Women in the Curriculum Fall Lunch Series Set

Contact: Media contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571

ORONO — Domestic violence, women’s advocacy and the oral histories of women military veterans will be among the topics discussed during the University of Maine’s Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program’s brown bag lunch series this semester.

The discussions will be held from 12:15-1:30 p.m. in Memorial Union’s Bangor Lounge, with one exception.  The Sept. 9 event is scheduled for the Coe Room, also in Memorial Union.

The series is meant to share the work being done on women’s issues in the community and to interest students in taking Women’s Studies courses, as well as t encourage faculty to teach such courses and to incorporate material on women into the rest of their courses.  The discussions also showcase the women’s studies scholarship being done on campus by faculty members, students and staff and demonstrate to the community the breadth and depth of intellectual and cultural work done on women’s issues. Campus/community cooperation is an important feature in this semester’s series.

The schedule of discussions is as follows:

Tuesday, Sept. 9 — Twenty-five years of Advocacy: The Maine Women’s Lobby, Past Present and Future, Laura Fortman, Maine commissioner of labor and Sarah Standiford, executive director of the Maine Women’s Lobby and Maine Women’s Policy Center

Tuesday, Sept. 16 —  Water/Fire, Tea and Bread: Women’s Work and Hospitality in Morocco, Rose-Lynn Fisher, photographer and curator  Co-sponsored by Hudson Museum

Tuesday, Sept. 23 — 1-800-COLONIZE: U.S. Corporations Outsource Call Centers to India, Kimberlee Perez, graduate student in communication and women’s studies

Tuesday, Sept. 30 — “We’re not Feminists, We’re Just Fair!”: The Social Construction of Gender and Politics Among Breast Cancer and Anti-Rape Activists, Amy Blackstone, assistant professor of sociology Preview for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Wednesday, Oct. 8 — Understanding and Responding to Perpetrators of Dating Violence in School Settings, Carole Sousa, independent consultant on domestic violence work Part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, co-sponsored by the UMaine Safe Campus Project

 Wednesday, Oct. 15 — Town and Gown Connections: Working Together Against Domestic Violence, Carolyn Ball, associate professor of public administration; Naomi Barnum, women’s studies major and Spruce Run volunteer; Susan Iverson, doctoral candidate in education; Renate Klein, assistant professor of human development and family studies, project director of the UMaine Safe Campus Project

Wednesday, Oct. 22 — Somali Women Speak Out, Judith Burke, UMaine university studies and women’s studies graduate; Sarah Y. Gure, resident of Lewiston; Hani Mohammed, AmeriCorps volunteer, Somali Assistance Project

Wednesday, Oct. 29 — Men and Violence: Why the Denial and Anger?, Myrian Medzian, Visiting Libra Professor in Peace Studies Co-sponsored by Peace Studies, the UMaine Safe Campus Project and Cooperative Extension

Tuesday, Nov. 4 — Being and Community in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” Ana Luszczynska, lecturer in English

Tuesday, Nov. 11 — Common Causes: Two Generations of Maine Women in Progressive Politics, Chellie Pingree, president and CEO of Common Cause and State Rep. Hannah Pingree (District 129)

Tuesday, Nov. 18 — Pallas Athena in Maine: Oral Histories of Women Military Veterans, Davida Kellogg, adjunct professor of military science and Pauleena MacDougall, associate director of the Maine Folklife Center

Wednesday, Dec. 3 — Why Did they Do It? The Women Who Discovered Sex Hormones and Vitamin E at UC Berkeley, 1915-1940, Diana Long, professor of history, University of Southern Maine

Wednesday, Dec. 10 Babies, Babies, Babies!: Faculty, Staff, and Student Mothers Work it Out, Michele Alexander, assistant professor of psychology; Nancy Lewis, director of reference at Fogler Library; Gary Quimby, director of UMaine’s Children’s Center and faculty associate in human development; Stephanie Strong, nursing and women’s studies major

For more information, call 581-1228 or visit http://www.umaine.edu/wic.