Past Events
Public Lecture by Susan Bordo, Thursday, March 8, 2012 5:30pm pm K-State Alumni Center
A groundbreaking philosopher and prominent cultural analyst, Susan Bordo has made major contributions to feminist, cultural, and gender studies as well as to psychology, sociology, history, and media studies. Her most well‐known book is Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body (1993), which looks at the impact of popular culture (including advertisements and television) in shaping expectations for the female body, and analyzes disorders such as anorexia, hysteria, and agoraphobia in relation to these representations, seeing them as "complex crystallizations of culture." Unbearable Weight was one of the New York Times' Notable Books of 1993, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and received a Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.
She has also authored three other books: The Flight to Objectivity, Essays on Cartesianism and Culture (1987), Twilight Zones: the Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J. (1997), and The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (1999). Bordo's paradigm‐shifting interpretation of Descartes earned her a place as a feminist "archetype of wisdom" in Douglas Soccio's philosophy textbook Archetypes of Wisdom. Her numerous articles and books on contemporary culture and the body have been translated into many languages and have been highly influential in many disciplines. She is included as one the six major theorists who have shaped literary studies in Michael Spikes' Understanding Contemporary American Literary Theory, and she is widely credited with having established the field of "body studies."
She is currently working on a book on Anne Boleyn, and it is on this topic that she will speak in March, in honor of Women's History Month. Her talk, "The Creation of Anne Boleyn" will trace changing historical ideas about and popular representations of Anne, from early partisan views of her as a religious martyr, to 19th century understandings of her as a victim to a tyrannical Henry, followed by the contemporary "temptress" image (as seen in the TV series The Tudors and the film The Other Boleyn Girl), up to the most recent interpretation of Anne as a "third wave" feminist heroine for young girls today (Bordo calls this "Viral Anne").
Be Bold Be Red Thursday March 8, 2012 12pm to 1pm
Boscoe Student Plaza
This event is a rally to end violence against women of color, inspired by a national campaign that the group INCITE! started. The rally is an open mic event where people are invited to speak, read poetry, sing, do anything they would like to express themselves on this subject. Event sponsored by FIRE
Minh Nguyen, “Youth Leadership and Community Activism: Lessons from Katrina” Thursday, February 9, 4:00, Leadership Studies Building
MINH NGUYEN LECTURE AND WORKSHOP
MINH NGUYEN is a first generation Vietnamese American, and a member of the Vietnamese
refugee community that formed on the outskirts of New Orleans after the Vietnam War.
Not only was this community devastated by Katrina, but in the aftermath of the hurricane,
New Orleans officials approved a fast track set‐up of a landfill to dump all the ruined
household goods and building materials in his neighborhood – despite the fact that
the landfill would be immediately next to a wetlands reserve and to canals that the
community farmed as a major foodsource. The community organized, fought back, and
won, in a story that united generations, races, and classes. Minh was one of the youth
leaders of the campaign to stop the landfill, and has since founded a permanent Youth
Leadership Association to address the needs of his community. His lecture and workshop
address both how to mobilize in response to an emergency, and also how to sustain
local activism and grassroots commitment.
Lecture: “Lessons After Katrina: Youth Leadership and Community Activism.” Thursday,
Feb 9, 4 pm, Leadership Building Town Hall. Free and open to the public.
Brownbag Lunch and Workshop on community mobilization in emergency as well as sustaining
grassroots involvement. Friday, Feb 10, 12:30-2:30, Leadership Building Conference Room (201). Free, but seating is limited:
Please contact mjanette@ksu.edu.
Minh’s talk will be of particular interest to readers of this year’s First Year Experience
book: Zeitoun, since his experiences also deal with a community that was left off
the political map as New Orleans dealt with the devastation of Katrina. Environmental
justice advocates and those invested in building youth leadership and community alliances
across differences in race, age, religion, and nation of origin will also find Minh’s
lecture highly useful. Plus, he is an extremely entertaining, inspirational speaker!
If you’d like more detailed background on the campaign to stop the landfill, I encourage
you to watch the documentary film “A Village Called Versailles,” which is owned by
Hale Library, and which also has a good accompanying website.
This event is sponsored by the Women’s Studies Department, the Leadership Program,
the Honors Program, and the DOW Multicultural Resource Center of Hale Library.
Women of Color Film Series Fall 2011
Friday, October 14, 4 pm, Leasure 13
Using moving stories from her Kahnawake Reserve, filmmaker Tracey Deer reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and questions the lingering "blood quantum" ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community. Film title "Club Native"
Sponsored by the Women's Studies Department and the Women's Studies Ambassadors.
Kristy Parker, for the United States: Behind the Scenes in the Prosecutor's Office, Civil Rights Division, US Department of Justice.
Friday, October 7, 12:30 pm, Hale Library, Hemisphere Room
Free public Lecture October 7, 2011 at 12:30pm in Hale Library Hemisphere Room. Sponsored by the Women's Studies Advisory Board, K-State Libraries, History Department, Phi Beta Kappa and the University Honors Program.
Women of Color Film Series Spring 2011 (pdf)
Public Lecture by María Lugones
Thursday, October 28, 2010, Leadership Studies Building, Town Hall
This event is organized by Fire and sponsored by Student Governing Association's Diversity
Programming Committee, the Dow Multicultural Resource Center, K-State Women's Studies
Program and Philosophy department.
María Lugones is an internationally renowned feminist philosopher and popular educator whose political work and research focuses on building deep coalitions against multiple oppressions. Professor Lugones will speak about the current divide-and-conquer strategies that prevent solidarity within and across diverse communities of people struggling for better lives in the face of global economic crises. Grounded in over 30 years of political work in Latin America and U.S. communities of color, Lugoness lecture will expose connections between debates in U.S. multiculturalism, transnational and women of color feminism, as well as introduce her current work on the development of what she calls "decolonial feminism."