2nd Annual Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies Conference: Beyond Revolution or Behind it? The Politics and Practice of Contemporary Feminism Across Academic and Activist Communities
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Find below the current conference schedule. Posting will change as details are solidified. Stay tuned! Conference Dates: March 23-24, 2007 Conference location: MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge MIT Campus: campus map Conference is *Free* and registration is required To find out more about conference registration, contact gcws@mit.edu Friday, March 23Saturday, March 24
Friday, March 235:00 - 8:00 PM • Registration: Outside room 32-123, Stata Center 6:00 - 8:30 PM • Opening Remarks & Keynote Address:: Room 32-123, Stata Center Opening Remarks Keynote Conversation: Intergenerational Feminisms Presenters: There have been many pronouncements of the death of feminism, most notably a Time Magazine cover story in 1998 that provocatively inquired “Is feminism dead?” Many media sources have declared this era “post-feminism” and debate the apathy of youth and the relevance (or lack thereof) of feminism today. However, with women’s reproductive rights being threatened and an increasing wage gap between the genders, where is the collective outrage and action? The existence of a so-called third wave of feminism is often questioned due to a lack of women-focused collective action among young people. However, after interviewing many students` on campuses across America, Paul Loeb (1995) found that contemporary students juggle more causes than their 1960’s activist counterparts, and “more consciously address difficult fault lines of race, sex and class …” (p. 5). This dilution of activism across “causes” may be giving the illusion of an apathetic student body. This hypothesis complements a third wave feminist view of social justice and change that emphasizes the need to address dominance hierarchies across race, class, ability and sexual orientation, not simply gender. As Mocha Jean Herrup (1995) eloquently explains, in order “to fight AIDS we must fight homophobia, and to fight homophobia, we must fight racism, and so on. We face a choice between focusing our energies on one issue or acting with the knowledge that oppression is interrelated and pursuing a more broad-based, but perhaps more indirect, approach” (p. 247). This suggests that there continues to be a vital feminist movement despite appearances to the contrary. Given these shifts in meaning, what does it mean to be a feminist activist? How has the way we think about feminism changed between 1970 and today? What are the most pressing concerns facing feminist activists, scholars and health care providers today? What kinds of intergenerational collaborations might be possible? 8:15 - 9:15 PM • Closing music performance by Zili 32-123, Stata Center Join us for a music performance by Zili! The Friday evening panel will close with a concert by Zili, a a local women’s singing group that creates music which bridges cultures, generations, and continents. With captivating sounds that evoke the African continent, zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through diasporic rhythm and song. Powerful Haitian, Brazilian and West African rhythms infuse zili's original creations and traditional folksongs, while zili inspires its audiences to dance and even teaches them how. Reconnecting Haitian mizik rasin, jazz, roots reggae, samba, Cuban son, and neo soul, zili honors its influences while creating a sound that is uniquely its own. All female, zili takes its name from Haitian spiritual entity, Ezili, who is envisaged as mother, lover, and warrior. Zili's songs are sensual, political, self-reflective, positive, and invoke love. Zili's lyrics glide seamlessly from English to Kreyòl to Portuguese to Spanish, spinning tales and visions of lives lived and yet to be. Saturday, March 248:30 - 9:00 AM • Registration and Continental Breakfast: 32-123, Stata Center 9:00 - 11:30 AM • Welcome and Keynote Panel: 32-123, Stata Center WELCOME: Wendy Luttrell, GCWS co-chair and Associate Professor, Human Development and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education Keynote Conversation:Negotiating Citizenship: Active Strategies for Survival and Change Presenters: Nancy Naples, Professor of Women’s Studies and Sociology, University of Connecticut Scherazade Daruvalla King, Founder and Director, Project Think Different Lisa Dodson, Professor of Sociology, Boston College Moderator: Wendy Luttrell, Nancy Pforzheimer Aronson Associate Professor in Human Development and Education These panelists recognize the agency of all citizens and their ability to negotiate and subvert the unequal social world. Working within, between, and outside of academia, their work enables empowerment among populations that often struggle to survive and be heard. The panelists will speak about their efforts and the efforts of others to begin a revolution for equality that spans communities and disciplines. 11:30 - 1:00 PM • Workshops & Mentorship Sessions Session A Locations Vary Session A: COLLABORATING ACROSS GRASSROOTS AND ACADEMIC SPACES: Challenges and Reflections Session B: RESEARCH & ACTIVISM FOR CHANGE: Students work toward improving their high school This session has two objectives: 1) to show a replicable school-based model that engages urban secondary school students in powerful research projects that can both help students see themselves as change agents and be a catalyst for school improvement and 2) to provide participants with materials from critical research projects including research tools, end products, and strategies for creating similar opportunities in their home schools and communities. Session C: Activism in Education & "The Empowerment Period" Abstract TBA 1:00 - 2:00 PM • LUNCH WORKSHOPS Workshop 1: BIODRAG Biodrag in the vernacular, is a term used to designate people performing the gender of their assigned, "biological" sex. The Biodrag performance art project is a lived experiment in personal gender boundary transgression. Rather than donning exaggerated costumes, we dress in our own clothing, recombining pieces to create an alternate gender reality. We create gender expressions that are close to our daily experience; genders that we feel we should live up to but do not, genders that we could have been; genders that make us uncomfortable; and/or genders that we actively try not to be in "real" life. We use society in general as a stage and most people have no idea that we are conducting a performance. The seemingly subtle changes we make open a surprisingly intense psychological space in which we begin to reevaluate our personal gender expressions and ultimately our sense of who we are. Workshop participants will design their own Biodrag research project and discuss the ways in which they perform gender in their daily lives. Participants can then submit their research findings on www.Biodrag.net. The website operates as a virtual research database and clearinghouse for gender critique and consciousness raising.
Workshop 2: PUBLIC POLICY AND PERSONAL POLITICS This workshop seeks to illuminate the overlapping goals of public policy initiatives, academic research and the personal political influences on both of these. Discussants will focus specifically on the issue of cosmetic and body care products and both the health issues and policy questions that surround them. Specifically, the discussants will raise questions about the health and safety of cosmetics products and the cosmetics industry and the policy implications raised by such issues. An academic student of environmental sociology will discuss the capitalist and political aims in relation to existing industry structures and issues. An activist will consider the manner in which groups organize around this issue and how individuals are involved at the grassroots level. Two policy organizers will discuss the legislative aspects in relation to cosmetic and body care products and will specifically address the ways in which the Massachusetts state legislature is handling this issue. Ultimately, the goal of this workshop is to reveal and discuss the multiple and overlapping layers of groups and organizations actively working to make the consumption of these goods safer. Workshop 3: FEMINIST RESEARCH PRACTICE AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PRACTICE FEMINIST RESEARCH? This is an interactive workshop for researchers who would like to learn more about feminist interviewing. We will practice some basic listening and reflexivity skills and will get in touch with our researcher standpoint. We discuss how to interview across differences in power and authority and will examine some basic issues of representation of our research findings from a feminist perspective. 2:00 - 3:30 PM • Concurrent Student Panel Presentations: Room 32-124: PERFORMING AMONG ONE’S ‘PEERS’: IDENTITY, INEQUALITY, AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Moderator: Sandy Alexandre, Assistant Professor of Literature and Women’s Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room 32-144: INSIDE OUT: PRISON, WOMEN, AND PERFORMANCE
Room 32-155: TROUBLING TERMINOLOGY: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN POLICY, SOCIETY, AND THE LAW
Moderator: Dona Yarbrough, Ph.D., Director, LGBT Center & Lecturer in the Women’s Studies program, Tufts University
3:30 - 5:00 PM • Concurrent Student Panel Presentations: Room 32-124: THE PERSONAL IS THE PEDAGOGICAL: THE CLASSROOM AS A SPACE FOR REVOLUTION
Room 32-144: PROMISES, POSITIONS, AND PITFALLS: REFLECTIONS ON ACTIVISM AND INEQUALITY
Moderator: Shahla Haeri, Director of the Women’s Studies Program and Assistant Professor of cultural Anthropology at Boston University Room 32-155: REPRESENTATIONS: LOOKING AT IMAGINED BODIES AND IDENTITIES
Moderator: Robin Bernstein, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of History and Literature at Harvard University 5:00 - 6:30 PM • Workshops & Mentorship Sessions Session B Locations Vary 32-124: HEALTH ACTIVISM AND THE BODY
Discussion Abstract TBA Room 32-155: COMBINING FEMINISM IN ACADEMIA AND SOCIAL ACTION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH AND ACADEMIA ITSELF Discussion Facilitator: We will discuss some of the experiences that I have had over two decades of conducting research, doing clinical work, writing and speaking in the service of public education, and social action about problems in the mental health system and the fifteen years I have spent doing research, writing and speaking, and social action related to problems in academia. This work has been done both in the U.S. and Canada. This presentation will be followed with an open discussion about what it means to carry on an activist practice while working within the academic system. Participants are encouraged to bring research or practice questions to the table for discussion. 6:30 - 8:00 PM • Closing Remarks Networking Reception: R&D Dining Room, Stata Center: Refreshments provided For more information about the conference or to register, contact Andi Sutton, GCWS Program Coordinator at: Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies |
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