Activists, alumni, and artists alike will help the TCNJ community celebrate Women’s History Month during the month of March and extending into early April, featuring two prominent figures — #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, and sociologist and author Patricia Hill Collins.
Download the poster of events from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and join us.
“Compassionate Advocacy”
Wednesday, March 27, 5:30 p.m.
Brower Student Center 100
Don’t miss the chance to meet Tarana Burke, founder of the #metoo movement. An African-American Civil Rights activist, Burke started the movement in 2006 to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment. By 2017, it had become a global phenomenon, encouraging survivors to share their stories.
“Generational Power: Intersectionality, Youth, and Political Activism”
Thursday, April 4, 5 p.m.
Mayo Concert Hall
Serving as the 100th president of the American Sociological Association in 2009, Patricia Hill Collins dedicated her life to activism and social education. Growing up as one of the few African-American women in her community, she often considered that “I saw nothing wrong with being who I was, but apparently many others did.” She used this disconnect from her peers to inspire herself to find her voice and speak her truth. After receiving a BA in sociology from Brandeis University, she went on to earn her MAT in social science education at Harvard. In 2005, she began teaching at the University of Maryland, where she is currently a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology. She is the author of several published works including “Learning from the Outsider Within” in Social Problems (1986), Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990), and Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism (2004).
Additional programming includes:
“When Paint Becomes Movement”
Tuesday, March 5, 12:30 p.m.
Library Auditorium
Kata Mejia, a graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Medellin (B.F.A), is a performance artist and painter whose work reflects on “chaos, order, and ritual.” She has received several scholarships and awards including a graduate studies scholarship from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2002, the James Nelson Raymond Fellowship in 2004, the Trustee Scholarship from SAIC, and a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 2009. Her work has been described as “abstract images suggesting physical transition and spiritual transcendence…similar to the way places and images blend in dreams.”
WGSS Alumni Panel
Wednesday, March 6, 6 p.m.
Library Auditorium
Featuring Alyssa Fountain Koch ‘13, Hakima Lamour ‘04, and Erin Shannon ‘16.
“Unpatriarchal Desires: Rethinking Masculinity in Transnational Practices”
Monday, March 11, 6 p.m.
Library Auditorium
Gul Ozyegin is the Margaret L. Hamilton professor of Sociology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at William and Mary. She has received numerous awards for her research including a fellowship from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. She was also a recipient for the 2011 Plumieri Award for Faculty Excellence. Some of her main areas of research involve gender and class in domestic labor, and sex, love, selfhood and the youth. She is the author of Untidy Gender and New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth.
Film Viewing: “Dawnland”
Wednesday, March 13, 1:30 p.m., 6 p.m.
Library Auditorium
A documentary portraying the unfortunate prevalence of Native Americans in the foster care system and placement into the homes of white families. The film examines the physical and emotional harm they gathered along the way as they were robbed of their identity and forced to assimilate into a culture that was not their own.
“White Fright: Collective Threat as a Racialized Feeling in White Americans”
Thursday, March 28, 6 p.m.
Library Auditorium
A talk by Ashley Reichelmann ’10, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Tech specializing in conflict and violence; race and ethnic relations; social psychology, collective threat, and research methods and statistics.
—Alexandra Mauriello ’19