Held on February 2, this year’s Thinking Gender, an annual conference presented by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women in conjunction with USC’s Center for Femininist Research, provided a wonderful opportunity for graduate students and faculty to meet and discuss a range of fascinating and innovative work in gender research and women’s studies. With 22 panels and 84 presenters, the conference was the largest to date.
Panels ranged from “Experimental Body Films” to “Labor and Sweat,” from “Adolescent Sexuality: Girls, Girls, Girls!” to “Memory, the Archive, and the Museum” and “Reproductive Dilemmas.”

The plenary session, Chickens, Wolves, Warriors, and Zoos: Feminist Science Studies Meets Animal Studies and Law, was organized by Laura Foster and moderated by Sandra Harding, Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, and presented perspectives on the human/nonhuman in public discourse and the law.

The luncheon provided a chance for Kathleen McHugh, Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, to welcome the participants and to acknowledge the efforts of the staff and faculty at UCLA and USC in organizing the conference.

Always engaging and perceptive, Wendy Belcher, Lecturer and Editor, Chicano Studies Research Center Press gave the keynote address on “Writing Gender: Recent Research on Power, Productivity, and Publication,” detailing recent research on publication, tenure, and gender in higher education. The results for female faculty are mixed, but she outlined some useful strategies for achieving career advancement.

The evening reception provided another opportunity for presenters, moderators, and audience members to share ideas and perspectives on the day’s presentations as well as to celebrate the success of the event.

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