King’s College and Wilkes University to Host Joint Conference on Balancing Career and Family

Free Public Event is Part of Annual Series Offered by the Institutions’ Women’s Studies Programs

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.—King’s College and Wilkes University today announced that this year’s Women's and Gender Studies Conference on April 14 and April 15, 2025 will focus on the theme “The Evolution of Family Roles and Balancing Work and Family Dynamics.”

Dr. Abby Palko, inaugural director of the Residential Commons Program at Colgate University, will deliver a keynote presentation entitled “Intensively Empty Nests: What Happens When Ideologies of Intensive Motherhood Grow Up and Go to College” at 7 p.m. in the Burke Auditorium on April 14.

Palko’s scholarship focuses on cultural and literary representations of motherhood, with a focus on how rhetoric shapes and influences parenting. She also serves as a board member for the International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship (IAMAS) and has taught courses in Irish literature, comparative literature, gender studies, and motherhood studies at every level from middle school through graduate school.

Event organizers are also seeking content from students, staff, faculty, and community members to be displayed during the second day of the conference on April 15 from 8 a.m. through 8 p.m. on the third floor of the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center.

Suggested topics include availability of adequate childcare, evolving family roles, parental leave, and effective ways to manage professional and familial demands, but gender-related subjects not connected to the conference theme are also encouraged. These public sessions can include research presentations, panel discussions, and video screenings, as well as poetry, dance, and other performance art.