The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is pleased to announce its Fall 2015 Colloquium Series, “Teaching and Social Justice.”
The series will begin on Friday, October 2 with “School’s Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom,” a talk by Dr. Catherine Connell, assistant professor of sociology at Boston University. Her talk, which is based in her book of the same name, considers the experiences of gay and lesbian identified teachers in California and Texas. In the book, Connell asks: how do gay and lesbian teachers grapple with their professional and sexual identities at work, given that they are constructed as mutually exclusive, even indeed as mutually opposed? The book explores the tension between the rhetoric of gay pride and the professional ethic of discretion in the context of other complicating factors, from local law and politics to race and gender privilege. This lecture is sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the UNL Faculty Senate Convocations Committee. It will take place at 12:30pm in the Georgian Suite of the Nebraska Union.
The series will conclude on Wednesday, October 28 with a lecture by Dr. Alice Kang, assistant professor of political science with a joint appointment in the Institute for Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In “Muslim Women’s Activism and Legislative Reform in Niger,” Kang argues that Muslim women are often portrayed in the U.S. media in a negative light, as covered and silent, needing to be saved. She will examine Muslim activists’ successes – and failures – at influencing legislative reform to provide a more accurate understanding of whether and how women, including Muslim women, affect political change. Dr. Kang’s talk is sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Institute for Ethnic Studies. It will take place at 3:30pm in the Colonial Rooms of the Nebraska Union, with a Q & A and brief reception to follow.
