New Lecture Series from WCU's Women’s and Gender Studies DEPT. Features Prominent Speakers on Gender and Equality
The West Chester University Women’s and Gender Studies Department, in a new initiative
called the Women's and Gender Studies Collection, invites renowned feminist scholar-activists
Sara
Ahmed and Loretta Ross to present their views on gender and equality. Both events
are FREE and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.
Ahmed will discuss “Travelling with Feminist Killjoys” in a virtual conversation on Wednesday, February 28, at 12 p.m. in Sykes Student Union Ballrooms, 110 West Rosedale Avenue. Registration found here: https://ramconnect.wcupa.edu/CWGE/rsvp_boot?id=2260070
Ross’s live talk titled “Reproductive Justice Now” will be presented on Monday, March 25, at 5 p.m. in Philips Autograph Library, 700 South High Street. Registration found here: https://ramconnect.wcupa.edu/CWGE/rsvp_boot?id=2260129
The new Women’s and Gender Studies Collective initiative focuses on providing free, accurate, and trustworthy materials on race, gender, and sexuality via an online, open educational resource collection.
Lisa Huebner, WCU professor of women’s and gender studies and director of this initiative, says, “I am truly honored to host these events with internationally renowned feminist scholar-activists for our campus and surrounding communities. Sara Ahmed and Loretta Ross are trailblazers in feminist and human rights work in ways that truly account for all oppressed people and help so many of us. That we bring them as part of the Women’s and Gender Studies Collection is a dream come true for me, and for so many of us.”
Both speaking events are sponsored by WCU's Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Center for Women & Gender Equity, and the Women's and Gender Studies Collection.
Sara Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of color. Her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. She will speak about her new book The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Seal Press, 2023), in which she argues that building a more equitable world requires people to get in the way of happiness – our own and those of others. The event will feature a virtual conversation with Ahmed and a live Q&A discussing the book. Her other books (all published by Duke University Press) include Complaint! (2021), What’s The Use? On the Uses of Use (2019), Living a Feminist Life (2017), and On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (2012), among others.
Loretta J. Ross, a feminist activist, intellectual, and associate professor at Smith
College, is a recipient of a 2022 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award. In 2023, she
was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was one of the first African
American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s, launching her career by
pioneering work on violence against women. This entry point into the women’s movement
led to work in support of women’s rights and reproductive justice, addressing white
supremacy, and organizing women of color. She helped launch the movement to end violence
against women that has evolved into today’s #MeToo movement. In 1996, Ross founded
the first center in the United States to innovate creative human rights education
for all students, transforming social justice issues to be more collaborative and
less divisive. In her book Calling In the Calling Out Culture, she transforms how people can overcome political differences to use empathy and
respect to guide difficult conversations. Her lecture and conversation will focus
on her landmark work in reproductive justice.
For more information on these events and the Women’s and Gender Studies Collection initiative, reach out to Lisa Huebner at Lhuebner@wcupa.edu.
Visit this link for more information on WCU’s Women’s and Gender Studies Department.