ABSTRACT
In opening this edited volume, the introduction provides readers with a map, first by cataloging the harms of the old system, providing an understanding of the old paradigm, identifying the wrongs of the past in order to prepare for a better future. The chapter outlines the performance and presence of women in difficult, extraordinary circumstances. It also offers a harsh cartography of the debilitating systems which constrain women. It argues, before one can examine women’s presence, one must examine women’s absence, and the loss that occurs in a world without women. The chapter then outlines how the scholars in this edited volume examine both the missed opportunities of the past and the potential for better futures to come. These scholars remind us that to argue for new possibilities is in and of itself an act of faith in a better, more hopeful future.
