Women's and Gender Studies sponsors a colloquium series in which local and national scholars present their research. Because of the personalized nature of our program, students have an opportunity to interact with these scholars both formally and informally. In addition, Women's and Gender Studies cooperates with other departments and groups to co-sponsor poetry readings, films, concerts, panel discussions and art exhibits of women’s work. Recent visitors and performers include Patricia Hill Collins, Janice Gould, Jean Fagin Yellen, Mahnaz Afkhami, Londa Schiebinger, Toi Derricotte, Darlene Clark Hine, Beth Brant, Manjira Datta, Gloria Steinem, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Nomy Lamm, Leslie Feinberg, Barbara Smith, bell hooks, and the Guerrilla Girls.
Fall 2012 Series
"Reproductive Issues: Past and Present"
Thursday, September 27, 3:30pm
“Whose Business Is It Anyway? Or, How the American Birth Control League Waged Battle Against Commercial Birth Control Clinics in the 1930s”
Rose Holz Ph.D.(Women's and Gender Studies Program, UNL)
Nebraska Union (Room Posted)
Drawing upon her recent book on the history of Planned Parenthood, Holz will describe the birth control clinic movement in the 1930s, which witnessed the emergence not just of the more commonly described charity clinics but also commercial ones. What Holz reveals is an unexpected story ― about the breadth of the clinic movement and the charity movement’s efforts to contain it.
Professor Rose Holz is a historian and the Associate Director of the Women’s & Gender Studies Program.
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Thursday, October 25, 3:30pm
Surgical Sterilization, Regret, and Race: Contemporary Patterns
Julia McQuillan (UNL, Sociology) and Karina Shreffler (Human Development and Family Science, Oklahoma State University)
Nebraska Union (Room Posted)
Surgical sterilization is a relatively permanent form of contraception that has been overused on Black, Latina, and Native American women in the United States in the past. McQuillian and Shreffler will explore if sterilization is still more common and more consequential among Black, Latina, and Native American women compared to White women in the United States, and if the patterns are the same for all marginalized groups. McQuillan and Shreffler argue that their findings suggest that stratified reproduction has not ended in the United States and that the patterns and consequence of sterilization continue to vary by race.
Julia McQuillan is Chair of the Sociology department at UNL. Karina Shreffler is an Associate Professor in the department of Human Development and Family Science at Oklahoma State University.
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Monday, November 12, 3:30pm
"This Giving Birth:" The Politics of Pregnancy and Childbirth in African American Women's History and Literature
Kathleen Lacey (English and Women's and Gender Studies, UNL)
Nebraska Union (Room Posted)
American Black women’s pregnant bodies have historically been used and abused for profit, experimentation, and population control. Linking this history to African American women’s literature, Kathleen Lacey will explore the ways Black women authors reveal the complicated and nuanced experiences of being Black while pregnant.
The Daily Nebraska featured an article about the "'This Giving Birth':The Politics of Pregnancy and Childbirth in African American Women's History and Literature." You can read the article on the Daily Nebraskan website.
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Spring 2012 Series: “Masculinity”
Wednesday, January 18, 5:30pm
Whitman’s Leaves, Gamberale’s Foglie D’erba and the Language of Futurism and Fascism
Dr. Marina Camboni (University of Macerata, Italy)
Bailey Library, 229 Andrews Hall
Camboni’s lecture will explore the curious use and abuse of “manliness” as translators remade Whitman to advance fascism. Camboni’s work on poetry translation places issues of women and gender in a transnational and multilingual perspective.
In addition to her talk, a Brown Bag Lunch with Marina Camboni will be held on Friday, January 20 from 12:00-1:00pm in 316 Seaton Hall.
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Thursday, March 1, 7:30pm
Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men
Michael Kimmel (Sociologist, Author, and Lecturer)
Nebraska Union Auditorium
In 1950, most Americans had completed the transition from adolescence to adulthood by age 21 or so. Today, it's more likely to be by age 30. Kimmel explores this new stage of development in his presentation based on his best-selling book, Guyland. Based on interviews with more than 400 young people across the country, Kimmel offers a glimpse of why so many guys are adrift through their 20s, and offers a road map towards a more conscious adulthood.
You can read more about the event in the Daily Nebraskan.
A podcast of Kimmel's talk can be listened to here.
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Tuesday, April 3, 12:30pm
Roundtable Discussion: Incorporating Masculinity into Women’s and Gender Studies
Jan Deeds, James Garza, and Iker González-Allende (UNL)
Nebraska Union (Room Posted)
In 2004, the Women’s Studies Program voted to change its name to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, embracing the idea that gender is not just about the study of women and changing notions of femininities but also the study of gender more broadly, including the study of men and changing notions of masculinities.
Join us for a discussion with three UNL Faculty members about what it means to incorporate masculinities into Women’s Studies Programs. We will talk about the new intellectual insights this shift in focus has yielded, the effect it has on the types of courses taught and the students to whom it can appeal, and the controversies about this shift that remain.
Jan Deeds is the director of the Women’s Center and is on the board of directors of the American Men’s Studies Association and developed the “Introduction to Men's Studies.” IIker González-Allende is an Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages whose work has focused on masculinity and nationalism. James Garza is Associate Professor of History and Ethnic Studies and has examined masculinity in modern Mexico.
Fall 2011 Series
Wednesday, September 28, 7:00pm:
Environment, Democracy & Peace - A Critical Link
Wangari Maathai
Leid Center for the Preforming Arts
This lecture is part of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues.
This event has been canceled.
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Monday, October 10, 5:30pm:
Playing at the Center of the Cosmos: the Meaning of Hildegard's Ordo Virtutem
Dr. Margot Fassler (University of Notre Dame)
Great Plains Museum of Art. (Reception to Follow).
This is the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program's annual Mary Martin McLaughlin Memorial Lecture.
Hildegard von Bingen was an extraordinary 12th century abbess, visual and musical artist. Dr. Fassler is the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy and Co-Director of the Master of Sacred Music Program at the University of Notre Dame.
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Wednesday, October 26, 4:00pm:
A History of Act-Up
Sarah Schulman (Activist, Novelist, Playwright, and Scholar)
Nebraska Union (Room Posted)
Founded in the 1987 at the height of the AIDS crisis, ACT-UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was the transformative direct-action movement that forced our country to change its policies and attitudes towards People With AIDS. Looking to preserve the history of this fundamental movement, Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbardco-founded of the ACT-UP Oral History Project (www.actuporalhistory.org), an archive of long-form interviews with 128 surviving members of ACT UP, New York. In this multi-media presentation, Schulman will discuss ACT-UP's history and her work associated with the organization. She will also show a sneak preview sample of the upcoming feature film UNITED IN ANGER: A History of ACT UP, directed by Jim Hubbard and produced by Hubbard and Schulman.
Sarah Schulman’s novels, nonfiction books, journalism, films and plays reflect people whose points of view and experiences are rarely represented in the mainstream arts. Sarah has been involved in foundational movements for social change. Schulman is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at The City University of New York, College of Staten Island, and a Fellow at The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU.
