Dear CWGS MA & Portfolio Students,

We invite you to participate in a planning discussion for the October 2012 International Conference on Women’s Human Rights with a focus on women’s human rights organizing in the Americas. This conference is part of the Embrey Women’s Human Rights Initiative, the Center for Women’s & Gender Studies grant-funded project to develop education for women, gender, and human rights. The upcoming meeting builds on an initial pre-planning discussion held in February, and we encourage new faculty, students, and organizers to join the conversation; please see below for details on the initial discussion.

This conference should support the work of faculty, students, and community organizers in Austin, and we need your participation to ensure that the conference will speak to you!

Please join us for a discussion
Monday, April 4, 11:00-12:30
Gebauer (GEB) 4th Floor Conference Room (to the left off of the elevators): http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/geb.html
Bring your lunch, and we will provide cookies and coffee.

At this meeting, we will develop:
1. Conference topic and title
2. Conference concept (what it will look like)
3. Plans for community/university and cross-university partnerships for which we may partner with other centers and institutes to provide new project seed money

We also hope to have time to discuss:
4. Goals for the conference
5. Possible keynote or plenary speakers
6. Possible performers or films for the evening event
7. Strategies for circulating the conference announcement and call for proposals.

Please share this announcement with faculty, students, and organizers who may be interested. If you would like more information, please contact Kristen Hogan at hogank@mail.utexas.edu

This meeting will build on an initial shape developed by faculty and staff at a pre-planning meeting in February. Here’s some of what that group contributed:

Conference Goals:
The assembled group described their hopes that such a conference would:
1. Unsettle thinking about gender & human rights,
2. Contribute to ongoing flows of research & conversations,
3. Connect UT faculty with visiting presenters (don’t overlook the work our faculty are doing),
4. Feed back into the EWHRI by supporting new courses or course content, and
5. Involve faculty, community organizers, and students in planning stages and conference.

What will the presentations at the conference look like?
1. Conference organizers will create a call now for partnerships of university and community organizers to collaborate on a project; Centers/Institutes will collaborate to provide seed money to co-researchers in exchange for their report on the work at the conference.
2. Organizers may solicit papers in collaboration between faculty at two different institutions.
3. Organizers will create time and space for networking and project building at the conference.
4. Sessions may consist of results presentation or works in progress.