EVENT DETAILS

The Center for Women’s History is pleased to present the fourth annual Diane and Adam E. Max Conference on Women’s History, the cornerstone of the Center’s suite of public and scholarly programs. This year, the conference explores the history of Prohibition 100 years after the ratification of the 18th Amendment, which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States.

Prohibition began on January 20, 1920. For some women and men, this represented the culmination of decades of struggle for temperance, a movement that promised to protect women and families from alcoholism. Many others challenged the new laws, particularly in New York City, where the patrons of speakeasies and ballrooms not only ignored Prohibition, but also transgressed boundaries of gender, race, and sexuality. The Roaring Twenties also witnessed the dramatic growth of law enforcement, as efforts to control the consumption of alcohol led to new kinds of urban policing which themselves generated new forms of inequality. One thing was for certain—by the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, it had transformed the nation.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

9 AM WELCOME
Louise Mirrer, President and CEO, New-York Historical Society
Valerie Paley, Senior Vice President, Chief Historian, Director of the Center for Women’s History, New-York Historical Society.

9:15 AM KEYNOTE
Lisa McGirr, Harvard University, author of The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State

9:45 AM
Women and the American Story: A Women’s History Curriculum Guide for Grades 6-12
Mia Nagawiecki, Vice President for Education, New-York Historical Society

Women Have Always Worked: A Massive Open Online Course in Women’s History
Alice Kessler-Harris, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor Emerita of American History, Columbia University and Chair of the Scholarly Advisory Board of the Center for Women’s History, N-YHS  

10 AM BREAK

10:15 AM PANEL DISCUSSION
Women, Temperance and Reform: The temperance movement was a key site for women’s political action in the era before suffrage. Temperance activists linked their efforts to broader reform projects, but also to racial and ethnic stereotypes. This panel will explore the many forms that women’s temperance activism took, both before and during the era of Prohibition.

Richard Chused, New York School of Law, co-author of Gendered Law in American History
Crystal Feimster, Yale University, author of Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching
Lori Ginzberg, Penn State University, author of Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States
Julie C. Suk, Professor of Sociology and Dean for Master’s Programs at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Moderator: Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University and New-York Historical Society

11:15 AM BREAK

11:30 AM PANEL DISCUSSION
Rewriting the Rules: Prohibition did not end the consumption of alcohol in the United States. By forcing drinkers into hiding, however, the law created new, illicit spaces in which women and men made their livings while practicing new forms of countercultural expression. This panel examines Prohibition at the grassroots, as experienced by immigrants, people of color, and gay and lesbian New Yorkers.

Marni Davis, Georgia State University, author of Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition
LaShawn Harris, Michigan State University, author of Sex Workers, Psychics and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City's Underground Economy
Daniel Hurewitz, Hunter College, CUNY, author of Stepping Out: Nine Walks Through New York City’s Gay and Lesbian Past
Moderator: Nancy Mirabal, University of Maryland, College Park, author of Suspect Freedoms: The Racial and Sexual Politics of Cubanidad in New York City, 1823-1957

12:30 PM LUNCH BREAK.

LOCATION

The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024

RESERVING TICKETS

Admission is free; advance reservations are required to guarantee seating.
Please note that there are separate registrations for the morning and afternoon sessions. Please reserve a ticket to both the morning and afternoon sessions if you plan on attending the entire conference.

By phone: Please contact New-York Historical’s in-house call center at (212) 485-9268. Call center is open 9 am–5 pm daily.
Online: Click on the orange “Reserve Now” button at the top of this page.
In person: Advance tickets may be reserved on site at New-York Historical’s Admissions desk during museum hours.

Programs and dates may be subject to change. Management reserves the right to refuse admission to latecomers.

Major funding for the programming of the Center for Women’s History provided by Joyce B. Cowin; Diane and Adam E. Max; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Jean Margo Reid; The Estate of Jean Dubinsky Appleton; Eric J. and Daria L. Wallach; Diana and Joseph DiMenna; the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation; Deutsche Bank; Claudine and Fred Bacher; James Basker and Angela Vallot; Leah and Michael R. Weisberg; and an anonymous donor.

Image: Joseph Golinken, Speakeasy, 1920s. Lithograph. New-York Historical Society Library.