What have women been up to the past 100 years? Feminist scholars from India, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Australia, Ireland, Norway, and Malaysia will join their American counterparts at a conference at the University of California, Santa Barbara, April 23-25, to examine the social, economic, and cultural progress women have made during the 20th century. (See attached schedule for specific event, place, and time.)
"The conference is intended to open dialogue among scholars of women's studies and women activists, but many of the topics were selected for their universal appeal," said Shirley Geok-lin Lim, chair of UCSB's Women's Studies Program and organizer of the conference. "UCSB's Women's Studies Program is moving consciously from a chiefly U.S. and North America-based body of study to incorporate more global research and activist agendas. This conference reflects our program's expanding interests for it will spotlight women from non-Western territories, as well as Europe and the Americas."
The broadly defined conference titled "Women Transforming the Public" will focus on the latter half of the 20th century and include such topics as women's return as healers; women writers and publishing; women construction workers; women and HIV; sexual minorities in the military; reproductive rights; women in national and international spheres; and a session intriguingly titled "Sex, Voodoo & Liberation."
Friday's plenary session will honor Ritu Menon, who co-founded the Kali Press for Women in 1984 in India, a press that gives voice to women in the Third World; Ailbhe Smyth, an Irish activist and scholar from the National University of Ireland, Dublin; and Ruth Rosen, UC Davis professor of history.
The Friday panel on women as healers---including local physicians Karen Johnson of Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic and Julie Taguchi, Sansum Medical Clinic---will discuss what has changed and what has remained the same in medical treatment now that women are increasingly the ones who deliver care.
"Women have applied to and finished medical school in record numbers over the past 30 years according to the American Medical Association," says Deborah Sills, associate professor of religion, California Lutheran University and chair of the session. "There are more women practicing as physicians now than at any other time in this century."
The "Sex, Voodoo & Liberation" session on Saturday morning will examine a $5 million dollar sex toy business co-owned by 50 women and dedicated to sex education; the fat liberation movement; and women's moral and spiritual leadership in Haitian Voodoo.
Saturday's plenary sessions will be on women as researchers and writers with the editors of Feminist Press (Florence Howe) and Feminist Studies (Claire Moses), among others, as well as UCSB's own editors---Gender and Society (Beth Schneider) and Camera Obscura (Constance Penley, who was named by Rolling Stone magazine as among the eight most dangerous minds in America).
"UCSB has quite a share of significant editors and researchers. It will be a great opportunity for women interested in publishing their research and creative work to hear noted publishers and editors speak," said Lim, who is an award-winning author and poet.
The Sunday plenary session will assess what women have achieved, and the challenges to come, with Joan K. Peters, author of "Work: Loving Our Children Without Sacrificing Ourselves"; Crystal Kile, a third-wave feminist from Newcomb College Center for Research on Women; and Lim.
"Here, at the end of the century, as women from different generations and cultures, we will explore the question 'what do women really want?' Men ask women that all the time," added Lim.
Registration fee is $50; conference dinner with Sage publisher Sara Miller McCune, is an additional $15. Registration fee includes Friday's reception buffet, Saturday and Sunday breakfasts, and Sunday lunch. To register, or for more information, call 893-4330.
"Women Transforming the Public" Schedule, April 23-25, 1999 Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC) 6th Floor, Humanities & Social Sciences Building
Friday, April 23, 1999
11:30 - 1:00 REGISTRATION, IHC
1:00 WELCOME, McCune Conference Room Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Chair of Women's Studies, UCSB Ilene Nagel, Executive Vice Chancellor, UCSB Ed Donnerstein, Acting Dean, College of Letters and Science, UCSB Announcement of the Hull Endowed Chair in Women & Social Justice
1:15 -3:00 PLENARY, McCune Conference Room Transforming the Public: Women in National & International Spheres Chair: Gayle Binion, UCSB Ailbhe Smyth, Professor, National University of Ireland Ritu Menon, Kali for Women, India Ruth Rosen, Professor of History, UC Davis
3:00 - 3:15 BREAK
3:15 - 4:45
BREAK OUT SESSION I
A: Feminist Theory and Women's StudiesLocation: HSSB Room 3041 Chair: Edwina Barvosa-Carter, UCSB- Carol Wolfe Konek, Wichita State University: "Global Feminist Scholars and Activists: Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory"- Catherine M. Orr, Beloit College: "Internationalizing 'Experience': Questions about the Implementation of an International Program in Women's Studies"- Juliet Williams, UCSB: "The Personal is Political: Thinking Through the Clinton/Lewinsky/Starr Affair"
B: Women & Political Organizing: Race & Nation Location: HSSB Room 5024 Chair: Stephan Miescher, UCSB- Vivian Price, UC Irvine: "Women Construction Workers and Race: Affirmative Action & Community Pressure"- Teresa Konechne, Virginia Commonwealth University: "Activist Art: Voices of Artists at Beijing '95"- Anna Everett, UCSB: "Taking it to the Streets: The Internet and the Million Women March"
C: Reproduction and the State I Location: HSSB Room 6028 Chair: Mayfair Yang, UCSB- Laury Oaks, UCSB: "The Transformation of Public Discourses on Irish Abortion Policy in the 1990s"- Janine Holc, Loyola College, Maryland: "Creating the New Capitalist Family: Women, Reproduction and Democratic Anxiety in Contemporary Poland"- Maurizia Boscagli, UCSB: "Women, Reproduction, and the State: The Personal, the Political, and the Return to Eugenics"
D: Women's Work? What do Three Healers Have to Say About Women's Return to Medicine? (panel) Location: HSSB Room 4020 Chair: Deborah Sills, California Lutheran Doris Banchik, RN, MBA, Yale University, New Haven Cristel Bejanke, M.D., Anesthesiology & Medical Hypnosis, Santa Barbara Karen Johnson, M.D., Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic Julie Taguchi, M.D., Sansum Medical Clinic, Santa Barbara
4:45 - 5:00 BREAK
5:00 - 6:15
BREAKOUT SESSION II
A: Theorizing the Politics of the Female Body Location: HSSB Room 3041Chair: Mary Hancock, UCSB- Lisa Foisy, University of Oregon: "Gender/Body/Knowledge: Feminist Reconstructions of Being and Knowing"- Clarissa Hsu, University of Washington: "I Used to Dread Those Nights: Maje Nwe, Gender and the Politics of Sexual Magic in Saint Lucia"-Ishita Sinha Roy, USC: "From Earth to Fire: The Female Body and Body Politic in the Indian Imaginary"
B: Life Stories as Feminist History Location: HSSB Room 5024 Chair: Claire Weber, UC Irvine- M. Ligaya Hattari, California Institute of Integral Studies: "Life History as Research - A Filipina Immigrant's Story in the U.S."- Ann G. Klein, University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire: "Leta Stetter Hollingworth, Feminist, Psychologist and Educator: A Biography-in-Progress"- Amanda Third, Curtin University Women: "Terrorism and the State: Valerie Solanas' 'SCUM Manifesto' and Feminist Terrorist Practice"
C: Transforming Women's Awareness of HIV Risks Through Community Mobilization and Grassroots Media Campaigns (panel) Location: HSSB Room 4020 Susan Shaw, Ph.D., Oregon State University Donna Chammpeau, Ph. D., Oregon State University Laura Brumfield, NPCNM, Benton County Health Department Marty Perrigan, BSN, Benton County Health Department
6:15
RECEPTION: Buffet-Style Finger Foods & Wine, McCune Conference Room
Saturday, April 24, 1999
8:30 REGISTRATION and CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, IHC
9:00 - 9:05
OPENING REMARKS BY CHANCELLOR HENRY YANG
9:05 - 10:30
PLENARY, McCune Conference Room Women Writing, Feminist Publishing I Chair: Kum Kum Bhavnani, Founding Editor, Feminism & Psychology Florence Howe, Publisher, Feminist Press Elaine Kim, Editor, Making Waves II Beth Schneider, Editor, Gender and Society
10:45- 12:00 BREAK-OUT SESSION III
A: Sex, Voodoo & Liberation Location: HSSB Room 3041 Chair: Ednie Garrison, UCSB- Meika Loe, UCSB: "Feminism for Sale: Case Study of a Pro-Sex Feminist Business" - Claudine Michel, UCSB: "Women's Moral and Spiritual Leadership in Haitian Voodoo"- Suzie Tepperman, University of Northern British Columbia: "Fat Herstories: An Examination of the Fat Liberation Movement and Beyond"
B: Feminist Praxis & Public Health Location: HSSB Room 5024 Chair: Vivian Barrera, UCSB- Cheng Gaik Khoo, University of British Columbia: "Anne Livingston and VANDU (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users)"- Nancy Naples & Marnie Dobson, UC Irvine: "Towards a Multiracial Feminist Social-Democratic Praxis: A Comparative Analysis of Aboriginal Health Care Workers and U.S. Community Workers of Color"- Amanda Risser, Stanford University: "Whose Culture? How Amayra Women in the Bolivian Andes Challenge the Science of Biomedical Childbirth"
C: Reproduction & the State II Location: HSSB Room 4020 Chair:Xiaojian Zhao, UCSB- Nancy W. Jabbra, Loyola Marymount University: "Women, the State, and Family Planning Programs in Egypt and Iran: Unintended Beneficiaries of Public Policies"- Vijiyan K. Pillai & Guang-Zhen Wang, University of Arkansas, Little Rock: "Women's Reproductive Rights in Developing Countries: An Empowerment Model"- Korey L. Capozza, Independent Journalist: "A Deadly Silence: Clandestine Abortion in Latin America"
D: Women in International Literature: Rhetoric & Resistance Location: HSSB Room 2001A Chair: Norma Cantu, UCSB- Claire Joysmith, CISAN/UNAM, Mexico & Earlham College, Indiana: "Transculturation, Translation and Gender: Mexicana and Chicana Discourse in Perspective"- Hui Wu, University of Central Arkansas: "The Rhetoric of Post-Mao Chinese Women Writers"- Ooi Eng Lye, Universiti Sains, Malaysia: "Resisting Patriarchal Forces: Trailing Female Consciousness in Modern Day Malay Women as Depicted in Shahnon Ahmad's Works"
12:00 - 1:30 BOX LUNCH Lunch Time Videos:Beheroze F. Shroff, UC Irvine: "A Life Before Death" Location: HSSB Room 5024 Mayfair Yang, UCSB: "Through Chinese Women's Eyes" Location: HSSB Room 4020
1:30 - 2:45 BREAK-OUT SESSION IV
A: Sexual Minorities in the Military (panel) Location: McCune Conference RoomChair: Aaron Belkin, UCSB Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Cornell University: "Inside Activism: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the US Military"Steven Zeeland, Center for Research & Education in Sexuality (CERES): "Ranking Desire"
B: Situating Women's Progress: Local and Civic Action Location: HSSB Room 4020 Chair: Tatyana Voronchenko, Fulbright Scholar, UCSD- Gabrielle O'Malley, University of Washington: "Women Negotiating Culture in Zanzibar Town"- Sigrid Skalnes, Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research: "Rural Women's Public Participation in Norway"- Jid Lee, Middle Tennessee State University: "Making Gender an Independent Category: Korean Women's Achievement of Equality"
C: Intersecting Gender & Genre Location: HSSB Room 5024 Chair: Susan Koshy, UCSB-Nina Morgan, Kennesaw State University: "Between Myth and History: The Legacy of Eva Peron in Thomas Eloy Martinez's Santa Evita"-Agnes Suranyi, Janus Pannonius University: "Paradise: A Novel Transforming the Public's Image of Colored Women"-Libbie Rifkin, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa: "'My Little World Goes on St. Mark's Place': Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, and the Gender of an Avant Garde Institution"
D: Feminist Political Action Committees: Local & National Social Change (panel) Location: HSSB Room 3041 Chair: Beth Schneider, UCSB- Members of the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee
3:00 - 4:15 BREAK-OUT SESSION V
A: Gender in the Construction of the National and Transnational Subject Location: HSSB Room 3041 Chair: Laura Holliday, UCSB- Patrizia Longo, St. Mary's College of California: "Sexual Difference and Social Citizenship in Italy"- Ludmila Popkova, Samara State University: "Gender Policy: American Experience and Russia"- Eliza Noh, UC Berkeley: "Problematics of Transnational Feminism for Asian American Women"
B: Women in the Sciences
Location: HSSB Room 2001A Chair: Barbara Prezlin, UCSB- Denise Gurer, SRI International Women and Technology: Why are We Losing so Many Women in Computer Science?- Deborah M. Hussey, Stanford University: "Women and Socialization in Science"- Marge Graves, Iowa State University: "Retraining Women Scientists in the Ukraine for Employment"
C: Women's Human Rights & International Organizing Location: HSSB Room 4020 Chair: Nancy Gallagher, UCSB- Kristen Ghodsee Filipov, UC Berkeley: "The Role of the International Aid Community on Women's Civil Organization in Post-Communist Bulgaria"- Lisa Laumann, UCLA: "Women and NGOs in Pakistan: Breaking New Ground"- Leyla Pervizat, International Forum for Social Sciences in Health: "Honour Killings in Turkey: Untold Stories of Women's Human Rights Violations"
D: Women Opposing U.S. Militarism: The East Asia-U.S. Women's Network Location: HSSB Room 5024- Margo Okazawa Rey, San Francisco State University School of Social Work: "Amerasian Children"- Gwyn Kirk, East Asia - US Women's Network Against US Militarism:
"Military Violence Against Women"- Deborah Lee, Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies, Pacific School of Religion: "Economics and Militarism"- Martha Matsuoka, UCLA School of Urban Planning: "Women Defining Community Development Through Political Activism"- Yoko Fukumura, Okinawa Prefecture Leadership Scholar: "Bridging the Generations: Women's Anti-Military Activism in Okinawa"
4:30 - 6:00 PLENARY PANEL, McCune Conference Room Women Writing, Feminist
Publishing II Chair: Maria Herrera-Sobek, UCSB Tey Diana Rebolledo, University of New Mexico Claire Moses, Editor, Feminist Studies Constance Penley, Editor, Camera Obscura
6:30 CONFERENCE DINNER BUFFET China City 5688 Calle Real, Goleta (walking distance from the Best Western South Coast Inn & Holiday Inn) Introduction: TBA Dinner Speaker: Sara
Miller McCune, Publisher, Sage
Sunday, April 25, 1999
8:30 Continental Breakfast, IHC
9:00 - 10:15 PLENARY, Mc Cune Conference Room The "Women" Question Chair: Oyeronke Oyewumi, UCSB Joan K. Peters, Independent Scholar and Author Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, UCSB Crystal Kile, Newcomb College Center for Research on Women
10:30 - 11:45 BREAK-OUT SESSION VI
Transnational Feminisms Location: HSSB Room 3041Chair: Catherine Nesci, UCSB- Nancy Forsythe, University of Maryland: "Global Patterns in Gender Inequalities and Women's Status: Recent Evidence and Debates"- Sivamohan Sumathy, Washington State University: "Traveling Theory and Migrant Women: The Middle Passage of Sri Lankan Tamil Women of the Diaspora"
Women Resisting Violence: Private & State Discourses Location: HSSB Room 5024 Chair: Kathy Jones, San Diego State University- Stephanie J. Brommer, UCSB: "Helping Women Help Themselves: South Asian Women Challenging Public and Private Constructions"- Haley Hinda Seif, UC Davis: "Lesbian/Battered Woman: Lesbian Feminism and the Battered Women's Movement I Del Martin Archival Collection"- Marguerite R. Waller, UC Riverside: "Making the Walls Come Down: A Feminist Video From Kosova"
Public & Private PoliticsLocation: HSSB Room 4020Chair: Mary Jacob, UCSB- Lorraine Bayard de Volo, University of Kansas: "Public vs. Private Transformations: Maternal Organizations in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Argentina"- Rosalind Bresnahan, California State University San Bernadino: "Women and the Re-creation of the Public Sphere in Chile: Grass Roots Communication during the Pinochet Dictatorship 1973-1990"- Kazuko Watanabe, Kyoto Sangyo University:"Sexual Harassment on Japanese Campuses"
Visual Culture & Public Gender EducationLocation: HSSB Room 2001AChair: Lisa Parks, UCSB- Elizabeth K. Jackson, California State University Bakersfield: "The Challenges of Producing Educational TV in Ethiopia"- Christie Milliken, University of Southern California: "Drew Confess
ons?: Stars as Pedagogues in the Public Service"- Gill Wright Miller, Denison University: "The Social Construction of Public Pregnancy: Case Study"
12 noon LUNCH BUFFET, IHC
Conference Adjourned
Registration fee: $50.00 (includes campus parking, reception, box lunch and morning refreshments) Conference dinner (optional) $15.00 Registration fee for graduate students: $30.00 (includes campus parking,reception, morning refreshments, box lunch, and conference dinner)
Make checks payable to UC REGENTS. PLEASE PRE-REGISTER BY FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1999.
AFTER THAT, A $10 FEE WILL BE ADDED.
Please DO NOT e-mail or fax registration forms.
For more information, please contact Joanne at
Co Sponsors:Anthropology; Asian American Studies; Black Studies; Chicano Studies; English; Film Studies; History; Interdisciplinary Humanities Center; Law & Society; Luis Leal Chair; Political Science; Sociology.
With Thanks To:Chancellor Henry Yang; Women's Studies Benefactor Blair Hull; Executive Vice Chancellor Ilene Nagel; Dean of Social Sciences Ed Donnerstein; Ray Huerta, Affirmative Action Office Coordinator; and
Jennifer L. Purcell, Assistant Dean of Development, Social Sciences.
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