Monday, December 11, 2006

Project Specifications

Project Components

“Feminism Now” is composed of three primary, organized components, outlined as follows.

I.Feminism Now” Colloquia Series

A series of informal colloquium events will serve as the organizing spine of “Feminism Now.” At the present time, five colloquia have been proposed for the spring 2007 semester.

Feminism & Sexuality – featuring panelists discussing issues such as women and pornography, reproductive rights, prostitution, and bisexuality. Potential panelists include Ryan Shanahan, graduate student in the University of Maryland’s Department of Women’s Studies and active member of HIPS: Helping Independent Prostitute’s Survive; Jill Paquin, graduate student in UMD’s Department of Counseling and Personnel Services and former staff member of NARAL; Julie Arseneau, graduate student in UMD’s Department of Counseling and Personnel Services and published emerging expert on bisexual women and sexual identity development; Dr. Laura Mamo, Assistant Professor of Sociology (UMD).

Men Doing Feminism – featuring panelists discussing the role of men in feminist scholar-activism. Potential panelists include Dr. Angel David Nieves, Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation and Director of Graduate Training and Research at the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity (UMD); Robb Hernandez, graduate student in American Studies and founding director of the Latina/o Studies Working Group (UMD)

Politics & Feminism – spotlight presentation from Ambassador Frances Cook, first women U.S. Ambassador to the Middle East (Oman).

Globalizing Feminisms – panel of expert academic feminists discussing feminism in globalized contexts. Potential panelists include Dr. Michelle Rowley, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies (UMD); Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, Assistant Professor of American Studies (UMD); and Dr. Lois Vietri, Professor of English (UMD).

Women, Work and Culture – featuring panelists discussing women’s roles in male-dominated fields, especially science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Potential panelists include Dr. Ruth Fassinger, Professor of Counseling and Personnel Services/Counseling Psychology and principal investigator of the ENHANCE Project (UMD); Erin Deery, undergraduate engineering student and Honors Humanities Program member; Dr. Paige Smith, Director of Women in Engineering, A. James Clark School of Engineering (UMD).

The preceding list is clearly not exhaustive of all relevant issues and topics. Future panels might include a pro-life/pro-choice dialogue, as well as panels on disability, transgenderism, the history of feminism, women’s health, international development and women and warfare, among many others.

II. “Feminism Now” Reading Group

The “Feminism Now” Reading Group, led by Gender Caucus members Rayyan Ghuma and Anqi Fu, will meet periodically during the semester to discuss literature, television and film relevant to the “Feminism Now” colloquia. This reading group is designed to facilitate discussion among interested students and to create a designated space for students to come together and dialogue around a range of gender topics.

III. “Feminism Now” Online

The “Feminism Now” Online Web site will feature a blogspace that will serve to: a) inform interested parties about upcoming relevant events, not limited to those specific to “Feminism Now,” and b) facilitate conversations, networking and information exchange among people interested in “Feminism Now” and other scholarship and activism related to gender issues.

Introduction

Overview

The Honors Humanities Gender Caucus has planned a series of panel presentations, colloquia and informal conversations for the spring and fall of 2007 organized around the topic, “Feminism Now.” Conceptually, Feminism Now is designed to address the past, present and future of feminisms, particularly as they relate to issues directly affecting women’s lives, such as reproductive rights, pornography, international politics and gender and sex-based oppressions worldwide. As an ongoing series of special programs and events, “Feminism Now” should bring together students, faculty and staff throughout the University of Maryland community (and beyond) to discuss, learn, challenge, and dialogue around the complex ways in which gender inequality continues to shape the everyday lives of all people in the United States and around the world. Feminism Now aims to be innovative in its approach by examining gender oppression through an intersectional lens, exposing ways in which multiple dimensions of difference (e.g. race, sexuality, nationality, ability) shape all people’s experiences of gender inequality, discrimination and oppression.

Project Impetus

This project was motivated by an informal network of Honors Humanities community members who continue to perceive highly negative attitudes toward feminism and gender issues in mass culture, generally, and the University community, specifically. Prevailing attitudes toward gender- and sex-based oppression seem to imply that gender inequality is no longer an issue affecting men and women in the U.S. Such attitudes similarly work to distance Americans from explicit gender oppression occurring in other places throughout the world, such as Sudan and Afghanistan. Furthermore, by denying the existence of gender inequality, these attitudes have the effect of symbolically separating gender from other forms of oppression, such as racism, classism, heterosexism and ablism. In other words, such attitudes deny or obscure the intersectionality of gender and other forms of identity.

Even in contexts in which the persistence of contemporary gender oppression is acknowledged, there often exists a palpable reluctance to engage with feminisms as perspectives that a) might be useful to shed light on how gender continues to be an organizing component of social life and b) offer ways to combat gender inequality and generate positive social change. At least for undergraduate students in Honors Humanities, feminism seems to be a caricaturized movement left far behind in the 1960s. Accordingly, feminism is sometimes viewed as too radical (“The Vagina Monologues”) and too irrelevant (the suffrage movement) to the lives of young adult U.S. women.

Regardless of this perceived resistance to feminism, Honors Humanities is a vibrant community of engaged student-activists, many of who devote much of their time and energy to social justice. Honors Humanities is an accepting community of critical thinkers and motivated citizen-scholars. Over the course of fall 2006, it become clear to the members of the newly formed Gender Caucus through conversations in the classroom, residence hall and greater University community that Honors Humanities was ready and willing to have conversations about feminism. A lack of exposure to contemporary feminist ideas appears to be much more the source of resistance than ignorance or intolerance.

As such, “Feminism Now” is envisioned as a variety of events and programs to expose students to the diversity of ways in which feminism can empower rather than oppress; include rather than exclude; innovate rather than stagnate; trouble rather than stabilize. Contemporary feminism – at least in the abstract – has failed in many cases to appeal to young American women, particularly those whose race and class privilege has shielded them from experiencing (or perceiving) overt forms of discrimination and those for whom “feminism” remains something only relevant to White, middle-class, heterosexual women. Through inclusive conversations that focus on application rather than academic theory, “Feminism Now” hopes to expose, educate and empower all members of Honors Humanities and the University of Maryland community. By (re)considering feminism in all its diversity, we hope to offer fresh perspectives and new ways for knowing and doing social justice.