Michigan Women's Studies Association
Schedule of Events
(Friday evening and all day Saturday)

Friday, MARCH 14    
Student Center Ballroom A
           
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. – Registration and Reception

6:30 – Buffet Dinner

7:30 – EMU Welcome
Rhonda Kinney Longworth, Interim Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs

7:35 – Women’s Studies Welcome and Introduction of Speakers
Linda Schott, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and Interim Director, Women and Gender Studies

7:45 – Keynote Address


learn more about womengirlsladies

Intergenerational feminists discuss what matters:

  • power
  • work
  • sex
  • motherhood
  • pop culture
  • the future
  • . . . and everything in between.

Book signing by featured speakers will follow Keynote Address/Questions

Our Featured Speakers are (click on names to visit their sites):

  • Kristal Brent Zook a 42-year- old, award-winning journalist and author of three books: I See Black People: Interviews with African American Owners of Radio and Television, Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Power and Pain, and Color by Fox: the Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television
  • Gloria Feldt, a 65-year-old author, commentator, speaker, and “freelance rabble rouser” most known for her 30 years of work with the  Planned Parenthood Federation of American and her books, The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women’s Rights and How to Fight Back, and Behind Every Choice Is a Story
  • Courtney E. Martin, a 27-year-old journalist, filmmaker, teacher, and recent author of the newly released book Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
  • Deborah Siegel, PhD,  a 38-year-old consultant on women’s issues and the author of the recent book, Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild.

 

Saturday, MARCH 15

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. – Registration/Continental Breakfast
Student Center (SC) 300

8:30 a.m. -10:00 a.m. – Breakout Sessions   

SESSION  I

  1. Speak Up, Speak Out, Take Charge:  A Woman-to Woman Political Campaign Panel
    SC Rm. 301                                          
    Moderator: Alice Audie-Figueroa, Here2There                                          
    Panelists:  Elizabeth Bunn, Secretary-Treasurer, International Union, UAW
                        Wendy Fields-Jacobs, International Union, UAW
                        Alice Audie-Figueroa, Here2There
                                              
    Tens of thousands of UAW women participated in an organized
    woman-to-woman political action program at their work places during the
    last four election cycles. Participants will learn how the program was
    conceived, developed, and executed.

  2. Gender in Public Spaces:  Confining/Challenging Assumptions
    SC Rm. 302         
    Convener:  Kate Mehuron, Eastern Michigan University

    “Civility or Self Defense:  Twentieth Century Advice to Women in
    Public Space”
                       Georgina Hickey, University of Michigan-Dearborn

    “Women, Counterinsurgency, and the U.S. Army:  Challenging the
    Genderless Frameworks of Military History and Doctrine”
                       Dawn Nickeson, Michigan State University

    “From Metrosexual to Retrosexual:  The Importance of the Shifting
    Male Gender Role to Feminism”
                       Katherine Anderson, Eastern Michigan University

    “Islam, Feminism, and Queers”
                       Charlene Ford, Central Michigan University

  3. Building Organizations in Michigan and Beyond
    SC Rm. 304
    Convener:  Kathleen Underwood, Grand Valley State University

    “National Family Court Watch Project: Cutting Through Power, Politics, and Gender”
                       Renee Beeker, President, National Family Court Watch Project and
                       President, Michigan National Organization for Women
          
    “Coming Out in Washtenaw County:  The Historic Formation of W.R.A.P.”
                       Julieanna Frost, Siena Heights University
                       Kassandra Frost, University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research

    “Effectiveness of Gay-Rights Coalition Building and Framing on Ethnic Audiences:  How Shall we (All) Overcome?
                       Vanessa L. Marr, Wayne State University

  4. Creation of the Screaming Sisterhood Action Network Panel          
    SC Rm. 310
    Moderator: Sue Rumph, Oakland University
    Panelists:  Joann Bautti-Roche, Gender and Sexuality Center, Oakland U
                            Elizabeth Thompson, Michigan Women’s Commission
                            Laura Horner, student, Oakland University

    Oakland University’s Gender and Sexuality Center will share the developmental stages of creating a mentoring program to encourage and develop student leaders.

  5. Teaching Women’s Studies in a Women’s Prison Panel
    SC Rm. 320
    Moderator:  Kathryn A. Ziegler, Eastern Michigan University
    Panelists:  Jessica Kilbourn, Robin Lucy, Dyann Logwood,
                         Amanda Smith, Kathryn Ziegler, Eastern Michigan University
                                              
    Describes the planning, administration, syllabus, and experiences of bringing an EMU Women and Gender Studies introductory course to a Michigan medium security prison.

10:00 a.m. -10:15 a.m. -  Break. SC Rm. 300

10:15 a.m.-11:45 a.m. – Breakout Sessions

SESSION  II

  1. Oppositional Femininities
    SC Rm. 301
    Convener:  Linda Schott, Eastern Michigan University

    “Buffy the Vampire Slayer:  Transgressive Television”
                       Elizabeth Comer, Eastern Michigan University

    “High Heels and Vintage Funk:  Fashion, Feminism and Contested Waves
    in the U.S. Women’s Movement”
                       Jo Reger, Oakland University

    “The Evolution of the ‘Chick Car,’ or What Came First, the Chick or the Car?"
                       Chris Lezotte, Eastern Michigan University

    “Hysteria, Sorcery, and Other Circuitous Femininities in Dracula”
                       Evelynn Benn, Eastern Michigan University

  2. Multiple Disciplinary Perspectives on Care Work                                                  
    SC Rm. 302
    Convener:  Suzanne Bergeron, University of Michigan-Dearborn

    “Care Work during the Transition to Adulthood”
                       Pamela Aronson, University of Michigan-Dearborn (Behavioral Sciences)

    “Moving Caring Labor Off the Straight Path”
                       Suzanne Bergeron, University of Michigan-Dearborn (Social Sciences)

    “A Conceptual Reconstruction of Autonomy in Relation to Caring Labor”
                       Maureen Linker, University of Michigan-Dearborn (Humanities)

  3. Trailblazing
    SC Rm. 304
    Convener:  Patricia Majher, Michigan Women’s Studies Association

    “Saint Clarissa:  Bodily Inscriptions in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa”
                       Kristin York, Eastern Michigan University

     “Making the Exotic Familiar:  Illustrations in Nineteenth Century
    American Female Missionary Magazines”
                       Cheryl Cassidy, Eastern Michigan University

    “Women Library Leaders as Trailblazers:  Mary Spencer and Loleta Fyan”
                       Sharon Ladenson, Michigan State University Libraries
    Portia Vescio, Michigan State Univ. Archives and Historical Collection

     “Poetry as Protest:  Alicia Partnoy’s The Little School (1986)"
                       Shelli Rottschafer, Aquinas College

  4. Pedagogical Voices and Visions
    SC Rm. 320
    Convener:  Tara Saathoff-Wells, Central Michigan University

    “Leaks in the Pipeline to Careers in Science and Technology – or – Why
    are women opting out of a career path where they are much needed?”
                       Rita Haase, University of Windsor, Ontario

    “Counting their Words:  How Female Students’ Tendency to Monitor Frequency of Speaking in the Classroom Translates to the Workplace”
                       Charmayne Mulligan, Davenport University-Main Campus

    “Challenging the Religious Right:  The Role of Women’s Studies in Creating Feminist Religious Literacy”
                       Pamela Milne, University of Windsor, Ontario

    “Teaching About Black Women:  Exploring Negative Images and Safe Places”
                       Dawn Hinton, Saginaw Valley State University

  5. Combining Academic Service-Learning and Information Literacy —a teaching strategy for Women and Gender Studies
    Halle Library
    Moderator:  Solange Simões, Eastern Michigan University                                          
    Panelists:  Solange Simões, Suzanne Gray, Kathy Stacey, Alaina Stuard plus discussants (Kathryn Ziegler, Dyann Logwood and Salima Zaman),
    Eastern Michigan University

    Discusses the potential and limitations of integrating academic service-learning and information literacy into the Introduction to Women’s Studies course offered at Eastern Michigan University.

11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Poster Session with Presenters

12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. – Luncheon and Address

“Does the Y Chromosome Matter? Women and the quest for political power

Speaker: Lynn Rivers, former member, U.S. Congress, Democrat from Michigan, and host, The Lynn Rivers Show, WEMU 89.1 FM

Introduction:  Linda K. Pritchard, Eastern Michigan University

2:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m. – Break

2:45 p.m.-4:15 p.m. - Breakout Sessions

SESSION III

  1. Literary Voices, (De)Constructed
    SC Rm. 301
    Convener:  Abby Coykendall, Eastern Michigan University

    “’A Transparent Building’:  The Metaphysical Panopticon in the Poetry
    of  Sylvia Plath”
                       Kate Williams, Eastern Michigan University

    “’Isn’t That Fragile?’: Communication and Change in Muriel Rukeyser’s
    Waterlily Fire”
                       Nicole Bryant, Eastern Michigan University

     “Disorder as Terror:  The Uncanny, the Mirror, and the Self-Other Binary in
    Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
                       Sarah Goletz, Eastern Michigan University

     “The Naked Land:  Femininity, Orientalism and Unstable Identities in
    Bram Stoker’s Dracula”
    Patrick John Manning, Eastern Michigan University

  2. Voices for International Justice
    SC Rm. 302          
    Convener:  Jessica Kilbourn, Eastern Michigan University

    “War Stories from the Voices of Women:  Fleeing Communist Occupied Latvia, 1945-1952”
                       Irene Elksnis Geisler, Western Michigan University

     “Michele Bachelet and the Quiet Revolution of her Presidency in Chile”
                       Deanna Mihaly, Eastern Michigan University

    “More than a Theoretical Exercise:  Seeking Justice in U.S. Policy on Amnesty Claims of Victims of Domestic Abuse”
                       Ellen Arrowsmith, Calvin College

    “Women in the Third World:  The Key to Successful Development”
                       Marina Islas, Aquinas College

  3. Video presentation, Passing the Torch
    SC Rm. 304

    A documentary about the struggles and accomplishments of the second wave of feminism in Michigan, 1965-1985.  Developed by the Michigan Veteran Feminists,
    Project coordinators, Gerry Barrons (in attendance) and Joan Israel

  4. Political Empowerment of Women Panel
    SC Rm. 310
    Moderator:  Joanna Scott, Eastern Michigan University
    Panelists:  Lisa Laverty, Rhoda Longworth, Elaine Martin,Claudia Petrescu, Judith Kulberg, Eastern Michigan University

    Compares women’s empowerment in several nations and in different political locales, from global to local, in order to identify cultural, historical, and institutional factors that influence the extent and exercise of women’s power.

  5. Women’s Community Collaborative: A Model for Collaboration Among Women’s Centers, Women’s Studies, and Community Agencies
    SC Rm. 320
    Moderator:  Julia Mason, Grand Valley State University
    Panelists:  Julia Mason, Marlene Kowalski-Braun, Rachel Hamilton, Sara Bosman, Tina Louise, Grand Valley State University

    Explores Grand Valley State University’s Women’s Community Collaborative (WCC).  The Women’s Center and the Women and Gender Studies Program jointly place interns at woman-centered non-profit organizations. Students design strategies for future cooperation among agencies.

4:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. – MWSA Business Meeting
                        Convener: Gladys Beckwith, Ph.D.
                                    President, Michigan Women’s Studies Association
                                    Executive Director, Michigan Women’s Historical Center & Hall of Fame