Photo of mixed college couples dancing in August 1942
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)