Competing Kingdoms

Competing Kingdoms:
Women, Mission, Nation, and American Empire, 1812-1938
an international conference
at the
Rothermere American Institute
1A South Parks Road
University of Oxford
Oxford, OX1 3TG
United Kingdom

April 27-29, 2006

With the concept of "competing kingdoms" we wish to explore the ways in which women's missionary encounters reverberated across imperial, colonial, and national projects. We hope to highlight the activities of women missionaries within the emergence of an "American Empire" and offer a framework for exploring the ways in which women's different allegiances and identities--temporal and spiritual--shaped and were shaped by imperial missionary projects grounded in American history and influenced by other national entities.

Conference co-organizers:

Kathryn Kish Sklar, Distinguished Professor of History and Co-Director, Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender, State University of New York at Binghamton; Harmsworth Professor of American History, University of Oxford, 2005-2006

Rui Kohiyama, Professor of Area Studies, Tokyo Woman's Christian University;

Barbara Reeves-Ellington, Assistant Professor, Siena College, Loudonville, New York

Connie Shemo, Assistant Professor, State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

This conference is sponsored by the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, U.K., the State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S.A., the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, USA, the Huntington Library, California, USA., the American Studies Foundation in Japan, and the Institute for Women's Studies at Tokyo Woman's Christian University, Japan.