GWSS Community Blog

Centro Campesino

~ fé ~ esperanza ~ unión ~ justicia ~

Estimada gente, friends of farmworkers, Chicano Studies and Centro
Campesino,

Every year, students in colleges and universities across the country take a lead in organizing with farmworker groups, organizations and unions, a Call to Action through the National Farmworker Awareness Week, which annually is held the week of March 31st-commemorating the birth of Cesar Chavez). The Department of Chicano Studies is proud to participate in this effort in large part through the spring class, Migrant Farmworkers: Family, Work and Advocacy taught by Lisa Sass Zaragoza. This year, students for their group project have organized an exciting multi-media and spoken word event at the Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis. Farmworkers and former farmworkers will have the mic-poetry, comedy and spoken word while the students are putting together a zine and slide show on farmworker issues. Come hear Eden Torres read some her poetry and Joe Minjares will do some of his famous stand-up, to name a few!

Continue reading "Great event on April 4" »

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The Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies and the Feminist
Studies graduate program invite you to join us for the final talk of our
fall 2008 colloquium series.

Ryan Lee Cartwright: American Studies PhD Candidate
"Danger Amid Security": Sex, Class, Race, and Rural Hate Crimes of the 1990s
Monday, December 1, 2008
3:15-5:00pm
Ford Hall 400

Abstract:

Despite the peace and prosperity of the late 1990s, something was amiss in
the wind-swept prairies and piney woods of the U.S. countryside. The 1990s
witnessed three highly-publicized hate crimes in rural Nebraska, Texas, and
Wyoming: the horrific beatings and deaths of Brandon Teena (and his friends
Phillip DeVine and Lisa Lambert), James Byrd, Jr., and Matthew Shepard.
With voyeuristic gazes locked on the homophobia of slow-minded hicks and
the racism of small southern towns, national media discourse and cultural
production about hate crimes from the 1990s announced that but for a few
exceptional instances of intolerance in the hinterland, the U.S. was a
nation accepting of difference. Yet difference - particularly classed and
racialized sexual difference - was central to how such stories were spun.

As this paper examines rural hate crimes discourse, it asks how narratives
about sexuality and family structure were deployed to negotiate social
belonging and normativity. It considers who was imagined as dangerous and
who imagined themselves as secure in "rural America" specifically and the
nation more generally, proposing that rural hate crimes discourse
increasingly separated respectable LGBT identity from "irresponsible" forms
of sexual nonnormativity marked by class and racial difference. In doing
so, the paper addresses the ways such discourses were constructed and
contested by local and regional news coverage, national media and cultural
productions, and LGBT and African American community responses.

For more information, call Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at
612.624.6006.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS

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November 20th at 7pm

The Red Queen by Lorena Duarte, Directed by Brian Columbus
An episodic play made up of a collection of stories centered on the experiences of women, expressing the tenderness, the ardor, the life-and-death dance that women - and particularly immigrant women - must do.
Performed by Katrina Hawley, Marie Williams and Katherine Kupiecki

WHERE: The Lowry Lab, 350 St Peter St, St Paul, 55102

TICKETS: ONLY $6 EACH!!! Reservations are the only way to guarantee availability and can be made at: 651-225-8106 or tickets@teatrodelpueblo.org

INFO: www.teatrodelpueblo.org, 651-224-8806 or info@teatrodelpueblo.org

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Click HERE for flyer

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Click HERE For pdf of flyer

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Fouzi Slisli, curator
Kathryn Haddad, executive director
Mizna
2205 California Street NE #109A
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 55418
www.Mizna.org
Mizna@Mizna.org
612-532-0747
612-788-6920

Mizna Presents:
The Twin Cities 5th Arab Film Festival
October 16-19, 2008
The Heights Theatre
3951 Central Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis
Cost: $5 student/low income $8 general admission
Festival Passes available $40 advanced (online) $55 at door
http://www.mizna.org/arabfilmfest08/index.html

Continue reading "Mizna's Fifth Arab Film Festival" »

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Sept 2nd March For Our Lives: Money For Health Care And Housing Not For War!
Health care and housing should never be luxuries - not in the United States, not anywhere. Toward this end, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign calls for you to join us as we fill the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota in a powerful, peaceful demonstration for the right to health care, housing and all economic human rights. We will march because as poverty, hunger, unemployment and homelessness grow throughout this country, political leaders from both major parties have abandoned us. We cannot afford to be silent. We cannot afford to be disappeared from the public eye and the political debates as our families suffer. This September we will bring together poor and homeless people of every race, background and age, students, social workers, union members, lawyers, religious leaders, artists and everyone who stands for social and economic justice. We will make our voices heard as we “March for Our Lives to demand “Money for Health Care and Housing, Not for War!�

Full Schedule of Events HERE

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While this season marks only the third edition of Queer Takes at the Walker, the series continues a rich history of LGBT cinema in the Twin Cities that started in the late 1980s with Jenni Olson’s series Lavender Images, which grew into a program at Film in the Cities, which initiated the first Minneapolis/St. Paul LGBT Film Festival. In 1995, the University Film Society picked up the festival and the series continued for the next few years at the Bell Auditorium, when I offered to assist in the programming. In 1999 the University Film Society and Oak Street Cinema merged, and the festival continued over the next few years at Oak Street until Minnesota Film Arts could no longer produce the festival and the Walker launched Queer Takes.

This new edition of Queer Takes has deep connections to the institution. Abigail Child, whose work was included in the 2006 Women with Vision Festival and is part of the Walker’s collection, has a new documentary on the African American male “downlow� scene. Gregg Araki presented his early feature film Long Weekend O’ Despair at the Walker in May 1989. In 1992 Araki’s The Living End, which had an area premiere at the Walker as a 16mm print, returns in an enhanced version through a high-definition transfer and a remixed sound track.

This year’s Queer Takes also spotlights filmmakers focusing on those fighting for dignity and their place in the world, made manifest in brutally honest characters such as the aging hustler in Before I Forget and the intersexed teen in XXY. By focusing on the important work being preserved by the Outfest Legacy Project, the Walker hopes to support the history of groundbreaking films that pushed boundaries for the LGBT community such as Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames and Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances. . . .

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Ananya Dance Theatre
DAAK, Call to Action
Shows: June 12-15, 2008, Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7pm.
Post-show discussion Friday and Saturday
Venue: The Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. South, Minneapolis 55454
Box Office 612/ 340-1725 Tickets: $19 (includes $2 building preservation fee)

DAAK, Call to Action, responds to aggressive lands rights violations in several communities across the world. The project seeks to create relationships between transnational and diasporic communities through the sharing of the stories of women affected by such violations historically and currently. Testimonies from the Native communities of Leech Lake and Lower Sioux Reservations- where women are leading the Truth and Reconciliation Project in an effort to re-write the history of this state, a project particularly potent as the Sesquicentennial Commission proceeds with its plans to celebrate 150 years of MN's statehood without acknowledging the history of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and land appropriation that lies underneath our feet- will inform the project. We will also learn about the struggles of activists and artists in government-designated "special economic zones" in West Bengal, India, where agricultural land is being appropriated violently from poor farmers by the state in order to sponsor global industrial projects; and from the maquiladoras of Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico, where once again women are being forced to work in factories established on land violently seized from their
communities. The piece will end with a "call to action" to audiences, inviting them into awareness of the trauma suffered by communities endangered by environmental racism, as well as the innovative ways in
which they resist these phenomena. The piece itself will articulate the struggle over land rights through the innovative use of space and by imagining different relationships between bodies and land/ground.

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The Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies

and the graduate program in Feminist Studies present…

Feminist Studies Colloquium Series 2007 - 2008

Living by dying: Gandhi, the warrior, and the satyagrahi

Ajay Skaria
Assistant Professor, Department of History
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Monday, May 5th, 2008

400 Ford Hall

3:30 – 5:00 PM

For more information, please call the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Department at (612) 624 -6006

Posted by Rae at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

Continue reading "BROWN BAG - Power genres and digital vernaculars: A pedagogy" »

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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.

Posted by Rae at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

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Click HERE for pdf of this flyer

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“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

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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.

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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

Continue reading "FREE Conference / Spoken Word Event" »

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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

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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

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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

Continue reading "Lecture & Workkshop: Joseph Masco" »

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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

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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

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The Nation in Hindi Film: The Film of the Hindu Nation

Kulvinder Arora
Visiting Assistant Professor
Macalester College

Monday, March 31st, 2008
400 Ford Hall
3:30 – 5:00 PM

Kulvinder Arora's talk will deal with how religious nationalism has
framed heteronormativity in both mainstream Bollywood and "Art" Hindi
films. While some postcolonial scholars have argued that early Hindi
film constituted the formation of a national project that no longer
exists in Bollywood cinema, Arora will argue that heteronormativity
and religious nationalisms both function as national projects in
which the state and media collude. She will analyze the popular films
of Director Karan Johar like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Kal Ho Na ho
and also Deepa Mehta's Fire for their construction and subversion of
religious and gender normativity.

Kulvinder Arora has a Phd from the University of California, San
Diego in Literature. She is currently teaching as a Visiting
Assistant professor at Macalester College in Women's, Gender and
Sexuality Studies. In her work, she is interested in examining how
modernity derives its impetus from traditional cultures and practices
including progressive notions of gender and religious practices.

Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies * College of
Liberal Arts * University of Minnesota
425 Ford Hall, 224 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 624-6006 * gwss@umn.edu

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LECTURE ON "BRINGING FEMINISM HOME": Daisy Hernández, writer and coeditor of Colonize This! Young Women on Today's Feminism, will discuss how gender and race have shaped her identity as a feminist and what it means to connect feminism to the communities we call home. March 27, 7 p.m., 125 Willey Hall. RSVP to women@umn.edu or 612-625-9837.

DOCUMENTARY: Free screening of No! Confronting Sexual Assault in Our Communities by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action. The film, about the impact of sexual violence on black women and girls, features first-person testimonials and interviews with violence prevention advocates. March 28, 12:15-1:45 p.m., 238A Morrill Hall. Space is limited; RSVP to frank055@umn.edu or call 612-624-9547 by today.

TOWN HALL MEETING ON TRANSGENDER RIGHTS with Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. The event will focus on issues of gender identity that create barriers for gender access and equity, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Social Security gender-record matching, and the Real ID Act. March 31, 7-8:30 p.m., 25 Mondale Hall. For more information, see GLBTA or e-mail neely010@umn.edu.

A talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (today); "AIDS bombs: HIV, Race, and Compliance in Minnesota" (March 27); "Common Senses: Perception and Perspective" (March 28); "Wopida Wotapi Thank You Feast And Celebration" (March 29); and "Communication Before Language" (March 31)

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"Circulations of Medical Knowledge"


Speaker:Susan Craddock

Wednesday, March 5, 2008
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Free!

120 B/C Andersen Library
222-- 21st Ave. S. , Minneapolis

Students, faculty, staff and the community are warmly invited to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

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Monday, April 7, 2008
4:00-6:00 p.m.

Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota West Bank 222 21st Av. S., Minneapolis

Monday’s event will feature the opening of the Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood Is Not a Class Privilege in America photography exhibit, along with a talk by exhibit creator and historian Rickie Solinger. Tours of the Social Welfare History Archives, located in the Andersen library, will also be available.

Posted by Rae at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talking Back!
Graduate Students in a Moment of Danger
Presents..

A conversation with American Studies Graduate Students Rodolfo Aguilar and
Lisa Arrastia about research, work, and activism in the City of Chicago.
Aguilar considers Mexican diaspora, migration, and cultural production.
Arrastia links the built environment and public school system as to her
broader project on race, political mobilization, and the politics of
representation.

Talking Back is a speaker series that features the work, reseach, and
politics of graduate students in American Studies and related disciplines
and interdisciplines.

Friday, February 22nd
Scott Hall Commons
4PM
Cocktails to follow at The Kitty Kat Club
University Avenue at 14th Avenue
5PM

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Angela Davis
A Socially Conscious Conversation with the Legendary Activist

5 p.m., February 13
Alexander G. Hill Ballroom
Macalester College

This event is free; however, tickets will be required and available for pick up at the Macalester Campus Center Information Desk beginningon February 6 for students and February 8 for the general public.

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The Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies will be holding a welcome/welcome back pizza party!

Details:
Thursday, January 31
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
in 440 Ford Hall (our beautiful, redecorated lounge space).

We will have some great opportunities to get involved in the department, t-shirt design and art contests, information on scholarships and awards and prizes too.

Please join us for pizza, beverages and fun. All students, faculty and staff are welcome.

For more information, contact the undergraduate advising office at ayles001@umn.edu or 612-624-6809.

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GWSS Tech Talk: Feminist Teaching with Technology Wednesday, Jan. 30 from 12 - 2 p.m. in the Feminist Media Center (FMC), 468 Ford Hall Facilitator: Rachel Raimist - raim0007@umn.edu

In this GWSS Tech Talk / FEMINIST MEDIA CENTER (FMC) workshop, I will share some theories and practices of feminist teaching, learning, research, and creativity using technology. I will use examples from GWSS courses: GWSS 1001:Gender, Power and Everyday Life: An Intro to GWSS, GWSS 3002:Feminist Thought and Theory, GWSS 3307 ( small enrollment class) + (large enrollment class 1 + 2: Feminist Film Studies, and GWSS 3390: Feminist Media Making: Theory + Practice.

In this session, I will:

• Demonstrate multiple uses of course blogs: as tools to create community, continue/deepen course discussions, post reading responses, track news items, post event info, and easily share media content to all members of the classroom community for large and small course enrollments

• Demonstrate key uses of WEBVISTA (formerly WebCT): site as a reading repository for enrolled students, place of accessible web links, announcements, computer-graded quiz tools, message boards, chat rooms, calendar tool, gradebook, and other helpful features

• Illustrate uses of UMN supported multimedia tools: BREEZE, MOODLE, WIKIs, JABBER, and other digital media tools offered through MyU PORTAL

• Share UMN tech resources - free and low cost classes, free CD-rom, tutorials, and new state of the art available for course use

• Start a GWSS community blog to post events, calls for papers, funding opportunities, and other information of interest to our community (and everyone will learn how to post to this blog during this session)

Bring your questions and an open-mind to this session! I look forward to seeing you there.

Please RSVP to raim0007@umn.edu if you are planning to attend this session.

Seating is limited. RSVP is not required, but encouraged!

Posted by Rae at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WSAC friends and allies: Welcome back to another year with WSAC!

We are having many exciting plans for this spring including… a performance piece called Monday Night In Westerbork by S.Bergman (Feb 25), film series focusing on Consumerism, a five step series Feminist Self-Defense training with FEMA (Mar 26- Apr 23), International Women’s Day celebration (Mar 15), an event with speakers interrelating Feminism and Disability, our annual Revolutionary Art Thing with workshops and performances with the Poetic Assassins and MORE!!!

Thinking of joining WSAC? You should! Come to our first meeting on Wednesday Jan 30th at 12.30 pm. We will also have some open houses in a near future that you also can attend to learn more about us.

Thanks for your support!
WSAC

Continue reading "Women's Student Activist Collection" »

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“NETWORKS & NEIGHBORHOODS IN CYBERSPACE� - MN FUTURES GRANT SYMPOSIUM

Facebook, Linkedln, MySpace -- these and other online networks connect millions of people every day. But how do online networks affect learning and communication? What are the educational, cultural, political, commercial and ethical implications of intersecting virtual and physical communities? How can research relationships in academic settings be better facilitated and structured by modern technologies?

Join us as we explore the brave new world of “Networks & Neighborhoods in Cyberspace�

February 11, 2008 from 8-4:30pm
Walter Library - 4th floor, Digital Technology Center (U of M East Bank campus)

Registration is FREE and includes continental breakfast, lunch buffet and refreshments.

Note: Only attendees can apply for $250,000 MN Futures Grants!

REGISTER NOW! at:
www.networksincyberspace.org

Continue reading "FREE SYMPOSIUM: “NETWORKS & NEIGHBORHOODS IN CYBERSPACEâ€?" »

Posted by Rae at 2:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)