Center for Women’s & Gender Studies

The Austin Project Jam Sessions
art/activism/scholarship in performance

with:
Camille DePrang
Natalie Goodnow
Sruabhi Kukke
Candace Lopez
Nnenna Okeke

Friday April 15 at 8pm
Winship Drama Building 2.180
23rd St and San Jacinto
Reception following

Saturday April 16 at 2pm
Vortex Theater
2307 Manor Road

Here is what students have to say about the Theatre for Dialogue class with Voices Against Violence:

“This class will teach you so much about yourself and the world in which you live. This type of class, I believe, is what you come to university for; to foster a positive and beneficial relationship and awareness between community and school, between yourself and strangers. I will always cherish this class and what it’s done for me.”

“The amount of growth I’ve obtained from being in this class, both personally and
academically, has been immeasurable. This class has provided me with some serious self-reflection on the roles I play in life, as a student, as a friend, as a relative, and even as a boyfriend.”

The Theatre for Dialogue program of Voices Against Violence is looking for students for the 2011-2012 class cohort. Train with Voices Against Violence through a two-semester academic course:

Theatre for Dialogue
SW 360K or TD 357T
Wednesdays 2:00 – 5:00pm

Receive: 2 semesters of upper division credit through Theatre and Dance or Social Work.
Registration/participation is through application and interview. Applications DUE APRIL 18TH.

Find more info here:

http://cmhc.utexas.edu/vav_peertheatre.html

application available here:

http://cmhc.utexas.edu/vav_peereducator.html

“Amazing! Awesome! I cannot say enough good things about this class and the instructors.
It is of immeasurable value to me. By far, to me one of the most important classes on campus in this university.”

Hear what students have to say about this class:

My name is Kathy Blake and I am the Constituent Response Specialist for the Texas Council on Family Violence. Every year, we compile an annual report showing the number of women killed in Texas due to family violence. Our report is released in October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In tracking this information, we track certain details in order to personalize these horrific tragedies. I have attached our most recent report. They can also be accessed through the following link www.tcfv.org. We look for the following information:

Her name, age, and date of birth
Her location
The name of the person who murdered her and what became of him/her
The manner of death and the date that it occurred
If she is survived by anyone
If she had a protective order in place

Last year, we lost 111 women due to family violence. We receive our statistical information from the Department of Public Safety along with individualized research. We compile the information and enter it into our Access program for tracking. Since it is such a large task, we rely on the assistance of volunteers and interns. I am reaching out to you today to see if you know of any students within your department that would be available to assist the Texas Council Family Violence with this project. Any amount of time would be greatly appreciated and the students would be able to work on this within our office based in Austin with supervision. If they are unable to commute, I can certainly work out a scenario where they can work on this project remotely. Ideally, I would be able to start with students in May of this year. The students would assist me in compiling the information, adding it to our databases and writing narratives.

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully collaborating with you. I have a fondness for Women’s and Gender Studies departments since I received my MA from Rutgers University under the supervision of Elizabeth Grosz. It was such an amazing and life altering experience. It truly shaped the career paths I have chosen and enhanced the work that I do.

Attention WGS Colleagues,

Here is an opportunity to get involved with one of our community partners!

Conspire Theatre is a new nonprofit theatre company (sponsored by Austin Circle of Theaters) created to serve marginalized and incarcerated women using the creative mediums of theatre and creative writing. Many of the women we serve have suffered severe physical and psychic trauma, and we counter that by creating a safe and joyful space to explore creativity, agency and self-expression. CWGS is working to help Conspire Theatre build a support network.

On May 14th, Conspire Theatre will be having its first ever fundraiser to support our Summer Workshop at the Travis County Jail. Since the summer of 2009, Conspire Theatre has been using theatre to help incarcerated women in Texas find their voices, develop communication and literacy skills, heal from trauma, and hold on to their humanity. Our mission is “to offer marginalized women a healing and empowering experience through the creative mediums of theatre and writing.”

Our fundraiser will be an Art and Crafts Sale held on S. Congress on May 14th, 2011. We’re seeking donations of sketches, paintings, sculptures, crafts (knitting, stitching, paper crafts, glass pieces – basically anything wonderful that you make!), photography, mixed media and whatever else you can think of. To donate artwork, crafts, or to volunteer the day of the sale, email Katherine Craft, Executive Director of Conspire Theatre at conspiretheatre@gmail.com.

Attention WGS Colleagues,

Here is an opportunity to get involved with one of our community partners!

Conspire Theatre is a new nonprofit theatre company (sponsored by Austin Circle of Theaters) created to serve marginalized and incarcerated women using the creative mediums of theatre and creative writing. Many of the women we serve have suffered severe physical and psychic trauma, and we counter that by creating a safe and joyful space to explore creativity, agency and self-expression. CWGS is working to help Conspire Theatre build a support network.

On May 14th, Conspire Theatre will be having its first ever fundraiser to support our Summer Workshop at the Travis County Jail. Since the summer of 2009, Conspire Theatre has been using theatre to help incarcerated women in Texas find their voices, develop communication and literacy skills, heal from trauma, and hold on to their humanity. Our mission is “to offer marginalized women a healing and empowering experience through the creative mediums of theatre and writing.”

Our fundraiser will be an Art and Crafts Sale held on S. Congress on May 14th, 2011. We’re seeking donations of sketches, paintings, sculptures, crafts (knitting, stitching, paper crafts, glass pieces – basically anything wonderful that you make!), photography, mixed media and whatever else you can think of. To donate artwork, crafts, or to volunteer the day of the sale, email Katherine Craft, Executive Director of Conspire Theatre at conspiretheatre@gmail.com.

A discussion with:
Paula X. Rojas, Mamas of Color Rising and INCITE!
Rose M. Pulliam, allgo: a queer people of color organization
Dr. Shannon Speed, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Assistant Vice President and Director of the UT-Community Engagement Center (CEC)

Wednesday, March 30th, 1-2:30p
Walter Webb Hall, Room 202 (WWH202)

This event is an interaction with Refugio: a Community Organizing Training Center, an initiative of several progressive grassroots organizations in Austin and scholars who are engaged in activist research. At the event there will be discussion of the goals and training methods Refugio uses and the relation to activist scholarship. Please join us to enrich the discussion and learn about new efforts in Austin.

Sponsored by the CWGS/Rapoport Center Research Cluster on Women, Gender, and Human Rights.

The 2011 UTSA English Graduate Student Symposium “Theory in the Flesh: Bodies of Scholarship, Activism, and Community”

Sponsored by the Department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio

May 7, 2011 at The University of Texas San Antonio in San Antonio, TX

Keynote Speaker: AnaLouise Keating

Proposal Submission Deadline: March 15, 2011

A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives-our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings-all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. – This Bridge Called My Back

With ‘Theory in the Flesh,’ Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga, co-editors of the foundational feminist text This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, sought to establish a theoretical terrain that incorporated the various aspects of identity for women of color and grounded these elements in lived experience.

This symposium seeks to commemorate 30 years of This Bridge by exploring the applications, relevancies and politics of Theory in the Flesh in our contemporary moment. This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together graduate students, scholars, writers, artists and performers.

We invite papers that engage the concept of the corporeal, the self, community, and activism. Papers may challenge, complicate, critique, or expand current conceptualizations of the Theory in the Flesh in all disciplines, including, but not limited to, literary, cultural, queer, feminist, environmental, American, political, subaltern, bicultural, and popular cultural studies.

We also encourage topics that propose new and imaginative approaches to discourse analysis, methodology, and pedagogy. Visual arts and rhetoric proposals are highly encouraged; the symposium will feature an exhibition of artistic responses such as paintings, drawings, and sculptures related to our theme. We also invite creative writing proposals that bridge disciplines and explore questions of revolution and imagination.

Some possible topics include:
- Language
- Desire
- Concepts of communities/nations/space
- Alternative literacies
- Pedagogies in the grade school, university, or feminist classroom
- Discourses of development, progress, and difference
- Feminist methodologies
- Discourses of nativism, hybridity, and mestizaje
- Rhetorics of nationhood, sovereignty, and terrorism
- Local and global policies
- Environmental studies
- Queer studies
- Popular Culture
- Science Fiction
- Film Studies
- Music Studies
- Imagination in the arts
- Poetry as a revolutionary art form
- Politics and poetry
- Body studies
- Technologies of imagination
- Socio-linguistic studies

Please submit 250-word individual abstracts or panel proposals (comprised of a 250-word abstract for the panel as a whole and titles for each paper) to utsagradconf@gmail.com by March 15, 2011. Paste your proposal into the body of the email message and include any technology requests. Please also include your contact information. If submitting a work of art, please attach a low-resolution image of your piece, if possible, in addition to your abstract. The conference registration fee is $20.00 for pre-symposium registration and $25.00 for registration at the symposium.

Contact: utsagradconf2011@gmail.com
Deadline for submission: March 15, 2011
Facebook: “Theory in the Flesh”

Workers Defense Project (WDP) is a membership-based organization that empowers low-income workers to ensure fair employment through education, direct services, community organizing, and strategic partnerships.

Intern Opening: Community Organizer in Austin, TX
Internship Period: June 13, 2011 to August 12, 2011
Last day to apply: April 8, 2011
The Intern will work with WDP staff and volunteers to win better protections for Texas construction workers through our Build A Better Texas Campaign. The intern will learn important skills in community organizing, coalition building, policy advocacy, and non-profit administration.

Requirements:
→ 3.0 GPA
→ Strong written and verbal communication skills
→ Fluent in Spanish
→ Computer literate: Microsoft Office, Internet, and e-mail
→ Ability to work independently
→ Commitment to social justice
→ Able to work 30 to 40 hours a week including some nights and weekends.

Responsibilities: Intern will work with WDP staff and volunteers to:
→ Assist with outreach to construction workers on their workplace rights
→ Participate in and provide support for meetings with key partners
→ Create materials in English and Spanish
→ Attend weekly organizing meetings and trainings of WDP’s Construction Worker Committee
→ Provide technical and administrative support to the Construction Worker Committee (prepare meeting materials, call workers, update contact information etc).
→ General Office Admin support, answering phones, data entry, writing e-mail alerts, mailings, etc.

Compensation:
→ Life-long experience and skills
→ Weekly stipend of $100 a week
→ Referrals for future employment
→ Possible class credit

WDP is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages people of color, immigrants, and LGBT individuals to apply.

How to apply: Send letter of interest and one reference to Emily Timm, at emily@workersdefense.org. For questions please call 512-391-2305

Intern Opening: Workers Rights Advocate in Austin, TX
Internship Period: June 13, 2011 to August 12, 2011
Last day to apply: April 8, 2011
The Intern will work with WDP staff and volunteers to protect the rights of low-wage Latina/o workers who face workplace violations. The intern will learn important skills in community organizing, policy advocacy, non-profit administration, and case management.
Requirements:
→ 3.0 GPA
→ Strong written and verbal communication skills
→ Fluent in Spanish
→ Computer literate: Word, Internet, and e-mail
→ Ability to work independently
→ Commitment to social justice
→ Able to work 30 to 40 hours a week including some nights and weekends.

Responsibilities: Intern will work with WDP staff and volunteers to:
→ Assist in planning and carrying out public pressure campaigns to protect workers rights
→ Help Coordinate immigrant worker committees to address issues of workplace abuse
→ Assist with weekly intake of wage claim cases
→ Negotiate with employers who violate workers rights
→ Individual cases of workplace abuse
→ Create “know your rights materials” in Spanish and English
→ Inform Latina/o immigrant workers of their rights
→ General Office Admin support, answering phones, data entry, writing e-mail alerts, mailings, etc.

Compensation:
→ Life-long experience and skills
→ Weekly stipend of $100 a week

→ Referrals for future employment
→ Possible class credit

WDP is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages people of color, immigrants, and LGBT individuals to apply.

How to apply: Send letter of interest and one reference to Patricia Zavala, at patricia@workersdefense.org. For questions please call 512-391-2305

Intern Opening: Development Assistant in Austin, TX
Internship Period: June 13, 2011 to August 12, 2011
Last day to apply: April 8, 2011
The intern will work collaboratively with WDP’s Development Manager and Director to help plan and execute fundraising events. The intern will learn important skills in event planning, volunteer coordination, capacity building, and fundraising from a community-organizing focused organization.
Requirements:
→ 3.0 GPA
→ Strong written and verbal communication skills
→ Computer literate: Word, Internet, and e-mail
→ Ability to work independently
→ Commitment to social justice
→ Able to work 30 to 40 hours a week including some nights and weekends.
→ Fluent in Spanish not required but preferred

Responsibilities: Intern will work with WDP staff and volunteers to:
→ Assist in planning and executing WDP’s annual anniversary event
→ Help coordinate a dynamic team of volunteers to collect silent auction items, secure entertainment for anniversary, and solicit event sponsors.
→ Develop event marketing materials and conduct event PR
→ General Office Admin support, answering phones, data entry, writing e-mail alerts, mailings, etc.

Compensation:
→ Life-long experience and skills
→ Weekly stipend of $100 a week
→ Referrals for future employment
→ Possible class credit

WDP is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages people of color, immigrants, and LGBT individuals to apply.
How to apply: Send letter of interest and resume to Wesley Aten, at wesley@workersdefense.org. For questions please call 512-391-2305.

Get your Tickets for allgo’s Baile 2011: 25 Years and Still Dancing.

It is not too late to purchase an ad or to become a $100 individual sponsor. Our sponsorship packet is available here. You can also donate an item or a service for our silent auction

Food and drink catering provided by event sponsor: Alfred’s Catering

Prepare to dance to the amazing music that DJ Chorizo Funk spins.
He will be playing all the music that we love.
Join our soul train line and strut your stuff or dance the Bachata with a friend.

Come prepared to enjoy the company of queer people of color and allies.
Anticipate meeting new people. There is always someone to dance with.

Participate in the silent auction, purchase roses to give to a new friend or partner. Get your photograph taken to commemorate the occasion.

And don’t forget that when you purchase a ticket to this fund raising event it helps to support allgo’s social change work.
Come on and party with a purpose.

by Sharon Bridgforth
featuring Sharon Bridgforth, Florinda Bryant and the 2010-2011 Austin Project Ensemble

WHEN: Sunday February 20 at 6pm
WHERE: Winship Drama Building, Room 2.180
WHO: Sharon Bridgforth is a resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2009 and a writer working in the Theatrical Jazz Aesthetic. Her piece, blood pudding, was produced in the 2010 New York SummerStage Festival. She is the 2010-2011 Visiting Multicultural Faculty Member at The Theatre School at DePaul University.
MORE INFO: www.sharonbridgforth.com

Dear All,

As some of you know (and some have heard about ad nauseum), I play roller derby with the Texas Rollergirls and I’d like to invite you all to come watch the season opener on February 20 at the Austin Convention Centre. Tickets are on sale on the website currently, but I found out yesterday that they’re a couple bucks cheaper if you buy directly from me, so I will have paper ones available next week for anyone that wants to track me down. ($10 if you catch me, $12 if it’s more convenient to buy online, $15 if you wait til the last minute and buy at the door.) Wear purple and silver to support my team, the Hustlers!

A little background: roller derby is a grassroots, full-contact sport played primarily by women all over the world (400+ leagues including, yes, Australia) and Texas Rollergirls was the first league in the world to begin playing the sport in its modern incarnation. As well as the competitive league I’m a part of, there’s also a thriving recreational programme and our Derby Brats programme for girls under 18. The league is a women-owned, women-operated non-profit organisation with all the work done by its members as volunteers. It’s a great feminist organisation that I’m really proud to be a part of, but more importantly: it’s fun and I want to share it with you guys! It should be a great night out and I’d love it if you could be there.

Cheers,
Beck
WGS MA Graduate Student

As many of you know, the Texas After Violence Project is an independent non-profit organization conducting qualitative research about human rights violations, including serious violence, the criminal justice system, incarceration, and state executions.

We work primarily through a person-centered form of oral history in which we ask very few questions; we listen to and digitally record the first-person narratives of lived experience. When narrators have reviewed and approved the D.V.D.s and transcripts of their interviews, we make these narratives public in the manner and to the extent that their authors explicitly permit. We’ve started posting the materials online at the
Human Rights Documentation Initiative of the UT Libraries:

http://rmedia.lib.utexas.edu/index.php/Category:Texas_After_Violence_Project

Currently, we are also conducting a survey. With the support of Dr. Matt
Richardson and Diana Claitor, and with the organizational support of allgo: a queer people of color organization and the Texas Jail Project, we are surveying Texas county jails concerning their practices and policies regarding transgender inmates.

If you, your friends, students or colleagues want to participate in serious, purposeful qualitative research, please join us. We offer two eight-week training sessions this fall. Both will begin this week, one on Thursday nights 6 -8 on the U.T. campus, and one on Friday afternoons, 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. at our office by South Congress Avenue & Riverside Drive.

When: January 19th, 2010, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Where: House Wine, 408 Josephine Street, Austin, TX 78704

Join us for our first event of the year and learn about YNPN, professional development programs and events, how to get more involved, meet great people, and have a great time! “Do-Gooder Wednesdays” are hosted every third Wednesday of the month at various locations around town. House Wine donates 10% of profits back to YNPN. Please join us for the evening and bring a friend!

Austin Black And Brown Alliance (ABBA) is a newly formed organization that seeks to unify working class African American and Latina/o mestizos to address common forms of structural racism and classism.

In Austin and across the country, ethnic and racial tensions often exist between Latina/o mestizo and African American communities; tensions can at times be particularly strong among poor communities of color, and immigrant vs. non-immigrant communities. These differences keep potential allies suffering from similar forms of structural inequality and discrimination — be it in education, the criminal justice system, housing, and employment — divided. These divisions do not serve poor brown and black communities, but rather facilitate the perpetuation of institutionalized class and race oppression.

ABBA Goals:
• Develop a common understanding of structural racism and vision of a path towards equality with ABBA members
• Develop ABBA organizing campaigns to bring black and brown members together to work in partnership to address common issues

Help ABBA go door knocking in the Windsor Park & Sweany neighborhood to administer surveys with community members to learn more about the issues they are facing, proposed solutions, and community projects of interest to them. These surveys will serve as a guide in helping ABBA decide the next steps of its organizing work.

How it works:
1. Volunteers will be paired in bilingual teams (black and brown)
2. Receive an orientation/training on how to administer the surveys on January 20th at 6pm at the 5604 Manor Community Center
3. Administer surveys Saturday(s) January 22nd and 29th from 10am to 3pm (lunch will be provided).

If you are interested in participating please e-mail creolemaroon@yahoo.com with the following information:
Name
E-mail
Phone
Racial Identity(ies)
Languages Spoken (Spanish/English)
Short answer about why you are interested in participating.
Previous organizing experience.

Workers Defense Project is a membership-based organization that empowers low-income workers to achieve fair employment through education, direct services, organizing, and strategic partnerships.
Internship Position:
Development Department
Job Category: Fundraising & Development
Language(s): English with some Spanish
Area of Focus: Foundations, Fundraising, and Philanthropy
Type: Part time – 8 to 10 hours a week
Compensation: $100 Monthly Stipend
Last day to apply: January 16, 2011
Job Description
The organization seeks an interested individual to work part-time for the organizations Development (fundraising) Department. Task will include administrative duties like data entry, and filing, light research and correspondence; with other tasks assigned by the Development Director.
Qualifications
· Interest in workers’ rights;
· Commitment to Social Justice;
· A curiosity about non-profit fundraising;
How To Apply
Please send a resume and cover letter – which includes the reason you are interested in this position – as a word document attachement to info@workersdefense.org