Hoosier Women at Work

October 5, 2024

Conference Sessions at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

Keynote Presentation at the Madam Walker Legacy Center

Join us in Indianapolis for the sixth Hoosier Women at Work history conference on Saturday, October 5, 2024. Presented by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Association of Historians with funding from Indiana Humanities, the Women's Fund of Central Indiana, the Indiana Commission for Women, and the Indiana State Library Foundation. Other partners include the Crown Hill Foundation, the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, and the Madam Walker Legacy Center.

Conference

The Hoosier Women at Work Conference is an energetic day of presentations, networking, and idea exchange. Its welcoming atmosphere makes it an ideal conference for students, emerging scholars, and citizen historians. Academic historians, journalists, librarians, archivists, genealogists, and museum professionals are also encouraged to participate. This year's theme is "Peace and War," but all scholarship on Hoosier women's history is eligible. We couldn't be more excited to have this dynamic day hosted at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. Attendees will listen to speakers, engage in discussion, and have access to this unparalleled museum. The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library champions the literary, artistic, and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist, teacher, and Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut. The library and museum serve as a cultural and educational resource unique to the nation.

Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library
543 Indiana Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202

After lunch, HWW attendees will walk across the street to the historic Madam Walker Legacy Center for the keynote presentation. The general public is also encouraged to attend the keynote presentation.

Keynote

HWW is proud to welcome Amisha (Amy) Padnani, an award-winning senior staff editor at The New York Times and creator of the Overlooked project, to the Madam Walker Legacy Center.

Overlooked tells the stories of remarkable women and people of color whose deaths were never reported by The New York Times in its 168-year history. After joining The Times's obituaries desk as an editor, Padnani noticed that the section was dominated by white men and sought ways to balance its coverage. Overlooked launched in 2018 with the stories of 15 women, and has since included people of color and subjects from the LGBTQ and disability communities. A book, published in November 2023, features 66 Overlooked obituaries, about two dozen of which never appeared in The Times. The project was also the inspiration for a musical production by The Waa-Mu Show at Northwestern University.

Padnani's speaking engagements have included TED, Creative Mornings, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, the Dead Ladies Show, Dropbox, Button, and other organizations. She has been interviewed on NPR, Democracy Now, CBC, CBS, and the BBC.

She was named Incredible Woman of the Year by Porter Magazine in 2018 and has won a number of other awards since. (Bio from Padnani’s website: https://www.amypadnani.com/)

The Madam Walker Legacy Center is the only surviving iconic building on Indiana Avenue, a significant piece of Indiana and U.S. history, and an integral part of the Indianapolis community. Thanks to the Walker Center's donation of their beautiful space for this event, along with generous funding from Indiana Humanities and the Women's Fund of Central Indiana, the keynote presentation is free to HWW attendees and the public. Ticket information below. Event location:

Madam Walker Legacy Center
617 Indiana Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202

Registration

HWW Conference and Keynote Ticket

Registration for the HWW conference is $15, which includes lunch. Thanks to the Indiana Commission for Women, morning coffee and bagels at check-in are also free. Thanks to generous grants from Indiana Humanities and the Women's Fund of Central Indiana for funding the keynote speaker.

Keynote Only Ticket

Thanks to grants from Indiana Humanities and the Women's Fund of Central Indiana, as well as the in-kind donation of the Walker Legacy Center, the keynote address is free to the entire community.

Speaker/Presenter or Student Ticket

Thanks to funding from Indiana Humanities, student admission to the HWW conference is free! This includes lunch. Funding from Indiana Humanities and the Women's Fund of Central Indiana have also made the keynote presentation free for the entire community.

Thanks to the Indiana State Library Foundation, registration is free for all speakers/presenters whose projects have been approved by the HWW review committee.

Conference Theme

This conference will combine historical research and discussion on the unique roles of women in peacebuilding and war efforts. Women’s work has been undervalued throughout history by patriarchal economic, political, and social systems, hindering a fuller understating of peace and war studies through the exclusion of women’s stories. This conference will seek to encourage fresh scholarship and dynamic discussion of how Indiana women impacted these larger global events and systems of power.

What has been the role of women working to eliminate violence? How are women of color and indigenous women potentially at work for peace in different ways? What unexplored roles have women taken on in times of war? How has colonization and war impacted women and girls? How did Hoosier women impact broader historical and current events? We encourage topics related to girls and women of color, indigenous women, women of immigrant origin, those who identify as LGBTQ, and women with disabilities.

Call for Proposals: Open now through August 1, 2024 August 22, 2024

Please consider contributing your scholarship about the history of Indiana women’s work. Special consideration will be given to papers of projects that examine Hoosier women's work for peace and war. However, any scholarship on Indiana women's history are welcome.

Projects could be in the form of a paper presentation or a panel discussion. Academic, student, and citizen historians, as well as journalists, librarians, archivists, genealogists, and museum professionals are encouraged to participate. Papers should be approximately ten pages and based on original research or a synthesis of scholarship. PowerPoint or other visual aids are encouraged.

To submit an individual proposal, send a one-page explanation of your paper and a short biography (about 150 words). Panel proposals should include a one-page description of the panel, which specifies the topic that each participant will discuss, as well as a short biography for each participant. The deadline for submitting paper and/or session proposals is August 22, 2024.

Please e-mail your proposal to IHB historian Nicole Poletika: npoletika@history.IN.gov.

Download a PDF of the conference description and call for papers here. View examples of past conference papers here.

Partners

The Hoosier Women at Work conference is presented by the Indiana Historical Bureau, Division of the Indiana State Library and the Indiana Association of Historians with assistance from the staff at the Crown Hill Foundation. The Madam Walker Legacy Center and Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library made the event possible through the in kind donation of their unique spaces and support of their staff.

HWW Partners

For more information on the conference, contact IHB historian Jill Weiss Simins: jweiss@library.IN.gov.

Making Women's History

Why Indiana Women’s History?
. . . because, with few exceptions, women have been consistently left out of the story of the Hoosier state. On paper, historians agree that including the histories of women and other marginalized groups provides a more complete understanding of the events that shape our communities, state, and world. However, in practice, very few historians are researching, publishing, or posting on women’s history. Having identified a dearth of resources on Indiana women’s history, organizers from various institutions, both public and private, came together to create this annual conference. Hoosier Women at Work aims to energize the discussion of Indiana women’s history and make the papers, presentations, and other resources resulting from the conference available to all Hoosiers. READ MORE!