Introduction

During the planning, writing, and editing of this volume, gender has become a primary focus of public discussion around the world. At the time of writing, we are in the middle of a dynamic global reconsideration of gender and its relation to many different aspects of culture: public and private, global and domestic, and popular and “high” culture. Though these debates have manifested in new and intensified forms, they reflect long-standing contestations over the cultural politics of gender. The chapters to follow draw from decades of rigorous scholarship, embedded fieldwork, and the collective expertise of the community that Barbara Molony’s chapter describes emerging in 1975. In this short introduction, we will briefly sketch some developing concerns in the field that, we believe, will shape the scholarship still to come.