On March 7-9, 2019, he Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies will host the Southeastern Women’s Studies Association’s Annual Conference for the first time. Our theme, “Envisioning a Feminist and Queer South,” considers the distinctive role of gender studies programs in the South in fostering interdisciplinary scholarship, social change, and the creation of inclusive spaces. The conference offers students and faculty University of Mississippi the opportunity to participate in important, timely conversations. 

In support of the University’s “Flagship Forward” strategic plan, bringing SEWSA to the University of Mississippi will help increase the research and creative achievement for both our students and faculty while fostering an intellectual and engaging environment for all. The conference will also build inclusiveness and strengthen partnerships for community involvement between the attendees and Oxford. 

As we say in our call for papers, “Gender studies has always challenged the status quo, questioned conventional wisdom, and combined theory and practice. As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the first women’s studies program, we must remember that women’s studies, from its inception, ranged across the disciplines, moving from theory to practice to theory, and insisting on truly interdisciplinary inquiry that allows questions of gender and sexuality to disrupt our assumptions. Gender studies, at its best, has always queered the boundaries—of region, of discipline, of identity, of nation.

Gender studies’ distinctive integration of teaching, scholarship, programs, and advocacy has never been more essential, particularly in the South in the current historical moment. Unprecedented interest in feminism and a resurgence