The 2023 Conference took place at Manchester Metropolitan University on 7th July. It featured panels on Reproduction and Motherhood During Slavery, Body Politics, Cultural Activism, and Bodily Autonomy, Reproduction, and Law in the Americas.

The 2022 Conference took place at the British Library on 1st July. It focused on Black women’s activism in the Americas.

The 2022 Conference took place at the University of Reading on 5th July. Topics included Intellectualism at home and abroad, Framing and re-framing Black womanhood, Federal projects and Depression-era culture, Law and bodily autonomies, and Motherhood and citizenships.

The 2018 Annual conference took place at The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics on 6th July. The keynote speaker was Dr. Kate Dossett from the University of Leeds.

The 2017 Conference took place at the University of Oxford, co-sponsored by the Rothermere American Institute and The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, on 6th July. Our keynote speaker was Prof. Diana Paton (Edinburgh) who spoke on an aspect of her current research project on ‘Mothering Slaves’ within the context of the broader Americas.

The 2016 Conference took place at the Royal Holloway, University of London, on 29th June. Co-sponsored by the Bedford Centre for the History of Women, this conference attracted scholars from the UK, Europe, and the US, who interrogated a wide range of themes related to the intersection of religion and activism.

The 2014 Conference took place at the University of Westminster, on 29th November. On the theme of Ms/representation: mass media & feminisms in historical context, this conference built on the theme of the Kingston conference. Delegates explored a wide range of areas, from teenage magazines to representation of gender through film.

The 2013 Conference took place at the Royal Holloway on the theme of The Feminine Mystique at 50. In collaboration with the Bedford Centre for Women’s History, SHAW marked the fiftieth anniversary of Betty Friedan’s feminist classic The Feminine Mystique. The conference resulted in the publication of a special issue of the Society’s journal, History of Women in the Americas, including articles based on papers delivered at the conference.

In addition, SHAW co-sponsored a conference at St Mary’s University in April 2013, on the theme of Freedom, Rights, Power: Recasting Women’s Struggles Across the Americas Since 1900.

The 2012 Conference took place at the Kingston University. On the theme of Women in Magazines: Research, Representation, Production and Consumption. Held at Kingston University, the conference brought together over 50 scholars from the UK and abroad. The edited collection, with chapters based on selected papers, was published with Routledge in 2016.

Held at Brunel around an open theme, it was at this conference that the decision was taken to rename the society