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Events Calendar
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Current Month
2/3/2012
4:00pm |
The Women in Math Club presents, "Why Are Manholes Round?"
:: Tanya Khovanova, MIT and math blogger
1360 East Hall |
Tanya Khovanova is a mathematician associated with MIT, but is probably most well-known for her fun and popular math blog. She writes about a large variety of accessible topics, including "Math as an Aphrodisiac," "Polite Gender Bias," "Why are We Losing Female Mathematicians," statistics, math education, and math humor. Following her talk on convex geometry, she will be discussing gender imbalance in math.
The event is free and open to the public.
|
2/6/2012
2:00pm |
The Emergence of Feminism in the Mizrahi Ashkenazi Discourse
:: Henriette Dahan-Kalev, Ben Gurion University
2015 Tisch Hall |
In this talk Dahan-Kalev provides a critical analysis of the emergence of Mizrahi feminist movement in Israel. Beginning with the immigration of liberal feminist activists in the 1970s, she moves through the development of feminist consciousness and its impact on Israeli politics and society, to the formation of a distinct Mizrahi feminist movement twenty years later. Within her new politico-historical context of “second order discourse,” she reconsiders concepts such as “sisterhood” and “solidarity,” “Arabness” and “color.”
The idea of women's liberation was imported to Israel in the 1970s. Liberal feminist activists immigrated to Israel following the 1967 war and presented to the Israeli women the western version of the women's lib. Torn in social ethnic conflicts between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim the women activist dragged the ethnic tension into the feminist field. Excluded and marginalized systematically over more than 20 years Mizrahi feminism finally rebelled in the mid-1990s and formed a distinct Mizrahi feminist agenda and movement. This talk outlines the historical, social, political and ideological background in which Mizrahi feminism developed. Slogans such as sisterhood and solidarity in their Israeli feminist version will be discussed and the dilemmas that arise from “tokenism” and the purportedly universalist feminist agenda. The Mizrahi feminist agenda and its ideological framework are critically reviewed as well.
Dr. Henriette Dahan Kalev is a political scientist, the founder and the first Director of the Gender Studies Program at the Ben Gurion University. During this academic year she is a visiting scholar at the Taub Center and The Kevorkian Center at New York University
|
2/10/2012
12:00 - 1:30pm |
Tales of the Evolution of Female Orgasm and Adaptationist and Sexist Biases in Research
:: Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science. Professor of Biology, Indiana University
2239 Lane Hall |
| The evolution of human female orgasm remains an open question in biological research. Twenty-one theories have been proposed, and all of these were examined in my 2005 book, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution. There I documented the adaptationist and androcentric (male-centered) biases in this research, and displayed the fact that an explanation which proposed that female orgasm was a developmental byproduct of male orgasm, and thus not directly selected, was best supported by the available evidence. The book was instantly attacked by a number of feminists, both inside and outside the academy, as being sexist because of the byproduct explanation, which they said diminished women. I had noted in the book that this claim relied on a faulty supposition, namely, that all valuable human traits must be evolutionary adaptations. Clearly, we don’t believe this: reading, writing, playing the violin, working a computer, are all clearly valued in our culture, and they are all byproducts of evolution, not evolutionary adaptations. Nevertheless, my views were considered biased against women, since they were perceived as peddling a damaging and stereotypical account of women’s sexuality. In the talk, I will review the most recent theories and evidence concerning female orgasm, and shall discuss the male bias and adaptationism in the available explanations. I will also respond to the feminist critiques of my work and the byproduct view itself, demonstrating that the deepest feminist critiques are themselves unfortunately adaptationist, and therefore unpersuasive. |
2/16/2012
- 2/18/12
|
The Congress on Research in Dance 2012 Special Topics Conference: Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance
|
UM will host a 3-day conference that addresses the question: What is queer dance? Through a series of presentations, panel discussions, workshops and performances, this conference seeks to bring together queer studies and dance studies to consider the questions, methods, practices, and politics that preoccupy both fields. Given the multiple, contested, and historically contingent meanings of the word “queer,” the term seems useful for opening an inquiry about dance, just as dance’s emphasis on embodiment has much to contribute to queer studies.
If dance is a way to think through social relationships, what images, bodily techniques, and spectatorial and embodied pleasures might dance offer to queer communities, scholars, and artists? How have lesbian, gay, and transgender histories intersected with dance in the theatre, on the club floor, and in the streets? When- and - how do “queer” and “dance” signal (or obscure) other vectors of identity, such as race, class, gender, ability, and others? The meanings of “queer” have shifted and proliferated over time; competing and overlapping ideas about queer pleasure, desire, and politics may all manifest themselves within dance. Queer dance might be defined by an artist’s identity or preoccupations; by a work’s critique of normative values; or by a spectator’s or performer’s queer pleasures and desires. Queer spaces, or those haunted by a queer past, might also prompt a consideration of how dance engages history, representation, and community. Dance and sexuality can also be thought through together as social, physical, and historically situated practices that are (often at once) liberatory, risky, entertaining, and always in process, often inviting inquiries about affect and public feelings.
All events are free and open to the public.
Conference website: http://www.cordance.org/2012SpecialConference
|
Complete Calendar
September |
9/16/2011
8:30am - 5:30pm
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Teach-In on Sexual Assault: Tools for Safety, Knowledge for Change
Michigan League, Michigan Room
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Come for as much as you can—one workshop or all
8:30 Welcome, sponsors
Safety Update, Greg O’Dell, UM Department of Public Safety
8:45-10:15 What Works, What Doesn’t, & Why: Practical Suggestions to Help Protect Yourself & Others, Ryan Kubec, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC)
10:15-11:00 Sexual Violence and Race: A Historical Perspective, Hannah Rosen, Institute for Research on Women and Gender
11:00-11:45 The Undetected Rapist, video by David Lisak, University of Massachusetts-Boston
Small group discussion, Liz Cole, Psychology and Women’s Studies, and others
11:45-12:30 The Gift of Fear: Understanding the Role of Intuition in Self-Defense, Kellie Carbone, University Health Service
12:30-1:30 Cyber-Stalking, Snooping, and Expecting Sexting: Use of Digital Media as Tools for Partner Abuse, Lauren Reed, Social Work and Social Science and Rich Tolman, Social Work
1:30-2:30 It’s Not Just About Hitting: Identifying and Understanding Abusive Relationships
David Garvin, Alternatives to Domestic Aggression of Catholic Social Services
2:30-4:00 “Relationship Remix,” SAPAC and SexperTeam Peer Educators
4:00-5:30 Let’s Get Organized for Change!
Sam Montgomery, Psychology and Women’s Studies, Graduate Employees Organization and Jane Hassinger, Women’s Studies and Institute for Research on Women and Gender
Join experienced student, staff, faculty and community organizers in discussing how we can come together to reduce sexual violence.
Find us on Facebook at UM Abuse Hurts.
For more information, go to www.cew.umich.edu or www.umich.edu/~sapac.
Sponsors: Center for the Education of Women, Sexual assault Prevention and Awareness Center, Abuse Hurts, Women’s Studies Department, and Graduate Employees Organization
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9/26/2011
11:30am - 1:00pm
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Agnes Goes to Prison: Transgender Inmates, "Clocking", and the Olympics of Gender Authority
:: Sarah Fenstermaker, Sociology and Feminist Studies, UC Santa Barbara
2239 Lane Hall
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This talk draws on a larger project focused on transgender inmates in California Men’s prisons. It examines the ways in which transgender inmates navigate a prison world in which they assert their femininity with very specific motivations and consequences. The dynamics of their seeking affirmation of “natural” womanly qualities in an environment where “everyone knows” is explored for its relevance to gender theory.
Professor Fenstermaker is Director of the Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. |
9/28/2011
5:00pm
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Multiple Impressions: Contemporary Chinese Woodblock Prints
Artist Conversation and Dialogue with Chen Limin
:: Chen Limin, Printmaker and Painter
University of Michigan Museum of Art
Multipurpose Room
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Chen Limin—one of the youngest artists in the current exhibition of Chinese contemporary woodblock prints and one of two women printmakers represented—will talk about her work as a painter and printmaker, as well as the challenges and opportunities for women pursuing careers as artists in China today. This informal program will also offer the opportunity for facilitated conversation between the artist and the audience. Participants are invited to attend a reception with Chen Limin immediately following this program.
Born in Hangzhou, China, Chen Limin was educated in China and France, where she now resides. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in China and Europe. Multiple Impressions: Chinese Contemporary Woodblock Prints is her first US exhibition. |
October |
10/5/2011
4:30 - 6:30pm
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Public reception for the Lane Hall Exhibit, A Woman's Place is in the Struggle: Gender, Race, and Nation, 1975-1995
Lane Hall Exhibit Space
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The is exhibit showcases posters from Paquetta Anne Palmer’s US and global feminisms collection and Maria Cotera’s Chicana por Mi Raza: Mapping Chicana Feminist Thought in the Radical Civil Rights Era digital collection project
The posters showcased in this exhibit represent the ways women of color and their allies formed their own groups and rallied together to bring their voices into the US and global feminist movements from 1975-1995. These posters demonstrate how women like Ann Arbor-based Paquetta Anne Palmer joined forces with other women all over the world and connected in ways never before seen. From the gathering of 15,000 women at the 1985 UN Conference on Women in Nairobi to discuss strategies for enhancing the lives of women globally, to the devotion of women's time and energy to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa in 1994, or the broad-based Latino Women’s Conference in Michigan in 1975, these posters provide a unique glimpse into the heart of a rich history of women of color activism.
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10/13/2011
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CANCELED
Vivian R. Shaw Lecture
Title IX: 39 Years of Protecting Gender Equality
:: Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
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10/20/2011
5:30 - 7:00pm
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Mistinguette Smith, Black/Land Project
:: Preview of Smith’s documentary short, Black/Land: Women’s Voices followed by a workshop
Ford School of Public Policy, Betty Ford classroom
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| for more information, and to register, please see:http://www.cew.umich.edu/about/news/20110923/2660 |
November |
11/3/2011
12 noon - 1:00pm
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PS&C Brown Bag Series, “Latino/a Depression and Smoking: An Analysis Through the Lenses of Culture, Gender, and Ethnicity”
:: Elma Lorenzo-Blanco, Doctoral Candidate, Psychology and Women's Studies
3048 East Hall
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11/4/2011
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
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International Institute Symposium on New Media/ Social Change: Implications for Area Studies
1636 School of Social Work Bldg.
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The New Media/Social Change symposium questions the impact “new media” (social, network, digital) have had on cultural and political formations and practices and how this impact relates to area studies
Opening Comments - 8:30 a.m.
Panel 1 - 9:00 a.m.
James Der Derian, Professor, Brown University
Adrift in Berlin: Global Media, Quantum Leaps, and the Re-territorialization of Area Studies
Panel 2 - 10:10 a.m.
E. Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
From Digital Direct Action to Leaking: How to Understand the Politics of Anonymous
Panel 3 - 11:20 a.m.
Victoria Bernal, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine
From 'The Social Network' to 'The Facebook Revolution': Reflections On Culture and New Media
Panel 4 - 2:00 p.m.
Joe Straubhaar, Amon G. Carter Centennial Professor of Communication, University of Texas at Austin
Title TBA
Panel 5 - 3:10 p.m.
Annabelle Sreberny, Professor, Centre for Media and Film Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
New Media and the 'Middle East': Thinking Allowed
Closing Discussion - 4:30 p.m.
U-M RESPONDENTS
Kelly Askew, Director, African Studies Center; Associate Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican/African Studies
Ruth Behar, Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies
Juan Cole, Director, Center for South Asian Studies; Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History
Mary Gallagher, Director, Center for Chinese Studies; Associate Professor of Political Science
Shazia Iftkhar, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Nojin Kwak, Director, Nam Center for Korean Studies; Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Malcolm McCullough, Associate Professor of Architecture
Aswin Punathambekar, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Paddy Scannell, Professor of Communication Studies
Atef Said, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology
for further information, please see www.ii.umich.edu/events/newmediasymposium |
11/7/2011
7:00pm
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DAAS Women's film series, Beloved
:: Respondent, Martha Jones, Assoc. Prof. of History and AAS.
5511 Haven Hall
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11/17/2011
2:00 pm
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Feminism, Human Rights, and War: The Case of Lebanon, 2006 to the Arab Spring
:: Nadine Naber, 2011 CIC Human Rights Fellow, Assoc. Prof. of American Culture and Women's Studies
Michigan League, Kalamazoo Room
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| Fall 2011 CICS Human Rights Fellow Lecture |
December |
12/1/2011
6:00pm
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"Between the Lines of Michigan Senate Bill 13: A Discussion on the Implications of a Personhood Amendment"
Michigan League, Room 4
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12/1/2011
12 noon - 1:00pm
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Attached to Monogamy?: Attachment Styles and Openness to Consensual Non-monogamous Relationships
:: Amy Moors, Ph.D. student in Psychology and Women's Studies
3048 East Hall
|
| Women's Studies and Psychology brown bag series |
January |
1/4/2012
11:30am - 1:00pm
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Critical Sexuality Methods: Feminist Perspectives on Knowledge Production & Health
:: Sara McClelland, Ph.D. Post-Doctoral Scholar, Michigan Society of Fellows
2239 Lane Hall
|
| Given that inadequate measurement of sexual health in research, medical, and educational settings can have profound ramifications, I propose a set of critical sexuality research methods. These aim to both use empirical strategies to collect data on people’s lives and to critically evaluate the process of knowledge production. Through an examination of three central concepts – sexual desire, sexual satisfaction, and sexual quality of life – I present a series of theoretical and methodological innovations which attend to social and political marginalization related to gender, age, illness, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity in shaping individuals’ expectations for and experiences of sexual health. I highlight two on-going research projects, concerning (1) sexual quality of life in women who have been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, and (2) definitions of sexual satisfaction in heterosexual and LGBT young adults. Both studies engage the development of critical feminist methods to capture aspects of deservingness and expectations for sexual well-being. |
1/10/2012
11:30am - 1:00 pm
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The Vulva Dialogues: Anthropology, Medicine, and the Female Genital Body
:: Christine Labuski, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, The University of Arkansas
2239 Lane Hall
|
Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a vulvar pain clinic, this talk examines how symptomatic women negotiate a cultural landscape through which frank discussions about female genitalia are often silenced. Dr. Labuski argues that these routine erasures limit many women’s ability to include their vulvas into their body image. These ‘missing vulvas’ provide the basis for an investigation into how culture informs and shapes our bodies and physiology.
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1/26/2012
5:00 pm
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Revisioning the Life of Coretta Scott King
:: Beverly Guy-Sheftall, founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of English, Spelman College
Michigan Union Pond Room
|
Professor Guy-Sheftall’s lecture will focus on Coretta Scott King's vision of "the beloved community" which Martin Luther King Jr. articulated so eloquently as a civil rights icon. Repositioning Coretta Scott King, mostly known as Dr. King's widow, as a warrior for social justice, this talk will provide a fuller portrait of her extraordinary and largely invisible life, especially her political activism around a broad range of social issues: peace, racism, gay and lesbian rights, sexism, and militarism. |
February |
2/3/2012
4:00pm
|
The Women in Math Club presents, "Why Are Manholes Round?"
:: Tanya Khovanova, MIT and math blogger
1360 East Hall
|
Tanya Khovanova is a mathematician associated with MIT, but is probably most well-known for her fun and popular math blog. She writes about a large variety of accessible topics, including "Math as an Aphrodisiac," "Polite Gender Bias," "Why are We Losing Female Mathematicians," statistics, math education, and math humor. Following her talk on convex geometry, she will be discussing gender imbalance in math.
The event is free and open to the public.
|
2/6/2012
2:00pm
|
The Emergence of Feminism in the Mizrahi Ashkenazi Discourse
:: Henriette Dahan-Kalev, Ben Gurion University
2015 Tisch Hall
|
In this talk Dahan-Kalev provides a critical analysis of the emergence of Mizrahi feminist movement in Israel. Beginning with the immigration of liberal feminist activists in the 1970s, she moves through the development of feminist consciousness and its impact on Israeli politics and society, to the formation of a distinct Mizrahi feminist movement twenty years later. Within her new politico-historical context of “second order discourse,” she reconsiders concepts such as “sisterhood” and “solidarity,” “Arabness” and “color.”
The idea of women's liberation was imported to Israel in the 1970s. Liberal feminist activists immigrated to Israel following the 1967 war and presented to the Israeli women the western version of the women's lib. Torn in social ethnic conflicts between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim the women activist dragged the ethnic tension into the feminist field. Excluded and marginalized systematically over more than 20 years Mizrahi feminism finally rebelled in the mid-1990s and formed a distinct Mizrahi feminist agenda and movement. This talk outlines the historical, social, political and ideological background in which Mizrahi feminism developed. Slogans such as sisterhood and solidarity in their Israeli feminist version will be discussed and the dilemmas that arise from “tokenism” and the purportedly universalist feminist agenda. The Mizrahi feminist agenda and its ideological framework are critically reviewed as well.
Dr. Henriette Dahan Kalev is a political scientist, the founder and the first Director of the Gender Studies Program at the Ben Gurion University. During this academic year she is a visiting scholar at the Taub Center and The Kevorkian Center at New York University
|
2/10/2012
12:00 - 1:30pm
|
Tales of the Evolution of Female Orgasm and Adaptationist and Sexist Biases in Research
:: Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science. Professor of Biology, Indiana University
2239 Lane Hall
|
| The evolution of human female orgasm remains an open question in biological research. Twenty-one theories have been proposed, and all of these were examined in my 2005 book, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution. There I documented the adaptationist and androcentric (male-centered) biases in this research, and displayed the fact that an explanation which proposed that female orgasm was a developmental byproduct of male orgasm, and thus not directly selected, was best supported by the available evidence. The book was instantly attacked by a number of feminists, both inside and outside the academy, as being sexist because of the byproduct explanation, which they said diminished women. I had noted in the book that this claim relied on a faulty supposition, namely, that all valuable human traits must be evolutionary adaptations. Clearly, we don’t believe this: reading, writing, playing the violin, working a computer, are all clearly valued in our culture, and they are all byproducts of evolution, not evolutionary adaptations. Nevertheless, my views were considered biased against women, since they were perceived as peddling a damaging and stereotypical account of women’s sexuality. In the talk, I will review the most recent theories and evidence concerning female orgasm, and shall discuss the male bias and adaptationism in the available explanations. I will also respond to the feminist critiques of my work and the byproduct view itself, demonstrating that the deepest feminist critiques are themselves unfortunately adaptationist, and therefore unpersuasive. |
2/16/2012 - 2/18/12
|
The Congress on Research in Dance 2012 Special Topics Conference: Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance
|
UM will host a 3-day conference that addresses the question: What is queer dance? Through a series of presentations, panel discussions, workshops and performances, this conference seeks to bring together queer studies and dance studies to consider the questions, methods, practices, and politics that preoccupy both fields. Given the multiple, contested, and historically contingent meanings of the word “queer,” the term seems useful for opening an inquiry about dance, just as dance’s emphasis on embodiment has much to contribute to queer studies.
If dance is a way to think through social relationships, what images, bodily techniques, and spectatorial and embodied pleasures might dance offer to queer communities, scholars, and artists? How have lesbian, gay, and transgender histories intersected with dance in the theatre, on the club floor, and in the streets? When- and - how do “queer” and “dance” signal (or obscure) other vectors of identity, such as race, class, gender, ability, and others? The meanings of “queer” have shifted and proliferated over time; competing and overlapping ideas about queer pleasure, desire, and politics may all manifest themselves within dance. Queer dance might be defined by an artist’s identity or preoccupations; by a work’s critique of normative values; or by a spectator’s or performer’s queer pleasures and desires. Queer spaces, or those haunted by a queer past, might also prompt a consideration of how dance engages history, representation, and community. Dance and sexuality can also be thought through together as social, physical, and historically situated practices that are (often at once) liberatory, risky, entertaining, and always in process, often inviting inquiries about affect and public feelings.
All events are free and open to the public.
Conference website: http://www.cordance.org/2012SpecialConference
|
March |
3/6/2012
7:00 pm film, 6pm Receptions
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The documentary film, Miss Representation
:: Presented with the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. Tickets: $15 members/$18 non-members/$12 Students
Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St.
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Miss Representation exposes how mainstream U.S. media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence. Produced and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the documentary film challenges the media's limited and often disparaging portrayals of women, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.
Miss Representation features provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics like Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Paul Haggis, and Gloria Steinem. Miss Representation presents startling facts and statistics that leave audiences shaken and armed with a new perspective. MissRepresentation first premiered in the documentary competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality--and not in her capacity as a leader. While American women have made strides in leadership over the past few decades, the U.S. still ranks 90th in the world for women in national legislatures. In the U.S., women hold only three percent of clout positions in mainstream media companies. Miss Representation is more than a film, it is also a nation-wide, multi-generational social action campaign that empowers women and girls to challenge limiting labels so that they can realize their full potential and transform our culture for the betterment of all.
For Tickets, please send a check payable to the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan to:
Suzanne Sukkar
Sukkar Legal
705 S. Main St., Suite 200
Plymouth, MI 48170
Questions? – sks@sukkarlegal.com - (734) 418-7330
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3/8/2012
7:30pm
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Can the Revolution Liberate Women, Too?
2012 Motorola Lecture on Gender and the Media
:: Bothaina Kamel, Egyptian TV news anchor, pro-democracy activist and presidential candidate
Stern Auditorium, UM Museum of Art
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Bothaina Kamel is a well-known television news anchor, long time pro-democracy activist, and the only female presidential candidate in Egypt. Since the late 1980s Kamel has addressed issues of women's rights, human rights, and corruption in her high profile position. She is deeply connected to the solidarity and human rights campaigns of peaceful protest and organizing in Egypt. Despite harassment and beatings by government and military authorities in the last decade, Kamel continues her brave work for human rights and real democracy.
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3/8/2012
4:00 pm
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A Tale of Two Sisters: Feminist Interventions in Borderlands History
:: Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez, University of Texas, Austin
4448 Angell Hall
|
| This presentation takes the lives of two Tucsonense Mexicana sisters Atanacia Santa Cruz de Hughes and Petra Santa Cruz Stevens as an important site for thinking about the practice of borderlands history. Specifically, the ways in which gender, sexuality and race played themselves out differently in each of their distinct but connected lives shows that we cannot take such categories for granted. Scholars know very little of Petra Santa Cruz Stevens in the historical record beyond the fact that she was the wife of a congressman. Her sister, Atanacia Santa Cruz de Hughes, is one of the most often cited Tucsonense Spanish Mexican women from the era of Territorial Arizona. In addition, Atanacia had 15 children; Petra had none. Atanacia was literally a productive/reproductive citizen, birthing children to populate the sparsely inhabited AT, while her sister was childless. This in part explains why Atanacia Santa Cruz de Hughes became the mouthpiece of Tucson history and thus a permanent fixture of borderlands history while Petra Santa Cruz remains at the historical periphery. Petra became further marginalized because of the odd and violent set of circumstances of her husband's botched double suicide in 1893 where he tried to kill her and then turned the gun on himself and died a few hours later. This paper takes seriously the role of of gendered, sexual and racialized shame in shaping subjectivities of women who once occupied the upper rungs of society before the arrival of the railroad and how their falls from grace was linked to the local economic ruin brought thereafter. |
3/14/2012
4:00 pm
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Women’s property rights abuses in Nyanza and Western Provinces, Kenya: An examination of this critical structural driver of HIV risks
:: Shari L. Dworkin, Ph.D., M.S., Associate Professor and Vice Chair, University of California at San Francisco
4448 East Hall
|
Despite the fact that statutory law protects women’s right to own land, this right is frequently violated. Access to and ownership of land may decrease women’s primary and secondary HIV transmission. In preparation for a structural intervention that integrates HIV prevention and property ownership, the current study sought to understand the mechanisms through which ownership and control of property may work to reduce women’s HIV risks. The current work draws on in-depth interview data collected from 50 individuals involved in the development and implementation of a community-led land and property rights program in rural Kenya. The program was designed to respond to property rights violations, prevent disinheritance and asset stripping, and reduce HIV risk among women. The study focuses on two rural districts in Nyanza and Western Provinces, where HIV prevalence is high (23.8-33%) and property rights violations are common. Results focus on the economic, cultural, and social mechanisms through which property rights violations exacerbate HIV and disrupt HIV care and treatment. In the conclusions, I focus on the steps that are needed to bolster the science base through structural HIV prevention strategies focused on women’s property rights and land ownership.
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3/20/2012
4:00 - 5:30pm
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Feminist Interventions in the Sciences and in Epistemology: Significant Parallels
:: Phyllis Rooney, Professor of Philosophy, Oakland University
2239 Lane Hall
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Important developments in feminist epistemology and philosophy of science have drawn inspiration from specific feminist interventions in the natural and social sciences. Feminist interventions in the sciences provide insights into the ways in which social and cultural values and locations can influence the development of scientific knowledge in its many forms, and feminist philosophers have used these insights to provided richer philosophical understandings of science and, in epistemology, of knowledge more generally. I argue that an additional significant parallel between feminist work in individual sciences and feminist work in epistemology merits special attention. We can examine epistemology in the Western philosophical tradition as a specific knowledge project (in this case, knowledge about knowledge) that has a particular historical trajectory, not unlike the way we can examine the development of physics, biochemistry, or sociology. Drawing on important parallels with feminist examinations of the sciences, I maintain that feminist work in epistemology provides a critical perspective that uniquely enhances our understanding of epistemology as a knowledge project that (i) is historically, culturally, and politically situated, that (ii) requires greater reflexivity on the part of epistemologists (than has traditionally been the case), that (iii) compels new thinking about what we might take to be the constitutive questions and concepts in the field (knowledge, understanding, or wisdom, for instance), and that (iv) renews our understanding of epistemic normativity, that is, of the importance of good or better knowledge, and of the ways in which we humans might become good or better knowers.
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April |
4/16/2012
1:00pm
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Women's Studies Undergraduate Honors Colloquium
:: Lindsay Acker, Rachel Fentin, Kaitlyn Filip, Anne Laverty, Kirsten Meeder, Lauren Rink, Alexandra Tourek
2239 Lane Hall
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