The papers in this section demonstrate several interesting points about disasters, and about academic interest in them, including a remarkable convergence of perspective about what is important: the extent and dimensions of peoples suffering as a result of disaster; the view that conventional approaches to thinking about disaster are insufficient; the realization that the idea of Anatural disaster misleadingly draws attention away from the pre-existing conditions that make people vulnerable to hazards in the first place. All agree, too, that at least two of the three of the big troika of inequalityCrace, class, and genderCare crucial. Notably absent at the conference from which these papers came was any deep discussion of gender; indeed, notably absent from the program were women. Their absence was not because of lack of effort on the part of the conference organizers to invite female scholars. Female scholars were invited, but could not attend. Their absence is evidence of a paucity of female scholars in the field.