Localist

Feminist Futurities: 50 More Years of Feminist Scholarship and Activism in the South

Thursday, March 19, 2026 - Saturday, March 21, 2026

WGS South, formerly known as the Southeastern Women's Studies Association (SEWSA), is proud to announce 50 years as the oldest and longest-standing organization for the study of women, gender, and sexuality in North America. A founding member of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), WGS South has been at the forefront of feminist scholarship, creative activity, advocacy, organizing, and activism in the South since the inaugural conference in 1976.

Justice is a project, a struggle, a horizon that comes into view, moves closer, recedes. WGS South has been, for over five decades, a site of gathering to share knowledge, tools, and skills that move us, as a region, a nation, and a world, closer to that horizon. It has also been a space to take a breath, to gather and call back energy and determination, to be in community with the folks from whom we learn, to plot and argue and devise ways to make each other’s lives more possible, and to make some collective feminist sense of where we’ve been. To remember that as rough as the present moment is – and it is, undeniably and on every register, at every scale – the struggle has persisted and will persist, larger and more enduring than our individual selves. Our role, as feminist scholars and activists, is to shepherd it.

This year, we draw on the reserves of feminist pasts to think through and plot the next 50 years, recognizing the necessity of playing the long game, through setbacks and backlash and all manner of detours and obstacles. Futurity is not a luxury. It is, as Lorde said of poetry, “a vital necessity of our existence.” Future feminist visions of the possible world predicate and calibrate our labor and our dreaming. They are as essential as bread, and they need space to rise. This year, like so many others, WGS South will be that space.

Featured Presenters:

Thursday, March 19, 2026 | Opening Keynote Speaker

Dr. Andrea Baldwin, Associate Professor, The University of Utah

Friday, March 20, 2026 | Plenary Speaker

Dr. Menah Pratt, Professor & Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Virginia Tech

Thank you to our event co-sponsors:

LGBTQ+ Center at Wake Forest University, Program in African American Studies at Wake Forest University, Wake Forest University Office of Wellbeing, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Women’s Center at Wake Forest University

Snacks at 3:30PM, presenation begins at 4:00PM!

Thursday-Saturday, March 19-21| Location | Registration Link: WGS South 

Sponsored by: Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Women Gender Sexuality South (WGSS) is an annual conference that is  a vital space for feminist scholarship, activism, community-building, and collective struggle toward justice. As it looks to the next 50 years, WGS South remains committed to sustaining feminist futures, creating space for vision, resistance, and the long-term work of social change.

Find it hard to focus? Want to wrap up your week right? Join the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the Writing Center every Thursday for graduate student coworking hours! You bring whatever it is you need to get done, and we’ll bring the free coffee and bagels. Don't have time to stay? Stop by and grab some treats on your way. See you there!

This exhibition highlights the global significance of archery, focusing on its traditional uses across cultures. From hunting tools and weapons of war to ceremonial objects and artistic works, the bow and arrow occupy many roles in cultures around the world. The objects on display reveal how materials, environments, and values have shaped distinct archery traditions that continue to be a part of cultural identities today. Through these artifacts, the exhibition highlights the enduring legacy and diversity of this ancient technology. Admission is free.

Many objects in museum collections around the world were taken unethically from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. Though some objects have been returned in order to address colonial histories and honor cultural practices today, neither museums nor indigenous communities are able to repatriate everything--nor do they want to. Featuring Aboriginal objects and highlighting the Lam Museum’s experience attempting repatriation but ultimately not enacting it, the exhibit raises important questions for the future of cross-cultural exhibits: Who has the right to hold, display, or interpret these objects? And how can museums protect cultural heritage when return isn't possible? Admission is free.

Rug weaving is one of the oldest and most well-known Tibetan arts. This exhibit draws from that ancient tradition to examine a selection of saddle rugs from the Nicholas Salgo Collection. Visitors will learn how the imagery, colors, and forms used in these rugs reflect Tibetan cultural values, religious beliefs, and socioeconomic status. Admission is free.

The Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention and Harm Reduction Coalition works toward reducing the harm caused by the misuse and/or abuse of substances in the Wake Forest community. 

For more information, contact Jonah Neville at nevillej@wfu.edu.

Get ready to turn up the heat and grab some pie! Join ADPi and Pi Kapp on Davis Field for our annual Pie a Pi fundraiser! For just $3 you can take a shot at pieing your favorite (or most feared) sister or brother in the face. All proceeds directly benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Piedmont Triad!