Seneca Falls Dialogues

Seneca Falls Dialogues is committed to promoting growth, development, and non-violent activism.

The Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues is a kind of conference that, rather than featuring presentations of papers, invites presenters to lead structured dialogues aimed at fostering collaboration and insightful conversation among students, faculty, and activists.

The SFD takes place once every two years in historic Seneca Falls, New York, as an effort to reinvigorate Seneca Falls as a site of feminist activism and intellectual exchange.

The Dialogues are a collaborative effort sponsored by the Women’s Institute for Learning and Leadership (WILL) to reinvigorate Seneca Falls as a site of feminist activism and intellectual exchange.

The other organizations that contribute to the Dialogues are the College Alliance (Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Monroe Community College, The College at Brockport: State University of New York, St. John Fisher College, the University of Rochester), Friends of the Women’s Rights National Park, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the Town of Seneca Falls, and the Greater Rochester Area Branch of American Association of University Women.

The Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues (SFD), in keeping with the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments and 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, seeks to present, preserve, and promote ongoing research and discussions of the day in order to realize and sustain equal rights for women.

This collaborative effort upholds a time-honored upstate New York legacy where those who champion women’s rights find voice.

The Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues Goals

To achieve the mission of the Seneca Falls Dialogues, the collaborative planning committee affirmed their goals as follows:

BUILDING A COMMUNITY
– Build and maintain awareness of the complexity of the Seneca Falls legacy in part by seeking diverse and intersectional collaboration at all levels.

– Build and maintain a network of college and university programs and departments to research and discuss historical and contemporary feminist issues.

– Build and maintain a network of community members, artists, entrepreneurs, students, educators, and activists to research and discuss historical to contemporary feminist issues.

MAINTAINING THE DIALOGUES
– Establish an ongoing planning group from the above networks to coordinate the Seneca Falls Dialogues biennial event.

– Encourage new, emerging, and established voices to attend and participate in the event.

– Highlight the work of individuals, groups, and historic sites rooted in the ongoing legacy of Seneca Falls.

STEWARDING THE HISTORY
Build and maintain a record of work presented at the Biennial Dialogues and house it both digitally and in Seneca Falls.

The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal: Beyond the Event

The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal is a new, multidisciplinary, peer reviewed, online journal that grows out of the Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues.

The goal of The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal is to extend the dialogues beyond the conference weekend and to invite more voices into the conversation. We recognize the importance of creatively engaging diverse tools for feminist activism, particularly those that support dialogues across difference.

Our hope for this publication is to build a collaborative, open-access forum for students, faculty, and the community on topics relating to the themes of the Seneca Falls Dialogues.

Building on the important work of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention, The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal publishes insights from the grassroots coming together of activists, artists, students, and academics, with the intention of fostering collaborative learning and intersectional feminist action.

Submissions will contribute to the Dialogues’ commitment to promote leadership development, human rights activism, and equity for all individuals. Envisioned by Women’s and Gender Studies scholars, the journal seeks to honor the work of those who came before us as we build an accessible and inclusive publication in the continued pursuit of equality.