, it’s just as important to attend to the complicated contours of our relationships with one another. What happens when heterosexism, ableism, and colonialism show up in us? What happens when we perpetuate anti-Black racism, transantagonism, and xenophobia? What happens when we privilege the arrival at the expense of the journey? What happens when we sacrifice critical connections in favor of galvanizing critical mass? These questions, and more will be strengthened by members of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation: Donald Boggs, Aurora Harris, Dr. Gloria House, Alice Jennings, Dr. Scott Kurashige, Tiffany Lee, and Julia Putnam as thought leaders and organizers who embody all that James and Grace Lee Boggs visioned in their activism.
President Lewis’ hope is for us to collectively raise and interrogate these questions for the sake of what she often refers to as the always advantageous but sometimes contentious contours of solidarity. Even though we may be certain about our many intended destinations, she invites us to nurture curiosity about our journeys and connections with each other, because that is the lesson from Boggs that resonates with her most.
🎥 Plenary: "Palestine is a Feminist Issue: (Re)Thinking Feminist Movements"
Speakers: Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Huwaida Arraf, and Malak Mattar
Facilitated by President Heidi R. Lewis
For a number of people, the focus and commitment to a Free Palestine began on October 7, 2023. Other educators, artists, and organizers aligned with this global movement beforehand as Israel’s colonial-supported genocidal war on Palestinians began with the Nakba of 1948, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or forced to flee from their homeland. Palestinian scholars in our field have been particularly attentive to Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance, because Palestine is a feminist issue. If we are concerned with the complex relationships between gender and sexuality, race, class, age, and other positionalities, we must be concerned with Palestine. If we are concerned with global capitalism, neocolonialism, and other systems of power and dominance, we must be concerned with Palestine. If we are concerned with amplifying and honoring the righteous resistance of the subjugated and oppressed, then we must be concerned with Palestine. As Rabab Abdulhadi writes in “Living Under Occupation” (2012), “Consciousness of gender inequality (or any other structural inequality or injustice) can supersede, accompany, or result from awareness of other systemic oppression. In other words, as there are many sources of oppression, there are many paths to consciousness and liberation.” In addition to situating Palestine as a feminist issue, Abdulhadi, Chair of the NWSA Feminists for Justice In/For Palestine Interest Group; Huwaida Arraf; Malak Mattar; and President Heidi R. Lewis will discuss the ways we can continue working together to understand and end the occupations of Palestine, Okinawa, Kashmir, Tigray, and all other colonized lands.
🎥 Plenary: "45 Years and Counting: Reflections on Our Annual Conference"
Speakers: Dr. Yi-Chun Tricia Lin 林怡君, Layli Maparayan, Premilla Nadasen, and President Heidi R. Lewis
Facilitated by Kristian Contreras
In “Multivocal and Multidirectional: The Rich Legacy of Women’s Studies,” President Heidi R. Lewis refers to the late 1960s and especially the 1970s and 1980s as the Golden Age of the kind of organizing that is central to our field. During that time, the National Organization for Women, Redstockings, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, National Black Feminist Organization, Women of All Red Nations, Salsa Soul Sisters, Combahee River Collective, and other groundbreaking organizations were founded. One of those organizations was NWSA, which was established in 1977 and incorporated in 1978. The following year, the Association held its first conference at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, with nearly 250 sessions and 600 participants. To celebrate that historical moment, we are excited to facilitate a discussion with Layli Maparyan, past Women of Color Caucus Co-Chair; Yi-Chun Tricia Lin 林怡君, past President (2012-14); Premilla Nadasen, past President (2018-20); and Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, who presented her work on the religious experience of Mexicanas in Arizona during that very first conference. Returning to our histories is a critical aspect of feminist work. At this juncture, it is especially important to revisit our roots for wisdom and empowerment—and for lessons in solidarity—as our art, activism, and scholarship continue to evolve to meet the moment and shape the future.