This segment features discussion among panel members on issues such as the ways that the study of US women's history overall has been shaped by the conjunction of gender and race, and the worrisome state of African American female historians in the academy.

Historian Gerda Lerner asks panelists to discuss the network and collectivity of the people that they've worked with and how that has affected their career and lives. In response, Professor Hine indicates that the Association of Black Women Historians has provided an important source of support and encouragement for those in the field.

Lerner refers to historiographic data on the field from a survey of all articles, dissertations, and books reviewed and listed in the Journal of American History and published between 1998 and 2000. Results show that 14 percent of the content of the dissertations dealt with African American subject matter, and 13 percent dealt with race. In response, Professor White reaffirms that the internationalization of research is one of the most exciting things happening to black women's history. A large majority of the graduate students training at Rutgers are applying a theoretical framework that is much broader than has ever before existed. By reading and understanding about women of color in other cultures and other parts of world, they are bringing a new understanding of black women and black women's history to the American scene.

Professor Higginbotham comments on the concept of the black diaspora as a fascinating new way to explore women's history. She states that the migration of Caribbean people to the United States, in terms of processes of assimilation, networks—both in the old country and in the United States—family ties, and national allegiance are providing some of the most interesting new topics for further research. Professor Painter concludes by commenting that young scholars' current work includes exciting research on families and on marriage and the dynamics within both.