A triennial (every 3 years) conference of women historians planned for 2026 won’t be happening and the two co-presidents of the host organization have been ousted.
Called “the largest women’s history event in the world,” the 2026 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities—nicknamed “Big Berks”—sent an email on March 17th to prospective conference attendes announcing the cancellation of what would have been the 20th gathering since Big Berks began in 1973.
According to email recipients, the Board of Trustees included this statement: “As a result of increased political pressure on academic institutions, it has become clear to the Officers and Trustees that we will not be able to find a university willing to host our triennial gathering in time.”
On social media, many decried current U.S. policies and the escalating attacks on gender and sexuality studies for the cancellation while also criticizing Northwestern University—where the 2026 conference was to be held—for caving in to political pressures.
Northwestern responded by saying the university had never formally agreeed to host the conference—which draws up to 2,000 attendees—in the first place.
Amy Stanley, a gender historian who directs Northwestern’s Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, posted on social media, “Northwestern never agreed to hold the conference … we did have a conversation very early this year about the possibility of hosting it” [but there were] “a number of logistical and administrative—not political!—concerns that made it untenable.”
Northwestern’s media relations department released a statement to Inside Higher Ed (which posted the story): “Although there were discussions about the possibility of Northwestern hosting,” the university never definitively agreed.
“We clarified our position with organizers earlier this year. Our decision was based solely on logistical and administrative concerns and had nothing to do with the topics to be addressed at the conference,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, Big Berks’ website verified Northwestern’s assertion in a subsequent statement: “[the] Board of Trustees made the difficult decision not to hold the Big Berks in 2026 and instead engage members in a conversation about how to move forward. Northwestern’s initial expressions of support for hosting the Big Berks in 2026 did not culminate in a formal agreement.”
Big Berks’ two co-presidents were let go, and as explained in a an email from the board on March 18th, the decision reflected “ongoing communication issues that the Board of Trustees had repeatedly tried to address.”
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