April 2008 Archives

CLA-OIT and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese are pleased to invite you to a Brown Bag Presentation and Discussion with Dr. Steven L. Thorne entitled: Power genres and digital vernaculars: A pedagogy of language awareness and practical engagement

Location: 140 Nolte Center

Date & Time: Monday, May 5, 2008 12:00-1:30 (Feel free to bring your lunch!)

Professor Thorne will present (see abstract below) and then we will then open the floor for discussion, brainstorming, and idea sharing.

Abstract: This presentation describes a broad pedagogical research
program aimed at heightening language awareness among students and
revitalizing university-level course work in language-related fields
(English, foreign languages, rhetoric, and written expression across
a variety of disciplines), and more broadly, to language learning and
use across contexts and the lifespan. The discussion begins by
establishing the need for language and genre-focused activities that
attend to the shifting social practices and emerging literacies
associated with digital media. I will then describe a pedagogical
model called "bridging activities" that involves guided exploration
and analysis of student selected or created digital vernacular texts
originating in Web 2.0 and other technologies/practices (e.g.,
instant messaging and synchronous chat, blogs and wikis, remixing,
and multiplayer online gaming). The bridging activities approach is
designed to enhance educational engagement and relevance through the
incorporation of students' digital-vernacular expertise, experience,
and/or curiosity, coupled together with instructor guidance at the
level of semiotic form to explore interactional features, discourse-
level grammar, and genre. The ultimate goal is to foster critical
awareness of the anatomy and functional organization of a wide range
of communicative practices relating to both digital and analogue
textual conventions.

From 2008 to 2010 the SEPHIS programme will run a research project on "Sexualities and Modernities" sponsored by the FORD Foundation. The objective of this programme is to allow researchers to gain a deeper historical and comparative understanding of the complex interplay between cultural contexts and the politics of sex- and gender-based claims of identity. Dissemination to advocacy groups and into the public sphere is an essential part of this endeavor.

SEPHIS is making one fellowship available to candidates at the post-doctoral, PhD and MA level to research any area to do with the history of sexualities in North Africa, the Middle East and Central
Asia. Funding of up to $15 000 is available to the successful applicant who will have 18 months (until December 2009) to complete a substantial written research report as well as an academic article of around 10 000 words. The latter will be published as part of a collection of articles. In addition, the applicant will be expected to contribute to public activities outside the academic sphere. Contributions should be received by December 2009. The successful candidate will also be required to attend a week-long training workshop in September 2008, to be held at a venue in the South.

Hoon Song
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Monday, April 21st, 2008
400 Ford Hall
3:30 – 5:00 PM

Gender and sexuality have never been explicit operating categories in my work. This is true factually. But I also think that such a disclaimer is inherently masculine. According to Jacques Lacan’s ‘formulae of sexuation,’ the masculine claim to universality implies the existence of an exception, whereas that of the feminine does not. The said disclaimer aims to salvage its claim to universality by hastily volunteering a small concession to gender/sexuality as an exception – so that it can go about the business as usual. Alternatively, the feminine way to ‘disclaim’ will be to say that in fact my work has been about nothing but gender/sexuality. This gesture – just as Lacan’s famous hyperbole, ‘I speak nothing but the Truth’ – directly embodies the impossibility of any claim to universality. Femininity in that sense is the name for that which directly embodies, and bears witness to, the untenability of the very distinction feminine/masculine or particularity/universality. Put otherwise, femininity is the name on account of whose quiet presence masculinity cannot be what it is. I want to use this as a conceptual backdrop for my discussion of a case of conspiracy theory among a group of (ex-)miners in contemporary Pennsylvania. Calling such a conspiracy theory, or conspiracy theory generally for that matter, a ‘masculinist’ project is intuitively sound. Through this example, however, I want to bring such a widespread wisdom to crisis.

17th Women & Society Conference
October 24& 25, 2008
Marist College, Poughkeepsie New York

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Proposals and abstracts are being solicited for the 2008 Women & Society Conference. This feminist conference is interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary, covering all aspects of women & gender being studied in the academy. The conference mentors and models feminist inquiry/scholarship for undergraduate students so joint faculty/student papers and excellent student papers are also considered, undergraduates may attend at no cost.

Jessica Valenti, founder of Feministing.com and author of Full Frontal Feminism will be delivering the keynote address.

Please send your 250 word abstract with a brief bio. Papers, workshops, roundtables and panels are welcome, please include abstracts and bios for all participants, with one contact person. Please include all contact information--including home and e-mail addresses for summer correspondence to:
Women & Society Conference c/o JoAnne Myers
Fontaine 315 School of Liberal Arts
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Or submit on line:
www.marist.edu/liberalarts/womenstudies/conference.html

For more information e-mail: JA.MYERS@MARIST.EDU

Proposals must be postmarked no later than July 11, 2008

Equilibrium: Spoken Word at the Loft presents
ISHLE PARK and MAYDA DEL VALLE
with special guests Magdalena Kaluza and Christy Namee Eriksen
Saturday, April 26, 8 p.m.
At the Loft, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis
$5/$3 for students and Loft members

Ishle Park is a Korean American artist who is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. She has performed her unique blend of poetry & song across the United States, Cuba, New Zealand, Singapore, and Korea. Her first book, The Temperature of This Water, is the winner of three literary awards including the PEN America Beyond Margins Award for Outstanding Writers of Color. Ishle has opened for artists such as KRS-One, Ben Harper, De La Soul, and Saul Williams. The New York Times wrote, “Ms. Park has an angelic face and the soul of a rock star.� She is a regular on HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents: Def Poetry Jam and was a touring cast member of the Tony-Award winning production of Def Poetry Jam on Broadway.

Mayda del Valle became the first poet from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the youngest poet, and the first Latino person to win the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship in 2001. Mayda has been featured on 4 seasons of the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. She was an original cast member and writer for the critically acclaimed Tony award winning Broadway production of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, and was also part of the national tour of Def Poetry. She has also been featured in various publications including El Diario, Urban Latino, Mass Appeal Magazine, Latina Magazine, Trace, The Source and The New York Times. A native of Chicago’s South Side, she now resides in New York City.

In this Labor Education Service class taught by Deborah Rosenstein, LES staff, and Ricardo Levins-Morales, artist, learn how to use the rich cultural heritage of working people to strengthen organizing, community and political campaigns. This class will cover many aspects of creative organizing, but will have a special focus on visual arts, including cartoons and humor to break down fear and communicate your message.

This non-credit class is one session, Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the Humphrey Center on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. Cost is $50. To register, call 612-624-5020.

Click HERE for pdf of this flyer

“Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: the Making, Unmaking and Remaking of
Minnesota’s Labor Movement in the 20th and 21st Centuries�
From the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century working women
and men from Scandinavia, southern and eastern Europe, and the east coast of
the United States formed labor unions that struggled against some of the
world's most powerful corporations. They sought economic security,
acceptance as citizens, and social respect through these unions and their
participation in the political system. The economy that emerged in the 1980s
and 1990s tore apart their world, but also brought new immigrants from Latin
America, Asia, and Africa to the North Star State. These new immigrants are
now struggling to reshape their Minnesota universe, and their struggles change
the balance of power and the prospects for other Minnesotans. This lecture will
tell the story not only of what happened, but how to think about the future.

Featuring
Prof. Peter Rachleff
Macalester College Labor Historian
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
7:00 PM
Minnesota History Center
345 Kellogg Blvd West, Saint Paul, MN
Please join us for this FREE event. Reception to follow.

Made possible by the Minnesota Historical Society,
The Department of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, and
The Charles A. Lindbergh Memorial Fund through the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Foundation.

For more information call (651) 259-3000, 1-800-657-3773 or TTY (651) 282-6073

On any given night in Minnesota, there are 204-215 GLBT youth who are homeless.
(Wilder Research 2006)

One of the ways that the Twin Cities' community is addressing this problem is through the GLBT Host Home Program of
Avenues for Homeless Youth, which offers an exciting approach to providing homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth with safe homes. As volunteers of the program, adults open their homes and their hearts to young people who need and are looking for a healthy and nurturing connection. If you are interested in hearing more about this community-based program, please come to one of the following informational meetings:

Tuesday, April 22, 6-8pm
@ Midtown YWCA
2121 East Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55407
www.ywca-minneapolis.org

OR

Wednesday, April 23, 6-8pm
@ Family and Children’s Service
4123 East Lake Street
Minneapolis, MN 55406-2028
www.fcsmn.org

OR

Thursday, April 24, 6-8pm
@ Avenues for Homeless Youth
1708 Oak Park Ave. N.
Minneapolis, MN 55411
www.avenuesforyouth.org

Come learn about the history of the GLBT Host Home Program and about the application and screening process for potential volunteers. You will also have an opportunity to hear from hosts who shared their homes with youth. See you there!

Questions? Call Raquel (Rocki) at Avenues for Homeless Youth: 612-522-1690, ext. 110.

It’s All in You: Finding Home, Heart, Courage and Smarts
Voices Merging hosts a Self Development Conference through Spoken Word and Hip Hop

On April 11th and 12th, the University of Minnesota’s Voices Merging will host the 2nd Biennial Self Development Conference through Spoken Word in the U of MN’s Coffman Union.
Take advantage of this amazing opportunity for young artists!

Contact: Moira Pirsch - pirs0003@umn.edu - 608-772-2597

DETAILS after the jump

Registration Form HERE

Empowering Women through Literacy: Views from Experience
Edited by Mev Miller, Ed.D. and Kathleen King, Ed.D.

We invite practitioners working in adult basic/literacy education -- classroom teachers, educators, tutors, adimistrators, and researchers -- to make a proposal for what you’d like to contribute to a book of writings and artwork by adult basic education teachers/educators addressing women’s literacy issues.

Topics Explored: Barriers and Challenges to Discussing Women's Issues in Literacy Classes or Addressing Them in Programs;Experiences Empowering Women in Literacy; Contextual Approaches for Empowering Women in Literacy

Deadline for Proposals: May 30, 2008

For more details, please visit: http://www.litwomen.org/educators/newbook.html

Extended Application Deadline: Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Help create a new generation of writers. Become a Wings mentor today.

Attention Writers!! Wings is a program designed for avid young writers desiring more support and guidance than is provided in the traditional school setting, or even in the average creative writing class. Wings pairs you with a young writer (ages 9-19) for a mentorship that will run from May through August 2008

As a Wings mentor, you are expected to help young writers explore their worlds, imaginations, and writing skills through guided reading, writing, and conversation. Reading suggestions and writing exercises will be provided, but the best mentors teach what they know and love. Mentors are encouraged to bring their own writing and the writing of authors that they admire to the table. Mentors are paid a stipend of $300.

Download pdf with more info HERE

The Women’s Student Activist Collective Is Looking for part time staff member 10-20 hours a week!

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Women’s Student Activist Collective (WSAC) is looking for a part time staff member to work as a part time administrator and group facilitator.
The WSAC ‘s mission is to empower women and transgendered people on campus to effect positive change in society. Our group is run in a non-hierarchal manner and we make decisions together as a collective by consensus. WSAC have temporary “chairs� where responsibilities rotate between collective members, and in that way we still have a structure to work within.

The WSAC is looking for a person who’s passionate about the diversity of women’s issues as well as interrelated issues concerning social justice like race, class, GLBTA issues, the environment, reproductive rights, human rights and religion. As a staff member you mainly have an administrative responsibility where your workday will entail activities such as: keeping the WSAC office open during your office hours, sending out announcements on our list-serve, replying and following up requests through e-mails and/or phone calls, paying bills, preparing our annual Student Fee’s Proposal to obtain our annual funding etc.

You will sometimes also be part of planning events and projects and work as an advisor for the group. In short, you will work as the “hub� of the group.

A possible idea is to split the 20 hour a week position into two 10 hour a week positions, but this will be up to the applicants and the group to decide what would be most appropriate.

Compensation: $14/hour

WORK AND EDUCATION EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
At least 1 year of work experience and/or academic studies that relate to women’s issues

Please send any questions, your letter of interest as well as your resume to Mia Ljung at wsac@umn.edu before Friday April 18, 2008

We will schedule an informational meeting for applicants in the week of April 21- 25, so please let us know your preference on time and date that week.

Please join us in welcoming Margaret Randall TONIGHT at Amazon!
Margaret Randall is on tour here in Minnesota. Please don't miss your chance to get to hear her wonderful prose and poetry read by her personally in this intimate setting.

Monday, April 7, 7pm
Margaret Randall
Stones Witness: Reading and Signing
Margaret Randall is a writer, photographer,, and social activist. For a quarter century she lived in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua, where she raised four children, wrote, and participated in social change. Upon her return to the U.S. in 1984, the government ordered her deported because of opinions expressed in some of her more than 80 books.
In Stones Witness, published in 2007 by University of Arizona Press, Margaret Randall explores her connections to land and landscape, drawing from her own rich history to create a universal link between place time, and identity. A fluid and provocative collection of poetry, prose, and photographs, Stones Witness is in part an account of an extraordinary woman’s radically committed and inventive life.

Store Hours:
Mon-Fri 10-8 (later on event nights)
Sat 10-6
Sun 12-5

Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, Inc.
4755 Chicago Ave. S.
Minneapolis
612-81-9630
www.amazonbookstorecoop.com

Wednesday, April 9
Nancy Armstrong presents the Joseph Warren Beach Lecture in Literature

7:30 pm, Weisman Museum

Brown University professor Nancy Armstrong presents "Gender Must Be Defended," taking off from Foucault's lecture series title "Society Must Be Defended." Part of the University of Minnesota's Department of English spring 2008 series Impacts: Feminist Theory and British Literary Studies. Professor Armstrong is the author of DESIRE & DOMESTIC FICTION, HOW NOVELS THINK, and FICTION IN THE AGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Her fields of interest include 18th-and 19th-century British and American fiction, empire and sexuality, narrative theory, critical theory, and visual culture.

For more information: http://english.cla.umn.edu/alumni/impacts.html

The 50th Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association will be take place on November 13-16, 2008, in Minneapolis.

Call for Papers:

The Famous and Exotic in Literature and Film. There are well-known figures in literature and film that are considered exotic. What makes them exotic? What are the techniques for their representation? This session explores who and what is exotic, and the mechanisms for its representation in literature and film. Please send abstracts by April 24th to Ana Adams, Gustavus Adolphus College, aadams3@gustavus.edu

The Initiative on Health, Science, and Society, the Institute for Global Studies, and the Department of
Anthropology at the University of Minnesota present two events with

Professor Joseph Masco
University of Chicago,
Department of Anthropology

Lecture:
"Bad Weather: On Planetary Crisis"
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
4:00-5:30pm
445 Blegen Hall

Workshop
April 10, 2008
*Survival is Your Business*:
Engineering Ruins and Affect in Nuclear America"
11:00am-1:00pm
400 Ford Hall
Please RSVP to lind1101@umn.edu to receive a copy of the
precirculated paper for the workshop.
Box lunch provided

This is an exciting internship opportunity at the Weisman Art Museum for next academic year that may be of special interest to students in Women's Studies.

Students will be involved in a two-semester project that is focused on building their knowledge and skills of public engagement through art and museums. Their work will focus on the Weisman Art Museum's spring 2009 exhibition, "Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam."

During fall and spring semesters, students will meet once a week (Thursdays, 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Weisman). Fall semester will involve learning about public engagement and art museums and about the spring exhibition. Students will help to plan programs, outreach, and publicity for that project, and perhaps an iPod tour of the exhibition. In spring semester, students will implement their plans and assess their success.

I teach the class with collaboration from other Weisman staff and other speakers.

This year, we named this special internship "SCOPE" for "student class on public engagement." We've done much good, spirited work this year with programs around the Paul Shambroom exhibition. I'm looking forward to working with a a new SCOPE group next year.

Students should register for Museum Studies 5020, section 2, for two credits. They will need my permission and a number from me to register. They may contact Colleen Sheehy at sheeh001@umn.edu with questions or to get a registration number.

QUEER MOTIONS:
1st Biennial Twin Cities Conference on Global/Local Sexualities

SATURDAY,
April 5, 2008
8:45 a.m. - 5:45 p.m.
125 Nolte Center
Institute for Advanced Study
University of Minnesota

*See information below about reception at Pi Bar & Restaurant from
8-10pm

http://queermotions.umn.edu

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - no registration necessary.

Where are queer studies and queer politics going in the twenty-first century? This conference brings together scholars from around the world to address the complications, contradictions, and crossings that this question raises. QM08@MSP will focus on flows and movements across geographic borders, asking what is at stake in working through a transnational queer framework that blurs distinctions between nation and diaspora, indigenous and mobile, ocean and continent, Global South and Global North. At the same time, conversations will foreground slippages and motion across conceptual borders, considering multiple, culturally specific sexual formations that push distinctions between identities and praxes, pre- and post-modern genders, racialization and sexualization.

Featuring invited speakers:
Eithne Luibhéid, University of Arizona
Dan Taulapapa McMullin
Gloria Wekker, Utretcht University , The Netherlands
Hector Carrillo, San Francisco State University
Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune), Two Spirit Press Room


AFTER THE CONFERENCE - PLEASE JOIN US FOR:

QUEER MOTIONS @ PI
8-10pm, Saturday, April 5
Pi Bar & Restaurant (2532 25th Ave. S, Minneapolis)

All participants & attendees are invited - no RSVP necessary
Light refreshments and soft drinks provided
Cash bar
DJ: Elakshi

For information about the conference or reception, contact Ryan Cartwright:
queermotions@gmail.com

Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study

Co-sponsors at the University of Minnesota: American Indian Studies; American Studies; Anthropology; Asian American Studies; Chicano Studies; English; Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies; German, Scandinavian, and Dutch; History; GLBTA Programs Office; Immigration History Research Center; Queer Graduate and Professional Student Association; Arch, Biversity, Queer Women, Queer Men, Tranarchy, Out!Law

Cosponsors at Macalester College: Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; American Studies; Dept. of Multicultural Life; and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program

Press Conference and Panel Discussion
@ the University of MN Medical School
Monday, April 7th @ 11am

Presented by the Rainbow Health Initiative
Collaborating Agencies for this event include: University of Minnesota GLBTA Programs Office, Queer Student Cultural Center, GLBT Medical Student group at the University of MN, Minnesota Department of Health, and Outfront MN

What:
A press conference and panel discussion on LGBT health disparities;
Problems, Consequences, Contributing Factors, and Solutions

When:
Monday, April 7, 2008
Press Conference at 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Speakers: Minneapolis City Councilmember Gary Schiff, Dr. Simon Rosser, and Dr. Eric Meininger
Panel Discussion at 12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. (Lunch available!)
Speakers: Dr. Simon Rosser, Dr. Eric Meininger, Dr. Sam Willis, Dr.
Angela Kade Goepferd, Jim Stoltz, Leah Hebert, and respected community members. Council member Schiff will moderate the discussion.

Where:
Moos Tower at the University of MN

Press conference in front of Moos Tower (on Washington Ave. side)

Panel discussion Moos Tower 2-650

Why:

--In 2004, the MN Health Access Survey indicated that 22% of LGBT Minnesotans do not have health insurance, compared with 7.4 of the total state population.

-- Research has indicated that fear of discrimination and stigma cause many GLBT individuals to postpone or decline seeking medical care. Others, once in care, sometimes withhold from their providers personal information which may be critical to their well-being.

-- Eliminating barriers to care requires both an educated and empowered consumer base and a skilled, culturally competent, sensitive and welcoming provider community that is openly supportive of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families.

For more information on this event, contact ryan.li.dahlstrom@rainbowhealth.org or call the Rainbow Health Initiative at (877) 499-7744

For more information about National LGBT Health Awareness week, go to www.lgbthealth.net

Please join us in ?Rethinking the University? on April 11th - April 13th,
2008.

http://www.makeumnpublic.org/conference.htm

This conference has been collectively organized by graduate students to
bring together thinkers from across the campus community and national
academic community to address the ?crisis? of the university as it had
continually been transformed by neoliberal forces. The recent AFSCME strike
at the University of Minnesota and other academic labor struggles continue
to expose the university in crisis, yet we need to further develop both our
intellectual and organizational capacities to effectively address these
crises. Our hope is that this conference will be productive in discussing
and thinking through these issues, and bring together a community bound to
the university in crisis.

Although the conference has scheduled presenters, we want to have
participation from all our attendees in discussing the issues raised by our
presenters?most importantly, to have participation from all sectors of the
community. We hope to put into conversation workers of all types:
university staff, artists, lecturers, union organizers, students,
professors, and community activists, all of whom have a stake in shaping
the future of the university. Please pass along this invitation to your
connected community, campus, labor, and other groups that have a shared
interest in our educational system.

This conference will take place over three days. Friday will focus
generally on questions of neoliberalization and corporatization of higher
education and the casualization of academic labor. Friday's meetings will
be held on the University of Minnesota's West Bank campus, at the Carlson
School of Management (2-213). Friday night, we will be hosting a reception
in Ferguson Hall. Saturday and Sunday will look at questions of
alternatives, including campus labor organizing, radical pedagogy, and
other strategies of resistance. Saturday and Sunday will be held on the
East Bank Campus at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Nolte Hall, Room
140), and we will have a dinner on Saturday night at the Bell Museum.
Please see the conference program for more information:
http://www.makeumnpublic.org/conference/program.htm

Please note that this is a FREE and OPEN conference. Funding for this
conference has been generously provided by grants from Student Activities
and GAPSA, along with generous donations from CLA Departments, the
Institute for Advanced Studies, and AAUP. We hope that you are able to
attend all the sessions, but feel free to partake even if you can only
attend a few sessions.

We are looking forward to rethinking with you,

The Conference Collective
Morgan Adamson
John Conley
Isaac Kamola
Stephen Koskela
Eli Meyerhoff
Lucia Pawlowski
Amy Pason
Matthew Stoddard