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Gender and Sexuality in the Midwest
Central Region Humanities Center Biennial Conference

Gender and Sexuality in the Midwest

Agenda

The conference is held in the Baker Center Theater.

Friday, Sept. 6

9-9:15 a.m. | Baker Center Theater

Land Acknowledgment and Opening Remarks
  • Katherine Jellison (Ohio University)
  • Matthew Ando (Ohio University)

9:15-10:30 a.m.

Friday Keynote

Watch Keynote on YouTube

Introduction: Katherine Jellison (Ohio University)

“Monuments to Midwestern Pioneer Mothers and Native Women”

  • Cynthia C. Prescott (University of North Dakota) 

10:30-11 a.m.

Break

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Gender, Sexuality, and Religion in the Early Midwest 
  • Chair: Brian Schoen (Ohio University)

“Beyond Maria Monk: Clericalism, Gender, and Power on the Catholic Frontier”

  • Kara French (Salisbury University)

“A Comfortable Place to Have Sects: The Midwest’s Role in Institutionalizing Shaker Celibacy and Mormon Plural Marriage”

  • Stewart Davenport (Pepperdine University) 

12:30-2 p.m.

Lunch Break

2-4 p.m.

Gendered Bodies at Risk
  • Chair: Uzoma Miller (Ohio University)

“From Breeding and Sterilization to the Maternal and Infant Health Crisis: The Manipulation and Control of Black Women’s Bodies”

  • Amanda Flowers (RTI International)

“Lynching in Ohio and Concepts of Masculinity and Femininity”

  • Jordan Zdinak (Ohio University)

“Taking a Victim-Centered Approach to the History of Sexual Violence and Exploitation: A Case Study in Early North Dakota”

  • Nikki Berg Burin (University of North Dakota) 

4-4:30 p.m.

Break

4:30-6 p.m.

Gender, Religion, and Entrepreneurship in the Midwest
  • Chair: Kimberly Little (Ohio University) 

“God First, Family Second, Career Third: Mary Kay and the Creation of a Female Values-Based Company”

  • Cassandra L. Yacovazzi (University of South Florida)

“Anabaptist Women and Multi-Level Marketing/Direct Sales: Performing Gender and Faith in Culturally Acceptable Business Ventures”

  • Jewel Yoder Kuhns (John Carroll University) 

6-7:30 p.m.

Dinner

7:30-9 p.m.

Book Talk
  • Introduction: Micah McCarey (Ohio University)

Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land

  • Taylor Brorby (University of Alabama)

Saturday, September 7

9:00-9:15 a.m. | Baker Center Theater

Saturday Welcome 
  • Katherine Jellison (Ohio University) 

9:15-10:30 a.m.

Saturday Keynote
  • Introduction: Paul Jones (Ohio University)

Watch Keynote on YouTube

“Memorializing Willa Cather in Cold War Nebraska: How the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Navigated Questions of Gender and Sexuality”

  • Melissa Homestead (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) 

10:30-11:00 a.m.

Break

11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

LGBTQ+ Midwesterners in Urban, Rural, and Small-Town Settings 
  • Chair: Risa Whitson (Ohio University)

“Only ‘In the Big City’: Isolation, Rurality, and Leisure in Lesbian Chicago, 1971-1996”

  • Hannah Fuller (Loyola University Chicago)

“Sustaining Bonds, Creating Bonds: Debates about Sexuality and the Reshaping of Midwestern Religious Communities”

  • David Mislin (Temple University) 

12:30-2 p.m.

Lunch

2-3 p.m.

Exhibit Talk
  • Introduction: Mariana Dantas (Ohio University) 

“Out of the Closet”

  • Ron Scott, Jr. (Wheeling, WV, YWCA) 

3-3:30 p.m.

Break

3:30-5:30 p.m.

Gender and Sexuality in the Hoosier State
  • Chair: Jack Marchbanks (Ohio Department of Transportation) 

“Gender Rubble: Attempting Equality in Robert Owen’s New Harmony Experiment”

  • Ashley Rattner (Jacksonville State University)

“Black Women’s Philanthropy in Early Twentieth-Century Indianapolis”

  • Tyrone McKinley Freeman (Indiana University Indianapolis)

“’A Real He-Man’? Masculinity, Effeminacy, and Sexuality in the Political Career of Indiana Governor Paul V. McNutt”

  • Dean J. Kotlowski (Salisbury University) 

5:30-5:45 p.m.

Closing Comments
  • Katherine Jellison (Ohio University)
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