Center for Women’s & Gender Studies

WHAT: Laurinda D. Brown’s Walk Like A Man – The Play
WHEN: Saturday, March 13, 2010 @ 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Austin Ventures Studio The78701ater at Ballet Austin
501 W. 3rd Street
Austin, TX 7801

TICKETS: $20 per person
TICKET OUTLET: www.BrownPaperTickets.com

Walk Like A Man – The Play is the first African American lesbian play
to be performed Off-Broadway. It features a culturally diverse cast
who alternately employs drama and comedy to portray labels, issues,
and stereotypes in LGBTQ relationships such as Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell,
sexual identity and runaway youth, love and religious controversies,
same-sex domestic violence, safe sex, HIV/AIDS, affairs in the
workplace, and more.

Walk Like A Man- The Play is written, produced, and directed by
Laurinda D. Brown, winner of the 2006 Lambda Literary Award for “Best
Lesbian Erotica” and winner of the 2006 Urban Spectrum Award for “Best
Fiction by A Woman of Color”.

Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars

Each year, The New York Public Library provides stipends for up to three Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars. The stipends support travel to New York City and related expenses to do research in the Library’s premier LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) history collections. The travel grants awarded range from $1,000 to $8,500. The program is limited to emerging scholars, those  without permanent academic appointments, or those who are unaffiliated with an academic institution. Recipients must supply a written summary of their findings upon completion of their work. Interested applicants should send a 3-5 page research proposal specifying the relevant collections at the Library for their project, a draft budget and itinerary for their planned trip, a CV, and an appropriate letter of recommendation.

Applications due March 1, 2010.

Applications should be sent to Jason Baumann, The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018. Applications must be received by March 1. Notice of awards will be sent beginning March 31.

The Martin Duberman Visiting Scholars are funded by the generous support of Martin Duberman and Eli Zal.

If you have any questions about the program or the Library’scollections, please contact Jason Baumann, Coordinator of Collection Assessment and LGBT Collections at jbaumann@nypl.org.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political organization, with 750,000 members throughout the country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure that LGBT Americans can be open, honest, and safe at home, at work, and in the community. Each year, HRC Austin holds its Gala Dinner as a way to bring together members of the LGBT community and its allies in a night of celebration, support, and honoring leaders. This year’s Gala is on March 20, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Austin, and the theme is Speak the Truth. Information about the program, speakers, and entertainment can be found at http://hrcaustin.org/index.html

“GENERATIONS:
Exploring Race, Sexuality, and Labor across Time and Space”
June 9-12, 2011, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Proposals due March 1, 2010

The Berkshire Conference of Women’s Historians is holding its next conference at
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on June 9-12, 2011.

2011 marks the 15th Berkshire Conference on Women’s History and the 100th
anniversary of International Women’s Day, which was first celebrated in
Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland and is now honored by more than sixty
countries around the globe. The choice of “Generations” reflects this
transnational intellectual, political, and organizational heritage.

Informatio and instructions for submission will be
posted on the Berkshire Conference website (www.berksconference.org) by
November 1, 2009. If you have questions about the most appropriate subcommittee for
your proposal or problems with electronic submission, please direct them to
Jennifer Spear (jms25@sfu.ca).

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: March 1, 2010.

WGS Student Conference Keynote – Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones

6 Rules for Allies.

Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones gives 6 Rules for Allies (cross race/gender/sexuality/nationality/religion etc) in her keynote speech given 2/19/10 at a luncheon sponsored by Abriendo Brecha Vll Conference and The Seventeenth Annual Emerging Scholarship In Women’s and Gender Studies Conference UT Austin.

“The Role of Allies in 2010”

Keynote Address Presented by

Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Ph.D.

Director, The John L. Warfield Center for African and

African American Studies

Associate Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance

at the

Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Conference and

Abriendo Brecha Activist Conference

University of Texas at Austin

19 February 2010

Thank you, Sue Heinzelman for inviting me to speak at this important conference, where graduate students have an opportunity to explore ideas related to gender.

Thank you, Michelle Mott for providing me with all of the necessary details about this keynote address.

One of the important items that Michelle shared with me was the length of this speech.  She said I had an hour to share my ideas.  Sue, however, assured me that 30 minutes would work just fine.

Trust me, I’m going with Sue’s suggestion!  This will give you ample opportunity to make your way to the next session which begins at 1:45.

I have entitled my talk “The Role of Allies in 2010.”

I take this opportunity to speak with you very seriously.  The times require that I use every moment of public presentation to speak the truth as I know it.  That is my job as an artist, a scholar, a teacher, a committed human being seeking to make a world of peace and justice for everyone.

This truth telling is dangerous business.  It leaves one vulnerable—but our vulnerability is our strength.  It leaves one exposed, but exposure allows the wind to whip through all those dank and musty spaces of terror  and blow away isolation and fear.  Truth telling leaves us free—and that is, after all the point.

This truth telling is especially dangerous for a Black queer woman, for me.  My very safety is at stake when I speak the truth, the truth of my life, and the truth of the world as I know it.  My truths challenge the very foundation of the systems around me, systems that variously support and denigrate me, systems that applaud and slap me.

So, as I walk, I look for mirrors, for allies who are also committed to everyone’s freedom, allies willing to risk their own safety in order to insure mine.

As I consider the seriousness of the moment, I am reminded of the courage and power of actress Beah Richards who was invited to speak before the Chicago Peace Congress in 1951.  You know Beah Richards as Sidney Poitier’s mother in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”  She was also the preacher in the groves in the film “Beloved” and the subject of a biographical documentary by Lisa Gay Hamilton.  As scholar Margaret Wilkerson describes Richards’ presentation, the women—all of them white—who invited Richards to speak wanted her to address racial diversity.  Instead of performing the role of the grateful colored guest, instead of trotting out a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson or Paul Laurence Dunbar—Beah Richards confronted the issue of racial diversity head on in a piece she wrote especially for the occasion entitled “A Black Woman Speaks.”  In this poetic direct address to her all-white largely female audience, she said—

“They said, the white supremacists said,

that you were better than me

that your fair brow should never know the sweat of slavery.

They lied.

White womanhood too is enslaved.

The difference is degree.

And what wrongs you, murders me.

And eventually marks your grave

So we share a mutual death at the hand of tyranny.

He, the white supremacist, fixed your minds with poisonous thought—

‘white skin is supreme.’

Set your minds on my slavery

the better to endure your own.

Cuddled down in your pink slavery

and thought somehow my wasted blood

confirmed your superiority.

Because your necklace was of gold

You did not notice that it throttled speech.”

That was Beah Richards in 1951 who sought to join in solidarity with white women even as she acknowledged the ways in which the lives of Black women and white women were sharply divided.

Some 28 years later, poet activist Audre Lorde was similarly invited to speak at a conference—the Second Sex Conference in New York City.  Like Richards, Audre Lorde spoke of the challenge and necessity of building allies.  She stated—

“As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view

them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for

change. Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable

and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But

community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic

pretense that these differences do not exist.

Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of

acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of

difference — those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who

are older — know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how

to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common

cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to

define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to

take our differences and make them strengths. For the master’s tools will

never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat

him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine

change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define

the master’s house as their only source of support.

In a world of possibility for us all, our personal visions help lay the

groundwork for political action. The failure of academic feminists to

recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the

first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become

define and empower.”

So, in the spirit of Richards who exposed the trap of “pink slavery” in order to forge allies, and Lorde who told us that we must not replicate the very structures that divide us, I offer some reflections on what it means to be an ally to queer people, to women, and to people of color.  And you are going to help me with this part of this address.

Rule #1

Allies know that it is not sufficient to be liberal.  In fact, the liberal position is actually a walk backwards.  The politically liberal position is the hegemonic force of the academy and carries with it all of the numbing characteristics of any hegemonic force.  Hegemony blinds us to what is hiding in plain sight.  The liberal position supports the status quo of the academy which means that racism, sexism, homophobia, the perils of nationhood, and a commitment to class structures cannot be undone in the academy—unless we move toward a radical rather than liberal position.

This first rule reminds me of the powerful ideas of scholar Joy James who makes a critical distinction between a soldier and a warrior.  The soldier works for the state—and therefore supports all that that implies.  The warrior works for freedom.  Allies must be willing to be warriors, and risk the support of institutions in our joint move toward deep liberation.

Rule #2

Be loud and crazy so Black folks won’t have to be!  Speak up!  Say it!  Name it!  If you are male, YOU be the one to tell your department chair that the women’s salaries in your department must be brought line with those of the men.  If you are white, YOU be the one to advocate for the qualified grad student of color applicant over the qualified white grad student applicant.  If you are straight, YOU be the one to attend the President’s speech tomorrow at 9:00 am when he speaks about partner benefits at the University of Texas.  If you are Christian, YOU be the one to be sure that Muslim students have safe accessible places on campus for their obligatory 5 times per day prayers. This does not mean being wreckless, strategizing is always important (as we will see in the next rule).  Speaking up does mean being willing to relinquinsh some piece of privilege in order to create justice.  Allies step up, they do the work that has left others depleted and weary.

Rule #3

Do not tell anyone in any oppressed group to be patient.  Doing so is a sign of your own privilege and unconscious though absolute disregard for the person with whom you are speaking.  Remember, it was a number of white ministers in Atlanta who advised Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to be patient in reacting to U.S. racism.  This call for patience prompted Kings’ “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”  King wrote—

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see . . . that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Patience is not a political strategy.  It is a diversionary tactic.  It is a patronizing recommendation made only by those who do not believe that oppression is killing us all.

Do you think that UT has doubled the number of Black faculty on campus since 2001 because we all waited for departments to see the light?  If your answer is yes, then you are in need of very serious ally training.

Planning while appearing to wait, is a strategy.  Allies, plan with us. And I won’t say anymore because it would undermine the strategizing that is taking place while I am delivering this speech.

Rule #4

Recognize the new racism, the new sexism, the old homophobia.  It is institutional and structural.  Learn to walk in a room and count the people of color—and know what you know.  The absence of people of color in any space cannot be accounted for by chance or accident.  Learn to see how many women are in charge.  The absence of powerful women in any space cannot be accounted for by chance or accident.  Learn to see and feel those spaces that are unsafe for queer people.  The absence of queer people in any space cannot be accounted for by chance or accident.  Allies know that racism, sexism, and homophobia are real and NEVER tell people, “You could be wrong, you know.”  Such a statement presumes that you have greater insights than those with lived experience inside of multiple oppressions.  Recognizing the new racism, the new sexism, the old homophobia means listening, means acknowledging that these oppressions have not been honestly talked about enough.  Playwright and novelist Pearl Cleage demands that theatre be her “hollering place”—a space where Black women can tell their stories.  In her “hollering place,” everyone is welcome IF they are willing to truly listen to Black women and feel with the density of our lives.  Feeling with the person to whom  you are speaking, means NOT offering an objection to the gashes of racism or sexism or homophobia that she or he has shared with you—even if holding onto your objection leaves your tongue bloody!  In 48 hours, after contemplation and reflection, after those experiences have had a chance to germinate in your experience, you just might feel inside rather than outside of that person’s experience.  Allies know how to spot oppression and to support others as they reveal their wounds.

Rule #5

When called out about your racism, sexism or homophobia, don’t cower in embarrassment, don’t cry, and don’t silently think “she’s crazy” and vow never to interact with her again.  We are all plagued by racism, sexism, and homophobia.  Be grateful that someone took the time to expose yours—remember, exposure allows the wind to whip away isolation and fear.  Exposure is a step toward freedom.  Allies welcome an opportunity to see how their choices, ideas, words may be erasing those around them. It’s not about your intent—that you did not intend to be sexist when you consulted with men rather than with women even though the women were in charge—it is about the effect—the damaging effect your choice had on others, the reinforcement of patriarchy that your choice made.  Allies want to know when they have been contributed to the very oppressions they oppose.  Allies know they are not above reproach.

Rule #6

Allies actively support alternative possibilities.  Some of us publish in nationally recognized journals our departments do not know or respect.  Some of us write in poetic or non-standard or elliptical styles as a matter of choice, not ignorance.  Some of us paint our truths rather than write them.  Some of us teach with a loose map.  Because allies believe “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” allies consider the transgressive power in alternative academic strategies, a power that works to undo patriarchy, white supremacy, the insatiability of capitalism, and heterosexism.  Supporting alternative possibilities is the only way we can all dream ourselves into the world in which we want to live.

As I consider the ideas that I have shared with you, it is clear that if we examine the powerful conclusion set forth by the Combahee River Collective, we will address each of the six ally rules I have presented today.  This radical collective of Black lesbians wrote—

“If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”

This list of rules for allies requires that each of us know when we are in that role, those of us who are women, those of us who are queer, those of us who are people of color must examine those times when our privileges insist that we abide by these very rules.  For me, my class privilege and nationality are markers that position me in the role of ally. While at UT I often seek out mirrors—those persons willing to take on racism, sexism, homophobia—I also must practice these six rules in many other arenas.  This means that the rules for allies can be used by everyone in this room.

The practice of these rules means that more and more of us have the space to fully be ourselves because we will speak our truth with assurance of support.

Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking choreopoem opened on Broadway in 1976.  The piece opens with the lady in brown speaking to the audience:

Dark phrases of womanhood

of never having been a girl

half notes scattered

without rhythm/no tune

distraught laughter fallin

over a black girl’s shoulder

it’s funny/ it’s hysterical

they melody-less-ness of her dance

don’t tell nobody don’t tell a soul

she’s dancin on beer cans and shingles

this must be the spook house

another song with no singers

lyrics/no voices

& interrupted solos

unseen performances

are we ghouls?

children of horror

the joke?

somebody/anybody

sing a black girl’s song

bring her out

to know herself

to know you

but sing her rhythms

carin/struggle/hard times

sing her song of life

she’s been dead so long closed in silence so long

she doesn’t know the sound

of her own voice

her infinite beauty

she’s half-notes scattered

without rhythm/no tune

sing her sighs

sing the song of her possibilities

sing a righteous gospel

the makin of a melody

let her be born

let her be born

& handled warmly.

Now, I’d like you to explore these rules among yourselves.  Talk with your neighbor at your table.  Discuss which of the six rules you find the most challenging.  Be specific. The rules are:  1) Liberal is not Sufficient, 2) Be Loud and Crazy, 3) Patience is not a Political Strategy, 4) Recognize the new racism, the new sexism, the old homophobia, 5) Welcome Opportunities to Examine Your Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, and 6) Support Alternative Possibilities.

You have about 5 minutes for this discussion.

(Time elapses.)

Now, who found #1 a challenge?   (Go through all six rules allowing the group to examine each.)

As  you move through the rest of the conference, join with others as allies in order to ensure our mutual freedom.

Video provided by Sharon Bridgforth.

Special Issue: SAFE

Guest Editors: Alyson M. Cole & Kyoo Lee

Bubble wrap, sanitizer, helmets, knee pads, H1N1 vaccines, mammograms,
protective goggles, preemptive strikes, the Patriot Act,
car/fire/health/home/laptop/life/renters’/travel insurance, condoms,
sunscreen, car seats, airbags, pensions, life vests, organic food, safe
drinking water, safe streets… Our lives are filled with devices,
organizations, and agreements to keep our bodies, loved ones, and belongings
“safe.” These practices appease our fears, but what does it mean to be or to
feel safe? Is safety synonymous with security, stability or stasis? Is it a
condition, or the negation of threat, risk and danger? Can we ever be truly
safe? If not, why does it endure as an ideal?

For some, safety is a condition of living, as in “better safe than sorry”;
for others, safe signals the refusal of life itself, as in the Nietzschean
revision of the Socratic ideal of examined life, “an unexplored life is not
worth living.” What are the aesthetics, metaphysics and metaphorics of the
dynamic multivalency of safe? Is safe a place (“safe house,” “safe box”), a
moment (“safe and sound”), a practice/norm (“safe sex”), a feeling, a
cognitive state, a number/figure (“savings”), a status (“sauf”: “save” as in
“exception”) or a visible logos (“saved document”)? What sort of politics
does the ambition to be safe entail? In what ways is safe imbricated with
class, race, sexuality and gender? Can we feel safe without restricting
ourselves to a prophylactic existence?

This special issue of WSQ invites work that will contribute to an
exploration of safety and security, broadly conceived. We welcome academic
papers from a variety of disciplinary approaches including theory, empirical
research, literary and cultural studies, as well as creative prose, poetry,
artwork, memoir and biography. Suggested topics may include but are not
limited to:

. Bioethics, biopolitics

. Children, childhood, family and safety

. Crisis and resolution, memory

. Discipline; docility; drill; habit-formation

. Domestic space, domestic violence, haven, home, shelter, retreat,
refugees

. The politics of food safety

. Geography and mapping, enclosures/prisons, harbors and asylums

. Security state, homeland security, environmental security, job security

. Illnesses, epidemics, preventions, screenings, health risks, health care

. Otherness, ethnicized and marginalized populations, borders and
enclosures

. Risk society, theories of risk, technology, prediction

. Sex, pain, pleasure and risk

. Terror and/of terrorism, war & trauma, treaty and alliance, recovery

If submitting academic work, please send articles by March 15, 2010 to the
guest editors, Alyson M. Cole and Kyoo Lee at
WSQSafeIssue@gmail.com. Submission should
not exceed 20 double spaced, 12 point font pages.

Poetry submissions should be sent to WSQ’s poetry editor, Kathleen Ossip, at
WSQpoetry@gmail.com by March 15, 2010. Please
review previous issues of WSQ to see what type of submissions we prefer
before submitting poems. Please note that poetry submissions may be held for
six months or longer. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if the poetry
editor is notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere. We do not accept
work that has been previously published. Please paste poetry submissions
into the body of the e-mail along with all contact information.

Fiction, essay, and memoir submissions should be sent to WSQ’s
fiction/nonfiction editor, Jocelyn Lieu, at
WSQCreativeProse@gmail.com by March 15,
2010. Please review previous issues of WSQ to see what type of submissions
we prefer before submitting prose. Please note that prose submissions may be
held for six months or longer. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if
the prose editor is notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere. We do not
accept work that has been previously published. Please provide all contact
information in the body of the e-mail.

Art submissions should be sent to the guest editors, Alyson M. Cole and Kyoo
Lee, at WSQSafeIssue@gmail.com by March 15,
2010. After art is reviewed and accepted, accepted art must be sent to the
journal’s managing editor on a CD that includes all artwork of 300 DPI or
greater, saved as 4.25 inches wide or larger. These files should be saved as
individual JPEGS or TIFFS.

–
Zoe Meleo-Erwin
Administrative Associate
WSQ
at the Feminist Press
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212.817.7926
www.feministpress.org/wsq
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19:34:00

Editors: Carolyn Bitzer, Sharon Collingwood, Alvinia Quintana, and Caroline Smith

Description

Want to let your friends know you’re studying in the library? Update your Facebook status. Just heard a song on the radio, but don’t know what it is? Your iPhone can help you figure it out. The technological advances of today have produced a remarkably different kind of student – digital natives at ease in navigating both the real and virtual world.

This anthology will explore the ways in which new media technologies can be used in the Women’s Studies classroom. The editors are interested in articles that address the ways in which these technologies can further the goals of many Women’s Studies courses by encouraging students to examine how gender, race, and class can shape both our real and our virtual worlds. A number of Women’s Studies scholars recognize not only our students’ growing interest in digital media production but also the transgressive, political potential of new media technologies. As many colleges and universities embrace innovative media technologies to enrich learning in the 21st century, new issues emerge for Women’s Studies educators when teaching these purported “Millennials.”
Possible Topics

· Blogs in teaching writing (RSS feeds, blog etiquette , tagging)
· Cloud computing (Google docs, Google groups, etc.)

· Feminist blogging networks

· Virtual Worlds

· Wikis
· Social Software for collaborative feminist work (Del.ciio.us, 43 Things, Pipes, Flickr, Facebook)

· Distance Education

· Disability

· Personal Learning Environments (Netvibes, Pageflakes)

· Handhelds and the feminist classroom

Submissions
If you are interested in proposing a contribution to this collection, please send an abstract of no more than 250 words as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .rtf) to cybergrrls@googlegroups.com on or before March 1, 2010. Please include in the subject line the following: Feminist Cyberspaces.

Deadline

Editors will send notifications of acceptance by May 1, 2010. The finished articles will be due by August 31, 2010.
For more information, please contact Caroline Smith (cjsmith7@gwu.edu).
–

Dr. Sharon Collingwood

http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/collingwood7/

Department of Women’s Studies
The Ohio State University
286 University Hall
230 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1311

Second Life: Ellie Brewster

Blog: Exploring the Virtual Classroom

http://ebrewster.wordpress.com/

Visit Minerva Isle in Second Life:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Minerva/16/14/22/

The 2010 Lozano Long Conference

Republics of Fear: Understanding Endemic Violence in Latin America Today

Thursday–Friday

March 4–5, 2010

Texas Union, Santa Rita Room 3.502

The conference will host panels on topics such as gender violence; intimate violence; organized crime,  kidnapping and drug traffic; political, state, and para-state violence; structural violence, including poverty, forced migration, racism, and discrimination; and representations of violence in the media, literature, films, and public discourse. The institute hopes in this way to foster and stimulate a new wave of theoretically informed, interdisciplinary, and culturally aware research into this crucial new challenge for Latin America.
I am attaching the conference Program  (the website with the program and the sponsor info is in process of been updated. it should be ready tomorrow.)

For more information, visit

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/llilas/conferences/violence.php

If you would like to volunteer to help please contact

Paloma Díaz at 512.232.1415 or p.diaz@austin.utexas.edu.

The LGBTQ/Sexualities Research Cluster is hosting a discussion of LGBTQ academic lives and professional skills. Professor Sofian Merabet (Anthropology) and Professor Michael Johnson (French and Italian) will discuss their experiences doing research and writing dissertations on gender and sexuality and negotiating the job market, and we also welcome insights and experiences from other faculty and graduate students. Come talk about what it’s like to be queer in the academy.

WHEN: Friday, February 26

WHEN: 3-5 pm (with drinks to follow in the Cactus Cafe)

WHERE: Texas Union Eastwoods Room

Colombian law professor Eduardo Restrepo’s talk, entitled “Armed Conflict and Collective Rights in the Southern Pacific Region of Colombia,” will take place on Monday, February 22, from 3:30-5:30, in the Faculty Lounge (TNH 3.214) at the University of Texas School of Law. Professor Restrepo is a leading thinker in cultural studies in Colombia and has researched and written extensively on Afro-descendant social movements and cultural identity in that country. He is here as a LLILAS Visiting Resource Professor.

Gabriela Polit, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, will serve as respondent to Professor Restrepo’s talk.

More information on Restrepo, including the paper he will be discussing during his talk, “Armed Conflict and the Organizing Process of Black Communities in the Colombian South Pacific,” can be found on our website at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/humanrights/events/speaker-series.php#erestrepo.

Also pasted below is the remainder of the schedule for our events this spring, including the Happy Hour series; our upcoming annual human rights conference, “Walls: What They Make and What They Break,” on February 25—26; a presentation by Japanese composer Koji Nakano on March 5; and the dance performance “Canción del Cuerpo (Song of the Body),” with Colombian choreographer Alvaro Restrepo’s el Colegio del Cuerpo, from Cartagena (performances on March 5—7). We hope to see you at one or more of these events.

The Anthropology Graduate Student Association (AGSA) will hold its third annual student research conference, New Directions in Anthropology, this April 23-24, 2010. This conference is part of efforts to foster community amongst students and to provide a supportive environment where individuals can share and receive feedback on their current or on-going research. Similar to previous years, this year’s conference will feature roundtable sessions on professional development, paper and poster presentations and a special keynote by an alumna from the university’s anthropology department.

UT anthropology graduate students from all sub-fields and sub-disciplines are invited to participate in this exciting opportunity. AGSA is calling for papers and posters which showcase current and ongoing research by UT anthropology graduate students in any sub-field or sub-discipline. We hope to have four panels for paper presentations that highlight work in social, physical and linguistic anthropology and archaeology as well as in the related areas of Folklore and Public Culture, African Diaspora and Borderlands Studies, Activist Anthropology and Women’s and Gender Studies. Posters will either be featured on Friday, April 23rd during the opening reception or during the presentation of research papers on Saturday, April 24th.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 10, 2010; submitters will be notified of acceptance by March 26, 2010. Abstracts for papers should be emailed to newdirectionsanthropology@gmail.com. They should be limited to 300 words and should be accompanied by a brief bio stating research interests, subfield, year in the program and contact information (email address and phone number). Poster proposals should be similar, but the email title should specify that they are for the poster session.

Please direct any questions about proposed paper or poster submissions to the above listed conference email address.

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PFLAG National scholarships available for 2010:
$5,000 scholarships, $2,500 scholarships, $1,000 scholarships!
Review the following eligibility requirements:

You are a graduating senior entering higher education for the first time in 2010 (if you graduated in 2009 and took a year off you are still eligible to apply). You self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) or as a straight ally. You demonstrate an interest in service to the LGBT community. You have applied to an accredited higher education institution.

For more information, please contact, www.pflag.org

The deadline to apply for the PFLAG National Scholarship is March 12, 2010.

Call for Programs
Submissions Due: Friday, February 26

AAUW and NASPA- Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education are pleased to invite you to submit a proposal for the 25th annual National Conference for College Women Student Leaders (NCCWSL). NCCWSL is a two-and-a-half day conference focused on important and contemporary leadership issues and is designed to help students hone their leadership skills for work on their campus and in their community.

NCCWSL will be held June 3 -5, 2010 at the University of Maryland, College Park, and will focus on the theme, Leadership for Today and Tomorrow. Conference attendees are both current and aspiring female leaders on their campuses and in their communities. While most attendees are 2nd and 3rd year college students, NCCWSL also attracts non-traditional and graduate students interested in leadership and feminism. During the conference, participants have the opportunity to explore the philosophical underpinnings of leadership and women’s issues, to develop skills for being an effective campus leader, and to learn about opportunities for personal development.
The 2010 NCCWSL Workshop Committee encourages you to submit program proposals for general interest sessions lasting 75 minutes. The committee expects program proposals to show evidence of thought with respect to the diverse world in which these college women live, work, and study. While the committee does not offer an exhaustive list of possible topics, one may find the following helpful in considering workshops ideas:

§  Empower women to engage with their campus and home communities through:
o    Advocacy
o    Community Service
o    Ethical leadership
o    Politics
o    Public Policy
§  Assist women to lead others with integrity on their campuses and beyond
§  Encourage women to explore their entrepreneurial curiosities
§  Help prepare women for life after college:
o    Considering, selecting, and applying to graduate school
o    Managing finances (from creating budgets to purchasing a house or running a business)
o    Negotiating salary
o    Understanding professional etiquette
o    Searching for a  job
§  Explore issues that are especially significant to women including:
o    Leading a life of balance / wellness
o    Engaging with the concept of “Feminism”
o    Sexual Assault Prevention Programming

On behalf of the Conference Committee, we encourage you to submit a proposal that will inspire conference attendees and help them to learn about Leadership for Today and Tomorrow. All workshops will be held on Friday, June 4. Notifications regarding the status of your program will be sent by Wednesday, March 17.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Kristie Malley and Dana Onorato
2010 NCCWSL Workshop Committee Chairs
Contact us at: nccwsl.workshops@gmail.com <mailto:nccwsl.workshops@gmail.com>

The University of Texas at Austin’s BetaAlpha chapter will be hosting this year’s regional conference ans is calling for all graduate and undergraduate original research papers. Participants will be given the chance to present their original research, engage in friendly academic competition, and winners will receive cash prizes. The conference is not limited to only those presenting an original research paper. Participants may attend simply for the chance to gain new knowledge and support their peers.
Register to present a paper related to a topic of historical significance (original research, analysis of art history, economics, or philosophy). Compete with other presenters for a cash prize of 400 dollars, and learn from the great papers presented by your peers. If you don’t have a paper to present, that’s not a problem—attend to learn from your fellow students! The conference will include breakfast, lunch, a presentation from twice-nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and UT History Professor, H. W. Brands, a book sale, and other great prizes. The Conference will be held on February 26th, and 27th. Papers will be presented on the 27th in Garrison Hall. For questions, contact us at: phialphathetatexas@yahoo.com
At the regional conference, we are proud to host as keynote speaker the twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and UT Professor H.W. Brands. He will speak at the provided luncheon on what is bound to be an interesting historical topic.
If you have any further questions or wish to sign up members from your chapter, please feel free to e-mail me. You may also contact Phi Alpha Theta for any further questions at phialphathetatexas@yahoo.com or contact Susan Boettcher at susan.boettcher@mail.utexas.edu to express interest in participating or ask any further questions.

Savannah Compton
Publicity Chair/ Officer
Beta Alpha Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta
University of Texas at Austin

The Culture Club is happy to announce our call for papers for the Battleground States Conference 2010: War(s) and Peace.  The Culture Club, a cultural studies scholars’ association at Bowling Green State University, is a cross discipline organization dedicated to promoting, and challenging, the critical study of culture and society.  Drawing on work from fields such as Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Film, Theatre, English, History and Communications, Battleground States is a conference where interdisciplinary work is not only welcome, but encouraged.
Our theme for the fifth annual Battleground States Conference, War(s) and Peace, promises to offer a thought-provoking range of work across the spectrum of Cultural Studies.  We admire your program, and invite any and all interested in presenting to join us February 26-27, 2010 at Bowling Green State University.  Attached is a copy of our call for papers; please feel free to distribute it as you see fit.  For questions, accommodation information and periodic updates on the conference please visit our website, www.battlegroundstates.org.