So Northwestern University, an institution with a $14.3 billion endowment, pulled support for the 2026 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities (the “Big Berks”), forcing the organization to cancel the meeting. Such cowardice on Northwestern’s part.
Apparently the Board of Governors of Northwestern University has announced the university can no longer host a conference of women historians, given the political situation in the United States of America.
Apparently no other potential host site can or will step up to take its place. As a result, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians has cancelled the 2026 session of its triennial "Big Berks' conference, a huge event that has brought together women historians of all topics and backgrounds since the 1930s.
It was usually held in the eastern US but gathered in Toronto about ten years ago, where if I recall correctly it was directed by Franca Iacovetta of the University of Toronto.
