Last month, I took part in the Conference on Women and Gender at Christopher Newport University. We traveled by train for ten hours to reach the conference in Newport News, VA. Actually, it was closer to 11 hours.
I had originally planned to do a lot of sightseeing in the few days we had before the conference started, but because I was behind on my work getting the manuscript ready for publication, we didn’t do as much.
We went to Hampton, VA one day, to visit the History Museum, which was interesting. Another day, we took a long walk around a lake in a beautiful park. The weather was warmer than at home, which was nice.
A conference highlight was the screening of The Conductor, a film about pioneering female conductor Marian Alsop. Alsop and director Bernadette Wegenstein engaged in a virtual discussion following the movie screening.
We also got a tour of the Torggler Fine Arts Gallery by the curator, which was very enjoyable. The keynote address was by Barbara Hamm Lee, a local public radio and TV celebrity.
One day at the conference, I went by myself because my husband wasn’t feeling well. At lunch I got to sit with a group of women of various ages and we talked about different topics, including menstruation. I really enjoyed that. There is a lot of power in women telling their stories, which was the theme of the conference.
I gave a paper, “Thrift, Industry and Service”, on the panel about Stories from Academia. My PowerPoint presentation about Margaret Murray Washington and Jennie Moton, went well and I am glad that I could present it.
Our trip back involved an 11-hour train journey, then a 2.5-hour drive from New Haven because of road work and an accident on Route 91. Attending the conference showed me that some places are difficult to reach in a way that is both green and comfortable.
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