Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies/History, University of Illinois-Chicago

Censoring Infectious Ideas: Queer Sexuality and the AIDS Crisis

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Stern Center, Great Room – 7:00 p.m.

Beginning with her own experiences as an author whose work has been censored, Brier will discuss how the response to AIDS has been affected by attempts to remove discussions of sex and sexuality from its center and question the extent to which we have become a more sexually liberated culture since the 1980s.

This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of Sociology, American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Background Information (provided by speaker)
In the last stages of preparing her book for publication, including securing the permissions to publish several reproductions of early AIDS prevention posters from San Francisco, Brier’s press informed her that she would not be able to include any images that displayed full-frontal male nudity. Told that the images were not central to her argument and that they would be distracting, Brier had no choice but to exchange the images for less-explicit ones, a decision that uncannily mirrored what happened when the San Francisco AIDS Foundation first created and tried to distribute the Read more

CBS News Correspondent injured in Iraq and author

Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report – and Survive – the War in Iraq

Monday, April 21, 2008
7:00 p.m.- Stern Center, Great Room

Terrorism has made news reporting very dangerous. Reporters have become the targets of terrorist acts, where they once only stood next to targets. Being embedded has also made the role of correspondent more complex, raising such questions as which ‘side’ we’re on, whether we are legitimate targets when shadowing the military or insurgents, and the ethics of going on a raid to kill insurgents. Also, the ‘cable effect’ has made it more difficult to report a straight story because so many people now expect some sort of opinion, and cable television representatives openly criticize correspondents for anything they report.

Sponsored by Betty R.’58, and Dan Churchill and Penn State Dickinson School of Law

Issue in Context
From World War II to the Vietnam War and the first Persian Gulf War, reporters have been responsible for providing a connection between the battlefield and the American public. This connection was mediated by various means of communication from the telegraph, to the Read more

Thursday, April 3, 2008
Various Locations

Student Comments

Denisa Lazarescu ’08

Tahar Lamri
The Pilgrimage of the Voice
Award winning author and noted artist Tahar Lamri presented within the second part of the symposium the short story titled “The Pilgrimage of the Voice” which was interpreted in four different languages: standard Italian, as well as Mantovano, Romagnolo, and Venetian dialects. Sitting on the floor, surrounded by students and professors, Tahar Lamri read his story while accompanied by Cafe Mira lead singer, Reda Zine who played the gnawa, a Moroccan musical instrument resembling a lute. Trying to recreate the atmosphere of storytelling around a camp fire, Tahar Lamri and Reda’s spiritual music complemented and emphasized the story of the “The Pilgrimage of the Voice” which delves into the topic of languages and cultures blending and influencing one another across borders. The diverse musical and linguistic experience was meant to underscore the message that communication through storytelling, as the basis of many cultures, is the means to attaining tolerance and understanding among people across the world. As the story of Scheherazade and the “One Thousand and One Nights”, storytelling preserves life, forges bonds among Read more

Thursday, March 27, 2008 – 3:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m
The Kline Athletic Center

Student Comments

Caitlin Rice

Former President Clinton did an excellent job of detailing what makes Hillary Clinton’s plans for America distinctive. On the event in general, I thought it was great to see so many people there and so excited–regardless of whether they were Democrat or Republican. Having former President Clinton speak on behalf of Hillary was an excellent opportunity as I feel it drew an open minded crowd.

Through this experience and leading the Dickinson Student for Hillary Group on campus, I have learned a great deal, not only about the logistics and politics of a campaign, but about how to communicate more effectively on many levels with peers and professionals. Some of Hillary’s young campaign workers have described being a “Clintonian” on a campus as if describing being a “punk rocker”! Senator Obama’s popularity permeates most college-aged youth, and I have been discovering better ways to engage the opposition in productive conversation about the seemingly slight differences between Obama and Clinton’s policies and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

For me, President Clinton’s visit was the opportunity of a lifetime to introduce the Read more

Thursday, March 27, 2008 – 1:00 p.m.

Stern Center, Great Room

Photos from the Program

Student Comments

Jonathan Roberts

Benjamin Rush and his colleagues understood that American democracy would only survive if its citizens were informed. By bringing representatives of the major candidates to campus, and allowing us to hear their arguments, we can make better-informed decisions about what is politically important to us. I think most Dickinsonians read the news and stay on top of what candidates are doing, but it’s rare that we have the chance to hear it straight from them. That’s unique, and an extraordinary opportunity, and I’m grateful to the College for organizing events like these.

James Liska

I felt that the visits from the Obama and Clinton campaigns demonstrated a high level of interest in this election, but in different ways relating to the different events. For example, President Clinton drew many townspeople and community members, but not predominantly students. The Mark Alexander event, however, featured primarily students. Some students I spoke with looked forward more to the Alexander event than the Clinton event. This gives us interesting insight into what drives the students and what interests students. Regardless, Read more

2007 Susan Strange Award Winner in International Studies, Clark University, Worcester, MA

Morgan Lecture
Women and Men in the Iraq War: What Can a Feminist Curiosity Reveal?

Monday, March 24, 2008
7:00 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

We are all inundated with news about the Iraq war, but too often the only women shown are mothers and wives weeping – without ever asking them what they think or what they now will do. By asking feminist questions about BOTH American and Iraqi women, about their own thoughts and their complex experiences, we are more likely to get a truly realistic understanding of men’s actions and of the causes and consequences of this war.

Issue in Context
Over the past two decades, feminist critics and practitioners have become an essential part of the discipline of international relations (IR). Feminist IR emerged in the late 1980s. The end of the Cold War brought about a re-evaluation of traditional IR theory which opened up a space for gendering international relations. Cynthia Enloe’s Bananas, Beaches and Bases (Pandora Press 1990) is one of the most influential publications in feminist IR. In this book, Enloe poses a Read more

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Various Times
Stern Center, Great Room

This one-day symposium offers perspectives from three scholars critically exploring sexuality and gender identities in relation to shifting cultural and national boundaries.

10:30 a.m. – Denise Brennan, Georgetown University
Love Work and Sex Work in the Dominican Republic
Suggested Readings:
1. Nicole Constable’s book: Romance on A Global Stage
2. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Hochschild’s edited volume: Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy
3. Carla Freeman’s book: High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy
4. Faye Ginsburg and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s edited volume: Uncertain Terms: Negotiating Gender in American Culture
5. What’s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex, by Denise Brennan
1:00 p.m. – France Winddance Twine, University of California, Santa Barbara

Written on the Body: Hair and Heritage in Black Europe

2:30 p.m. – Karen Kelsky, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Personal is Personal: Predicaments of the Lesbian Feminist Subject in Japan.

4:30 p.m. – Panel Discussion

The panel will explore such questions as: How does transnationalism affect cultural reproduction in intimate areas, such as family relations (husband-wife, parent-child), inter-generational ethnic relations, and the

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Monkey Business

Performance
Thursday, November 29, 2007
7:00 p.m. – The Depot
The Guerrilla Girls are feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders, like Wonder Woman and Batman. They use facts, humor and outrageous visuals to expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture. Co-sponsored by Women’s Studies and The Zatae Longsdorff Women’s Center.

Issue in Context
Sexism and racism are pervasive throughout the world of art and popular culture. Women artists and artists of color are greatly under-represented in art museums. In the National Gallery of Art, 98% of the artists displayed are male and 99.9% are white. Galleries and art collectors generally buy art from white men and when they do buy art from women or artists of color, it often ends up hidden in the gallery’s storage facility.
Women and people of color are also under-acknowledged and under-appreciated in the film industry. A female director has never won an Oscar and only three have ever been nominated. In all of the Oscars for acting, only 3% have gone to people of color.
The film and music industries continue to portray women as sexual objects Read more

Associate Professor, social/gender geography, Bucknell University.

Women, Religion and Space: Making the Connections

Thursday, November 15, 2007
4:30 p.m. – Stern Center, Great Room

In this talk, Karen Morin ‘triangulates’ among the scholarly domains of geography, women’s studies, and religious studies, suggesting ways to draw out the geographical implications of the study of women and religion. The talk highlights the ways that religions regulate women spatially, and how religious women negotiate and define spaces and their sense of themselves in them. Co-sponsored by the anthropology and religion departments.

Issue in Context
In the 17th century, Medieval Roman Catholic nuns benefited from the mobility of being allowed to work outside of their convents and within their communities, and of participating in missionary activities. However, in 1662, laws were passed in accordance with the Counter-Reformation that restricted the nun’s movement and often imprisoned them to their cloisters. The construction of gates and high walls around convents, the grills used to separate the nuns from the laypeople, and the use of the turntable to receive goods were just some of the limitations imposed on their lives. Nuns no longer had the right to play an active part in the church or Read more