Barnard's "The Scholar and the Feminist" conferences, which began in 1974 under Jane Gould's direction, reveal important directions in the evolution of feminist scholarship. The first year's conference, "The Scholar and the Feminist," explored whether feminism and scholarship could be integrated; participants spoke autobiographically about the impact of feminism on their lives and work as scholars and activists. At the second conference, in 1975, "Toward New Criteria of Relevance," which was held as women's studies was making inroads into the academy, the focus was on how feminist perspectives change both the subject matter and methodology of traditional disciplines. In 1976 the subject was the origin of women's oppression, a critical question that has generated important theoretical work and still informs feminist debates. As the feminist critique of the academy escalated, the 1977 conference discussed values—those embedded in traditional academic practices and those embodied in feminist scholarship. In 1978 the subject was feminist creative work. The 1980 conference was, predictably, called "Class, Race, and Sex: Exploring Contradictions, Affirming Connections."

Along with black women's studies, scholarship by and about other women of color has generated oppositional discourses that challenge the ethnocentrism of mainstream women's studies. Numerous publications have emerged that acknowledge differences among women, including sexual orientation; analyze gender constructions cross-culturally; explore the intersection of race, class, and gender in the lives of women; and avoid the mistakes, omissions, distortions, and in some cases paradigms of earlier feminist scholarship. These works help to open up the women's studies canon and to redefine the field. They include important anthologies by lesbian and straight women of color that incorporate the work of writers and scholars doing cutting-edge research; primary research and theoretical analyses by and about American Indians, such as the work of Paula Gunn Allen, Rayna Green, Shirley Hill Witt, Bea Medicine, Beverly Hungry Wolf, Linda Hogan, and other third-world women; and monographs and ethnographies of women globally.

Within Native American studies, a number of texts chronicle, from their authors' own perspectives, what it means to be Indian and female. Native American women discuss empowerment within the context of a concern for Indian survival, tribal sovereignty, and self-determination. They emphasize their struggles against prejudice, racism, and poverty; their reverence for the land and their anger over its exploitation; and the ways in which their traditional cultures sustain them.

Asian Pacific American women scholars such as Lucie Cheng, Vivian Ng, Valerie Matsumoto, Judy Yung, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, and Sucheng Chan debunk stereotypes of themselves as submis-