April 18
Second Annual Graduation Celebration
Join graduating seniors, current students, alumni, and friends in a celebration of the Women's & Gender Studies and LBGTQ & Sexuality Studies programs! Come dressed to celebrate.

April 4
It's On Us Week of Action Keynote: The Canary in the Coal Mine,presented by Dr. Gail Stern, Catharsis Productions
Dr. Gail Stern is the co-founder of Catharsis Productions, co-author of the non-stranger rape prevention program Sex Signals, and author of the programs, Beat the Blame Game, and Teaching Rape as a Moral Issue. Dr. Stern will be presenting The Canary in the Coal Mine as the keynote for the spring 2019 It's On Us Week of Action. This presentation utilizes the ongoing debate over whether or not rape jokes are appropriate to explore the foundations of rape culture in a meaningful and accessible way. The Canary in the Coal Mine will highlight what factors support sexual violence within popular and military cultures, drawing on research from the fields of moral development education, bystander intervention, and sexual violence prevention education. Join us for Dr. Stern's presentation on Thursday, April 4 in Room 1300 of the FRIB. The first session will be held from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. and the second will be held from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

March 29
5th Biennial Undergraduate Research Showcase
The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) invites MSU undergrad students to present research exploring issues of gender, women, and sexuality locally, nationally, and globally for its fifth biennial undergraduate research conference on Friday, March 29, 2019. The showcase, entitled "New Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality: an Undergraduate Showcase," is designed to inspire undergraduate research on women, gender, and sexuality and contribute to the advancement of a focused learning community for students and faculty. This event will provide an opportunity for undergraduates to present their work on these topics in a professional setting and receive feedback, as well as allow them to connect, network with, and learn from graduate students, faculty, and other undergraduates in similar fields. The event will also feature Keynote Speaker Dr. Jacqueline Rhodes!

March 15
Colloquia: Listening to Indigenous and Mestizo Women of Latin America's Past, presented by Dr. Rocío Quispe-Agnoli, Department of Romance & Classical Studies
Is it possible to imagine national histories written by women? If yes, would this be an expression of gendering historical discourse with an equal value as the official one written by male authors? And what does it mean to be a woman author? Direct and indirect women’s access to the expression of their ideas and wishes on ink and paper has significantly contributed to the construction of the Latin American colonial archive. Nevertheless, this contribution to the area of Latin American women’s studies still remains little known and understudied. Relegated to the margins of the canon and official discourses of the nation, the tradition of women’s authorship in Latin America started as a crossroads of rhetorical practices and textual devices that used oral memory, women’s aural and visual experiences, and narratives of identification. Departing from documents produced by women of the Indigenous elite in the Andes, this presentation looks at narratives of identification by means of self-fashioning (after a concept originally proposed by Stephen Greenblatt) and refashioning of women as subjects in control of their social roles, finances, and writings. It aims to examine the construction of women’s (self) representations where topics such as ethnic pride, social mobility, and genealogy converged in their contact with practices of the lettered city in sixteenth to eighteenthcentury Spanish America (1550-1810).

February 26
Engaging Beyond Basics
In efforts to continue building an inclusive community, the GenCen and LBGT Resource Center in collaboration with the ISP Dean’s Office are pleased to invite you to “Engaging Beyond Basics”, a seminar/conversation for ISP staff and faculty focused on respectful behaviors in a gender fluid world! This building-wide seminar on 26th of February 2019 will cover definitions of gender fluidity, pronoun usage, and productive behaviors of respecting gender identities. Attendees are encouraged to participate in QuILL training prior to the event. QuILL: Queer Inclusive Learning and Leadership is a free, self-paced web course available to anyone with an MSUnet ID. The course takes about an hour to complete and is offered through the Office of Regulatory Affairs at MSU along with the MSU LBGT Resource Center. QuILL is interactive, fun, and great as an introduction to LBGTQIA+ identities! Instructions on accessing QuILL can be found on the LGBT Resource Center’s website here: http://lbgtrc.msu.edu/quill/. Accommodations for QuILL can be made by contacting the Resource Center. Any questions can be emailed to lbgtrc(at)msu.edu. Engaging Beyond Basics will be held on Tuesday, February 26^th, 2019 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. It will be facilitated by Oprah Revish, Assistant Director LBGT Resource Center. 

February 15
Colloquia: Meeting Myself: Race-Gender Oppression and a Genre Study of Black Men Teachers’ Interactions with Black Boys, presented by Dr. Chezare Warren, Department of Teacher Education
Both increasing the number of Black men classroom teachers and expanding single-sex schooling options have been put forward as plausible solutions to reversing trends in the failure of public schools to adequately educate Black boys. Too little extant research has interrogated the significance of Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys to reduce their race-gender oppression inside and outside of school. A genre study—the multidimensional, intersectional examination of social identity to explain one’s persistent dehumanization—was utilized to interpret the specific influence of Black men’s student-teacher interactions on Black boys’ understandings of their racial and gender identity. Findings suggest that regardless of a single-sex or co-educational organizational arrangement, Black men teachers’ capacity to disavow white supremacist logics and thereby actively counter antiblackness, is central to improving Black boys’ lives, academic and otherwise. Additionally, I discuss the significance of Black men’s teachers’ interactions with Black boys as a site for enabling Black boys to reimagine (and redefine) their own humanity despite dominant messages from society about their intersectional race, gender and sexual identities.

February 7
Inspirational Woman of the Year Award Reception
Join us for an evening celebrating the 2019 Inspirational Woman of the Year Award recipients! Ticket price includes entrance, hors d'oeuvres, and one drink ticket. There will be a cash bar available. Tickets are available for $25 each on Eventbrite. Location: Wharton Center for Performing Arts Jackson Lounge. 2019 Awardees: Culture of Empowerment - Yomaira Figueroa; Professional Achievement - Rocío Quispe-Agnoli; Community Engagement - Terah Venzant Chambers; Greater Lansing - Tashmica Torok

February 6
Abbott-Haskin Endowed Lecture: Deep Scientific Pluralism: A Latin American Feminist Standpoint, presented by Dr. Sandra Harding, UCLA Distinguished Professor
With the gracious funding of the Abbott-Haskin Endowment, GenCen is able to host a biennial lectureship series. Our inaugural speaker will be Dr. Sandra Harding, Distinguished Professor from UCLA who has done groundbreaking work in feminist philosophy. Join us Wednesday, February 6, 2019 from 3:00-5:00p.m. in Room 303 of the International Center for Dr. Harding's Lecture, entitled "Deep Scientific Pluralism: A Latin American Feminist Standpoint." Co-sponsors: Center for Interdisciplinarity; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Dept. of Anthropology; Dept. of Community Sustainability; Dept. of Philosophy; Dept. of Sociology; Lyman Briggs College; Science + Society @ State (S3)

February 1
Annual Reception
Affiliated faculty members, GenCen award recipients, and members of our various committees are invited to attend our Annual Reception. This year's reception is on Friday, February 1, from 3:00-5:00p.m.

January 25
Colloquia: "I'm the sole provider and care taker:" gender, class and name changing in New York City, 1892-2012, presented by Dr. Kirsten Fermaglich, Department of History
This essay’s close look at the name change petitions housed in the New York City Civil Court over the course of a century allows us to see the ways that women and transgender people throughout the 20th and 21st centuries increasingly came to use name changing as a tool to empower themselves, to shape their gender identities and to challenge gender norms. At the same time, however, the petitions also indicate the repressive elements of name change law, as women and transgender people have increasingly felt it necessary to undertake the bureaucratic difficulties associated with name changing in order to establish the personal identity and familial authority that non-trans men are granted automatically in United States legal tradition. Examining the name change petitions of non-trans women and transgender people (both men and women) illustrates both the promise of name changing, and its limitation, as a vehicle for restructuring gender norms.

December 11
Finals Week De-stress Event
Stressed about finals? Come de-stress with GenCen on Tuesday 12/11 from 1:00-4:00p.m. in Wells Hall (2nd Floor Atrium). We'll have chair massages, board games, coloring pages, and food!

November 27
Give Green Day
MSU students are seeking opportunities to use their classroom learning to solve real-world problems. Local organizations doing work on gender and sexual orientation equality need to collect and analyze data to solve problems, but do not always have the time and expertise to devote to applied research. Through the Community Research Scholarship Fund, the GenCen will provide scholarship support for students to do engaged research with community organizations in order to meet the needs of students and the community. This scholarship fund will support undergraduate students working with community organizations on collaborative research projects to solve real‒world problems in the community. These research projects may include issues related to gender equity in the workplace, gender dynamics in schools, and gender‒based violence. Providing scholarships will make these research collaborations more accessible to students by providing financial support that few community‒based organizations are able to provide. The fund will enrich the student experience through experiential learning, the development of critical problem‒solving skills to address the challenges facing society today, and by providing research resources to community partners. On Give Green Day 2018, our goal was to raise $10,000 for the GenCen Community Research Scholarship Fund. With the help of 64 donors and project champions like you, we raised $25,930 on Give Green Day—259% of our goal! Thank you from all of us here at GenCen. Missed Give Green Day? You can still support the fund here.

November 2
Colloquia: Prioritizing Process: Navigating diverse interests and politically charged relationships to develop collaborative market improvement strategies in Lilongwe, presented by Dr. Stephanie White, Department of Community Sustainability; Dr. Annick Anctil, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Zach Kaiser, Department of Art, Art History, and Design 
In this colloquium presentation, the researchers will discuss their experiences facilitating a three-day collaborative strategy development workshop in Lilongwe, Malawi last summer. The workshop provided a forum for diverse food system actors to create a five-year research and engagement strategy that improves the capacity of Lilongwe’s small-scale urban food sector to: 1) provide safe, nutritious, affordable, and accessible food to city residents; 2) provide improved and new income earning opportunities to those engaged in food-based livelihoods; 3) provide safe, pleasant, and secure working environments in city and district retail ‘wet’ markets; and 4) prepare for anticipated demographic and environmental change by enhancing resiliency of the food system. The workshop was the latest activity in a longer community engagement process that has focused on building a body of empirical data and trusting relationships between diverse affinity groups. The presentation will include: 1) an introduction to the importance of and challenges facing the small scale food sector in Lilongwe; 2)significant outcomes from the workshop, and reflections on the necessity of interdisciplinary and gendered approaches to engaging the sector; and 3) comments from the various researchers about how they see their work contributing to supporting the sector from both a disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective.

October 26
GJEC Brown Bag: Conversations about Citizen Participation and Community Partnerships, with Dr. Norbert Steinhaus
Join the Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC) program for a brown bag lunch with Norbert Steinhaus. Please register for the GJEC Conversations Brown Bag to gencenga(at)msu.edu by Friday, October 19. Steinhaus holds a master’s degree in agriculture from Bonn University. He has been a board member of Wissenschaftsladen Bonn (Wila Bonn) since 1990, and since the end of 2007 he has been coordinator of Living Knowledge, the international science shop network. He serves on the advisory board for Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement and as an associate editor for the Research for All journal (UK).

October 12
Colloquia: Undoing Terror: Redress, Gender, and the Case of Emilie Prax in Post-Revolutionary France, presented by Dr. Ronen Steinberg, Department of History
After the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, hundreds of widows of men who had been guillotined sent petitions to the authorities in Paris, demanding the restitution of the property that had been confiscated from their husbands and, in many cases, posthumous exoneration. One of them was Emilie Prax, the widow of Charles Blanquet-Rouville from Toulouse. Her case was unusual is that it went on for several years, well after the National Convention had adopted a general law on restitution. As late as 1797, the case of Emilie Prax was still being discussed in the highest echelons of the Republic. Following her effort to exonerate her late husband, and to get the property back, affords a rare glimpse into the role that women played in dealing with the legacies of the Terror. The violence of 1793-4 was by and large a masculine affair, but, as I will try to show, the struggle for redress was very much the business of women.

September 28
Guatu Tour: All of Me, presented by Ignacio G. Rivera and featuring Rose Cooper, Ana Holquin, and Suban Nur Cooley
A compilation of poetry, readings, skits, and storytelling spanning two decades of memories and transformations. How does a single mother survive the lingering nightmare of childhood sexual abuse and find inner peace? Peer into spoken word activist Ignacio Rivera's tale of survival via skits and poetic monologues. This show takes you into a journey of their struggle with female-on-female childhood sexual abuse & incest, understanding their queerness and raising a female child in the midst of recovery. For this performance, Ignacio will be joined by Rose Cooper, Ana Holguin, and Suban Nur Cooley.

September 27
Fall Funding Workshop
Description

September 27
Guatu Tour: Sexy Survivor (Navigating healthy sexuality as survivors of sexual violence) Workshop, presented by Ignacio G. Rivera 
Join us for a creative and interactive dialogue around survivors of sexual abuse and how they have navigated safe, empowering sexually healthy lives. All too often, sex is altered, damaged and/or complicated for survivors of sexual abuse. It takes time, patience and trial and error to figure out what works for us. This workshop is not a therapy session but a more of skill and strategy share. We hope to encourage success building and future dreaming dialogue as we all share stories and ideas of what has worked for sexy survivors.

September 27
Guatu Tour: ...And Action Survivor Workshop, presented by Ignacio G. Rivera 
Join in this interactive workshop to breathe, move, stomp, and act out. We will collectively hold space to express in a variety of ways how trauma has/is existing in our bodies. We’ll explore how to move, mold, walk with and release. This workshop uses theater techniques, visualization and movement to tell our stories and create collective healing from childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault and trauma.

September 21
Colloquia: Re-Presenting the Indian Dancer: Gender, Sexuality and the New Orientalism, presented by Dr. Sitara Thobani, Residential College of the Arts & Humanities
The figure of the ‘Indian’ dancer – depicted variously in the image of the devadasi, the tawa’if and the bayadere – has long captured imaginations on both sides of the colonial divide. In this paper, I historicize manifestations of the generalised figure of the Indian dancer in contemporary popular culture to examine its genealogy from the 18th century to the present. Drawing on examples from the visual and cinematic arts as well as from music and dance performances and literary texts, I analyse the ways in which this figure is evoked by different actors to varied effects. Moving beyond the dominant approach that centres the male Orientalist gaze however, I focus specifically on representations produced by women. So doing, I address the following questions: how is/has this figure been evoked by different women actors and to what specific effect? In what ways do representations of this figure converge and/or diverge with the identities of their producers? How do the tropes of female sexual agency and sensual femininity come to be attached to this figure by women, and what do they accomplish? My approach allows for a comparative analysis of Indian and Western constructions that sheds light on larger processes of gendered, sexual and racial-cultural identity formation. My paper thus presents an analysis of how gendered Orientalising discourses grounded in the colonial past are iterated in alignment with the gendered contingencies of the present.

September 17
Graduate Welcome Back Night
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September 12
Undergrad Welcome Back Night
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April 26
First Annual Graduation Celebration
Join graduating seniors, current students, alumni, and friends in a celebration of the Women's & Gender Studies and LBGTQ & Sexuality Studies programs! Come dressed to celebrate.

April 20
Rethinking Silence, Gender and Power in Insecure Sites: Implications for Feminist Security Studies and Feminist Global Political Economy in a Postcolonial World, presented by Dr. Jane Parpart
Silence is no longer simply a symptom of powerlessness. It has emerged as a tool for empowerment, an alternative source of protection and power. Silence has become a form of action, often intertwined with voice, but powerful on its own. Dr. Parpart will discuss this more complex understanding of silence and voice in order to evaluate gender in insecure sites.

April 13
Avatars for Empowerment: The real potential of virtual selves, presented by Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Department of Media and Information
Did you know that avatars offer a secret weapon that can be used to help reduce real world social inequities?  This talk addresses this questions, examining recent theory and research on the psychological experience and effects of avatar use. Building on a broad definition of avatars as mediated self-representations, I will explain how avatar attributes influence users (e.g., the Proteus effect). I will discuss my experimental research on the psychological factors that moderate such avatar effects, as well as my research that applies these principles to meaningful outcomes, emphasizing the potential for avatars to counteract the harmful effects of stereotypes and empower all users in education contexts, especially STEM fields.  Finally, I will describe my most recent theoretical directions with this work, building from Social Cognitive Theory to offer a framework for future research on how to maximize the empowering effects of avatars. 

April 11
The Heavy Lift of Institutional Change: Cultivating Strategies for Equity, presented by Dr. Kris De Welde
Dr. Kris De Welde’s remarks will focus on key patterns of systemic and intersectional inequities in higher education as well as strategies for overcoming the exclusionary practices, inequitable policies, and microlevel biases that leverage unequal outcomes in faculty careers. Drawing on her coedited/co-authored book with Dr. Andi Stepnick, “Disrupting the Culture of Silence,” she will provide insight on the varying levels of academic life – structural, cultural, climate – that must be addressed for lasting organizational change to occur.

April 7
Field Trip to Menjo's and Gigi's Cabaret
Join Women's Studies 492 (the capstone for the LBGTQ minor) for a field trip to Menjo’s and Gigi's Cabaret in Detroit. There is a $10 cover charge for the show at Gigi’s (you do not need to prepay, but you will have to show ID and ability to pay before getting on the bus).  

April 6
"Activism for Air": A Tour with Detroit's Clean Air Movement - GJEC Field Trip
Detroit’s trash incinerator is not a good neighbor. This violator of the Clean Air Act contributes to climate change and threatens the health of thousands of residents living nearby. On this field trip we will travel to Detroit by bus and meet collaborators at The Ecology Center and Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. We will visit the incinerator, speak to activists, and discuss this serious environmental justice issue and the intersections of race, gender, and income inequality that shape it. We will also learn what steps residents and activists are taking to address these issues. This is a capstone experience for the Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change specialization. Additional students and faculty may attend if space allows.

March 30
Gender and Local Government in Rural Poland: The Case of Village Representatives, presented by Dr. Ilona Matysiak
Dr. Ilona Matysiak will analyze the increasing participation of women in the local government in rural areas in Poland, focusing on the traditional position of village representative (sołtys). The share of women among village representatives in Poland has increased significantly in recent decades, from only 0.8% in 1958 to currently exceeding 35.0% on the national level. What mechanisms lie behind this change: What are its reasons? Do female village representatives differ from their male colleagues in their ideas and initiatives? Does it mean that rural women in Poland actually gained better access to power and local decision-making processes? The presentation is based on a recent qualitative empirical study conducted in rural areas of 10 municipalities located throughout Poland.

March 26
GJEC Brown Bag - Resilience Stories: Ethics and Education For Positive Change, presented by Dr. Lissy Goralnik, Department of Community Sustainability
As a qualitative social scientist and writer, I believe in the power of story to shift the ways we understand and participate in sustainability change. I use reflective writing and interviews to capture the stories of research participants, understand how participants make meaning through shared experiences, and identify participatory inventions that might increase connectivity and communication across a system. In this presentation, I will share three projects that work toward resilience from the individual, community, and systems scale. Each project reflects my primary foci on ethics, education, and engagement; each shares an emphasis on underrepresented voices, relationships, and positive change. Together they explore the ways that story can help us understand how individual resilience might contribute to the development of resilient communities, who might collectively work on behalf of more resilient socio-ecological systems.

March 16
Queer Community and the Remaking of Marriage: The Mackenzies on Capri, presented by Dr. Kristin Mahoney, Department of English and Center for Gender in Global Context
Following the trials of Oscar Wilde, the Italian island of Capri operated as a refuge for sexual exiles from across Europe who retreated from persecution and criminal proceedings into Capri’s permissive expatriate community. In the 1920s, Henry Gauthier-Villars described the island as “a Geneva or a Moscow of the future internationalism of homosexuality,” and he argued that this bewitching setting was capable of remaking “normal [couples]” in its image.” His comments on Capri speak directly to the experience of British writers Compton and Faith Mackenzie, who moved to the island in 1913, became enmeshed in its queer cosmopolitan community, and began conducting extended relationships with other partners with one another’s approval. In this talk, I will discuss the role that the island of Capri played in the Mackenzies’ reconstitution of their bond. Acknowledging that expatriate visitors to Capri fetishized and exoticized the Italian island and its inhabitants, conceiving of the location as mystical, primitive, and destabilizing, I will interrogate the intermingling of cosmopolitanism and “Mediterraneanism” in the Mackenzies’ representations of the transformations their marriage underwent during their time on Capri.

March 2
March Gender Write-In
The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) will provide a quiet space for faculty, staff, and students to escape from distractions and work on their scholarship. If you struggle to find space in your calendar to prioritize your writing, then consider this time as required attendance! Participants will need to provide their own laptop and other working supplies. GenCen will provide brain fuel (light snacks) and an open, welcoming environment!

February 26
GJEC Brown Bag - Gender in Forestry - From Landowners to Professionals, presented by Dr. Emily Huff, Department of Forestry
Dr. Huff will present her past and current projects examining the role of gender in forest landownership and forest management. She will also explore how gender has shaped professionals in forestry.

February 22
Intersex and the Power in a Name, presented by Dr. Georgiann Davis
In 2006 the American Academy of Pediatrics officially renamed “intersex” a “disorder of sex development,” (DSD). Based on interviews with intersex people, their parents, and medical providers, I will show how DSD terminology allowed doctors to reclaim jurisdiction over the intersex body which was in jeopardy due to 1990s intersex activism that challenged medical authority. Today, DSD remains hotly contested throughout the intersex community, yet it has been widely implemented in virtually all corners of the medical profession. Davis will describe how intersex people navigate their lives, specifically their relationships with family members and medical providers. She will also highlight current movement strategies that fuel contemporary intersex activism. The talk will include suggestions for how to be a good ally to intersex people.

February 16
Black Women & Police Brutality during the 1980s, presented by LaShawn Harris, Department of History
On October 29, 1984, New York Police Department (NYPD) brutally shot and killed sixty-six-year-old grandmother Eleanor Gray Bumpurs in her public housing apartment. Her death, symbolizing a powerful parable about systematic police violence against African Americans and Hispanics, was and continues to be one New York City’s most recognized yet understudied police brutality cases of the 1980s. This presentation recovers the personal life of Bumpurs from historical obscurity, moving beyond her tragic death and departing from historical and disability and legal studies that primarily focus on her killing and 1987 trial of the police officer accused of shooting her. Snapshots of Bumpurs’ less familiar life as an urban migrant reveal her socioeconomic struggles and vulnerabilities, her encounters with carceral institutions, her visions for herself and family, her pleasure politics, and her familial relationships. Moreover, Bumpurs’ less familiar narrative serves as an entry point into the understudied socioeconomic and private lives of late twentieth century working poor black women, and different way in which varying socioeconomic and political structures and institutions, those deeply rooted in race, gender, and class oppression, worked to deny African American women citizenship rights, protection, and human dignity.    

February 2
February Gender Write-In
The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) will provide a quiet space for faculty, staff, and students to escape from distractions and work on their scholarship. If you struggle to find space in your calendar to prioritize your writing, then consider this time as required attendance! Participants will need to provide their own laptop and other working supplies. GenCen will provide brain fuel (light snacks) and an open, welcoming environment!

January 26
Does Marriage Matter? A National Study of Perceived Discrimination among Transgender People, presented by Dr. Hui (Cathy) Liu, Department of Sociology
Despite calls for increased attention to the experiences of transgender people, scientific understanding of the stigma and discrimination this population experiences is limited. We integrate minority stress and marital advantage perspectives to assess marital status differences in transgender-related perceived discrimination among transgender people in multiple life domains: the workplace, family, health care, and public accommodations. We analyze one of the first and most comprehensive large-scale samples of transgender people in the U.S. (N = 4,286), the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. We find that married transgender respondents tend to report lower levels of perceived discrimination than their cohabiting and previously married transgender counterparts. Married transgender respondents do not, however, report lower levels of perceived discrimination than their never married counterparts, once all covariates are accounted for. These marital status differences appear primarily among transwomen but not transmen. Economic resources account for some, but not all, of these differences.

January 12
January Gender Write-In
The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) will provide a quiet space for faculty, staff, and students to escape from distractions and work on their scholarship. If you struggle to find space in your calendar to prioritize your writing, then consider this time as required attendance! Participants will need to provide their own laptop and other working supplies. GenCen will provide brain fuel (light snacks) and an open, welcoming environment!

December 12
Finals Stress Relief Event
Transform everyday stress into well-being by moving with beauty. The Creative Self-Care experience is instructed by Heather Vaughan-Southard and uses pilates and somatic dance to create a grounding sense in one’s body and offer tools for authentic expression through movement. Bodies and movers of all kinds and levels encouraged.

November 8
Working For Gender Equality: Lessons From Africa, presented by Dr. Thelma Awori 
In this conversation with students, Dr. Awori will share her insights about working for gender rights and well-being within various International Development contexts. Students planning to do international study abroad, considering careers in international development contexts, or who are otherwise interested in intersectionality and working across cultures are encouraged to attend.      

November 3
Violet Sunset: Big-Time Football, College Masculinities, and American Exceptionalism at Cold War NYU, presented by Javier Pescador, Department of History
This presentation analyzes the history of the NYU football program from World War II until its final discontinuation in 1952, in the context of the transformations in American college masculinities brought into place by the Cold War policies. Based on archival research on the ‘abolition of football,’ the changes in college athletics broadcasting and the Anticommunist campaigns in New York City, this presentation will discuss the ways in which NYU became the largest university in the country without a varsity football team.

October 10
Building Social Change into your Research and Career: A Social Innovation Workshop, presented by Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed
This workshop is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students who seek to be agents of change through their careers, research, and wider engagements. Students will meet with Maryam Ahmed, founder and co-director of Pakistan’s Social Innovation Lab. Maryam will discuss different aspects of social innovation and social change work based on her own experience, and then students will share their ideas and, as a group, address questions about how they can incorporate principals of social change into their research or their careers. Space is limited so pre- registration is required.

October 6
Elizabeth Pierce and Benevolent Femininity: Gender and Reform in 19th-Century America, presented by Dr. Emily Conroy-Krutz, Department of History
In 1816, a twelve year-old girl named Elizabeth Pierce wrote a letter to her mother, describing the “new Society in this town composed of young ladies.” She had joined, and sent her mother an oiled paper lantern that the society had been making with the goal of raising money to help young men prepare for the ministry. From a very young age, Pierce and other girls like her were being raised up to the work of benevolence and its particular interpretation of femininity. By the time she was a young woman, she had moved on from making lanterns to participating in the movements for temperance, missions, and religious revivalism. Women like Pierce are often remembered as setting the stage for the women’s rights movement, but Pierce did not follow that path. Rather, like many others of her generation, Pierce’s benevolence led to a life that was socially (and at times politically) engaged, but also conservative. Using Pierce’s extensive diaries and family papers, this presentation examines the complex dynamics of benevolent femininity in 19th century America, with a focus on the ways that Pierce’s religious beliefs shaped her activism and her understanding of the role of women in American society.

September 22
Sustaining Community Capacity under Crisis: Flint's Civic Park Neighborhood, presented by Dr. Louise Jezierski, James Madison College
How can asset mapping help inform how neighborhoods develop community and economic capacity? A student-led, faculty-guided project in my senior seminar in Fall of 2016 helped to launch a new and ongoing project, the “20-minute” neighborhood concept applied to the historic Civic Park neighborhood in Flint, Michigan. The project aims to identify components of a “20-minute” neighborhood where residents can walk or bike, within 20 minutes, to shop or engage in community activities. Another component of the research is to what degree civic capacity is available, as organized by the neighborhood association, institutions such as local churches and council representation.

April 13
Summit on Title XI, Relationship Violence, and Sexual Assault on MSU's Campus
The Office of Institutional Equity and campus service providers will engage in a participatory dialogue with MSU students, staff, and faculty on key questions about Title IX such as: 1)What is the process for Title IX enforcement, and what changes in enforcement might happen with the new administration in DC? 2) What services and advocacy are available to survivors of sexual and relationship violence?
The conversation will include small group discussions about critical questions followed by a moderated large group conversation. Critical questions to be discussed: 1) What suggestions do you have for improving communication? 2) What suggestions do you have for improving prevention and education efforts at MSU? 3) How can MSU engage faculty and staff in prevention and education efforts?  

March 31
Biennial Undergraduate Research Showcase on Gender, Women, and Sexuality
The Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen) invites MSU undergraduate students to present research exploring issues of gender, women, and sexuality locally, nationally and globally for its fourth biennial undergraduate research conference on Friday, March 31.

March 3
The Social Context of Water Access and Affordability in Michigan, presented by Jennifer Carrera, Department of Sociology
The water crises in Flint and Detroit bring light to ongoing struggles in Michigan for access to affordable clean water. In both cases, community members have demanded access to both scientific information as well as the process through which this knowledge is produced on the quality of water in their communities. This presentation will share the development of a community based participatory research project using citizen science methods in Detroit. One aim of this project is to assess water quality in the community associated with water shutoffs. This project is ongoing and the focus of this talk will be on the development of the community advisory board and the process of oversight of the project. We are particularly interested in how citizen science methods approached through a community based participatory research model can impact community organizing efforts towards improving access to water in low-income communities. We share some of the opportunities to this end, as well as some of the challenges encountered through this project.

March 1
GenCen Co-Director for International Research and Engagement: Public Job Talk, presented by Dr. Wenda Bauchspies

February 24
GenCen Co-Director for International Research and Engagement: Public Job Talk, presented by Dr. Mangala Subramaniam

February 13
GenCen Co-Director for International Research and Engagement: Public Job Talk, presented by Dr. Kia Caldwell

February 10
From Beaches to Bathtubs: Women and Children in American Water History, presented by Sara Fingal, Department of History/Lyman Briggs College
During the mid-to-late twentieth century, women became prominent organizational leaders who fought for clean water in their homes, neighborhoods, and coastlines. Their own children and young people in the community often became vocal supporters of these organizations. This talk will examine the importance of the intersections of race, class, and gender in their activism. From the "almond cookie revolutionaries" of San Francisco's Save the Bay campaign in the 1960s to the Madres de Este Los Angeles (Mothers of East Los Angeles) in the 1980s to the women advocating for bottled water and filter deliveries for residents in Flint, Michigan today, this presentation will examine the importance of their leadership and their motivations for fighting for clean water.

February 6
GenCen Co-Director for International Research and Engagement: Public Job Talk, presented by Dr. Robin Haarr

January 20
(Imposing?) Sex on the Brain, presented by Dr. Robyn Bluhm, Department of Philosophy/Lyman Briggs College
Feminists interested in neuroscience face a Catch-22 in assessing research on sex differences. On the one hand, such research is frequently entangled with gender stereotypes and it is often used to support problematic claims about women’s and men’s relative characteristics and abilities. On the other, the lack of attention to sex differences in clinical research has meant that women’s health needs may go unmet. In this talk, Dr. Bluhm argues that one valuable way to approach this dilemma is to start with the more basic question of what it means to say that women’s and men’s brains are different. In doing so, she will draw on a recent study by the Israeli neuroscientist, Daphna Joel, which has prompted neuroscientists to begin addressing (or, perhaps more accurately, arguing over) exactly this question. Dr. Bluhm will show that the different answers on offer for this question have important implications for clinical neuroscience.

Tapestries of Hope

Tapestries of Hope is a documentary shot in Zimbabwe that investigates the myth that if a man rapes a virgin he cures his AIDS. Director and writer Michealene Risley is an MSU alumna, award-winning filmmaker, director and human rights activist whose documentary film projects have addressed the health and survival of over half the world population. 

October20

Encounters with Octopus People: Consciousness-Raising on Everyday Assaults

In an effort to create a space for members of our community to address some of their experiences, we are organized a consciousness-raising event. We aimed to enable each other to share our experiences of predatory encounters and “micro-assaults” so that we may better understand these moments from our own viewpoints, while also demonstrating how these are not isolated incidences, but in fact heartbreakingly common. With an emphasis on inter-generational amity, we hoped to raise awareness among the student body in particular. 

November 14

Patriarchy and Displacement:An Anarchist Perspective on Community Organizing

This talk and conversation will explore the marriage between patriarchy and displacement, honing in on our own power locally and collectively to counter disposability by building caring communities.

November 15

Audrie & Daisy film screening and discussion session

This film screening and discussion was facilitated by the GenCen and the Research Consortium. Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention team volunteers were also there for assistance. 

November 17

“My Mom Planned Everything”: An Examination of How Latinas Made Rural Work Meet Urban Needs in Michigan, 1940s-70s, Presented by Delia Fernandez, Department of History. 

November 18

GJEC Brown Bag: Land Markets and Women's Land Access in Northwestern Tanzania
A Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC) Brown Bag Series presentation by Ayala Wineman, PhD Candidate, Department of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics, MSU
December 9
Facebook

The Flint Water Crisis: A Panel Discussion
Panelists: 
Dr. Sara Fingal, History/Lyman Briggs, MSU
Melissa Mays, Water You Fighting For?
Bishop Bernadel Jefferson, Democracy Defense League
Dr. Jennifer Carrera, Sociology/Environmental Science and Policy Program, MSU
Dr. Susan Masten, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MSU
Nayyirah Shariff, Flint Community Organizer
Co-Sponsored by: Center for Gender in Global Context; Gender Justice and Environmental Change; Community Sustainability; Lyman Briggs; Environmental Science and Policy Program; and Project 60/50
November 18
Facebook
YouTube

GJEC Brown Bag: Affective Ecologies and Valuing Nature: Learning from Indigenous and Feminist Onto-Epistemologies
A Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC) Brown Bag Series presentation by Neera Mendiratta Singh, PhD, Department of Geography and Program in Planning, University of Toronto
November 13
Facebook

Colloquia Talk: Acting Straight and Making Space Queer in the Postwar Suburbs of Detroit
Tim Retzloff, Department of History
November 6
Facebook

A Conversation with Barbara Ehrenreich
Panelists:
Elizabeth Bogdan-Lovis, Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences
Michelle Kaminski, School of Human Resources and Industrial Relations
Amy DeRogatis, Department of Religious Studies
Co-Sponsored by: the Department of Political Science; James Madison College, Social Science Scholars Program; Center for Gender in Global Context; Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy; Lyman Briggs College; Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies; Human Development and Family Studies; Social Work; College of Arts and Letters; History; Sociology; Criminal Justice; Residential College in the Arts and Humanities; English; Women's Resource Center; and Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences
November 5
Facebook

Colloquia Talk: Faithful Witnessing as Practice in Afro-Latinx Literature
Yomaira Figueroa, Department of English and the African American and African Studies Program
October 23
Facebook

GJEC Brown Bag: Bearers of Maya Culture: The Role of Gender in the Commoditization of the Ch'orti' Maya in Copan, Honduras
A Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC) Brown Bag Series presentation by Fredy Rafael Rodriguez Mejia, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology
October 14
Facebook

Film Screening: The Mask You Live In
Co-Sponsored by: MSU Women's Resource Center, WRC Men's Advisory Council, Employee Assistance Program, Health4U, MSU's Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen), MSU Family Resource Center, MSU LBGT Resource Center, Good Girl Radio, MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, and Project 60/50
October 13
Facebook

"Give Me Sex Jesus" Documentary Screening
Documentary Screening and Q&A with Dr. Amy DeRogatis (MSU) and Dr. Sara Moslener (CMU)
October 12
Facebook

Colloquia Talk: Junk Food Relationships: The Allure and Appeal of the Non-Nutritional Hookup Culture
Stephanie Amada, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
September 25
Facebook

GJEC Brown Bag: Spaces of Conflict and Conservation: Shifting Relationships Between Humans and the Amazon River Dolphin in Brazil
A Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change (GJEC) Brown Bag Series presentation by Cadi Fung, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography
September 23
Facebook

Stories of Survival: Women's Testimonies of State Terrorism in Argentina
Barbara Sutton, SUNY Albany
GPID Editor's Series
April 15
Facebook

Black Trans Lives Matter: CeCe McDonald at MSU
Co-Sponsored by: West Circle PRIDE, Black Student Alliance, MSU Students United, African and African American Studies, LBGT Resource Center, MSU Women's Resource Center, Residence Halls Association, Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Diversity Services Office MSU College of Law, and the Graduate Employees Union
April 6
Facebook
YouTube

Gender, Women, and Sexuality: An Undergraduate Research Showcase
Keynote speaker: Amy Bonomi, Professor and Chair of the Human Development and Family Studies Department
April 3
Facebook

Working for Justice: Legacies of Latina Activism in Southeastern Michigan
Marie Cotera, American Studies and Women's Studies Programs, University of Michigan
Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives Brown Bag Series
Co-Sponsored by: the Chicano/Latina Studies Program, the Julian Samora Research Institute, the MSU Center for Gender in Global Context, and the MSU Women's Resource Center
March 30
Facebook

Colloquia Series: Round Table: Women's and Gender Studies in Turkey
Participants include:
Emine Ö. Evered, PhD, Associate Professor of History
Michelle Kaminski, PhD, Associate Professor of Human Resources & Labor Relations
Stacy Hickox, J.D., Assistant Professor of Human Resources & Labor Relations
Hannah Brenner, J.D., Lecturer in Law, College of Law
March 20
Facebook

Love, Sex and Greed: Reflecting Gender and Class in French Comic Opera
Marcie Ray, College of Music, Michigan State University
Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives Brown Bag Series
March 19
Facebook

Marge Piercy presents "Made in Detroit"
MSU Libraries Michigan Writers Series
March 4
Library Event Page

GJEC Brown Bag: The Feminism of French Farming
A Gender, Justice & Environmental Change Brown Bag Series presentation by Alexis Annes, PhD, University of Toulouse, El Purpan, Toulouse, France and Wynne Wright, PhD, MSU Departments of Community Sustainability/Sociology
March 4
Facebook

GJEC Brown Bag: Incorporating Gender in Food Systems Innovations: A Case Study of the Pigeon Pea Value Chain in Malawi
A Gender, Justice & Environmental Change (GJEC) Brown Bag Series presentation by Michelle Larkins, PhD Candidate, MSU Department of Community Sustainability and Natalie Me-Nsope, PhD, MSU Global Center for Food Systems Innovation
February 26
Facebook

Colloquia Talk: Changing the World like Gandhi and Robin Hood: Medicine, Social Enterprise and Technology Choice
Dr. Logan Williams, Lyman Briggs
February 6
Facebook

Michigan Writer Series: Robin Silbergleid
Cosponsored by the GenCen and the MSU Department of English
January 29
Facebook

Colloquia Talk: Gender and Celebrity Persona: Mylene Farmer's Erotics of History
Daniel Smith, Theatre Studies
January 23
Facebook

Roe v Wade: Then & Now: The Ongoing Fight to Protect Women's Reproductive Rights
Panelists:
Penny Gardner, Assistant Professor at MSU and President of the Lansing Association for Human Rights
Libby Bogdan-Lovis, Assistant Director of the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at MSU
Amanda West, Director of Government Relations at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan
Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic Michigan Senator
January 21
Facebook

Climate Change and Climate Denial In Everyday Life
Colonial Ecological Violence and Food Justice on the Klamath River
Dr. Kari Norgaard, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon
Peace and Justice Studies Annual Lecture
Co-Sponsored by: Peace and Justice Studies, College of Agriculture, AgBio Research and MSU Extension, Paul Thompson Distinguished Chair Funds, American Indian Studies Program, Environmental Science an Policy Program, Philosophy Department, Food Justice and Sovereignty Research Group
November 21

Film Screening: Vanishing Borders
Panelists:
Ricardo Lorenz, College of Music
Alexandra Hidalgo, Director and Producer
Tama Hamilton-Wray
Co-Sponsored by: Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, Women's Resource Center, Film Studies, and the College of Music
November 19

Creating Connections to Combat Human Trafficking: Global to Local Perspectives
Keynote Presentations by:
Bridgette Carr
Andy Soper
Jane White
Co-Sponsored by: Zonta Club of the Michigan Capitol Area, Greater Lansing Untied Nations Association, American Association of University Women, and the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force.
November 15

Film Screening: Not My Life
Co-Sponsored by: the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, Zonta Club of Michigan Capital Area, Greater Lansing United Nations Association, and the Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force
November 14

Colloquia Talk: Serving Paris, Serving the World: Gender, Domestics, and Migration
Dr. Leslie Page Moch, Department of History
November 14

Can a Plantation Be Fair? Fair Trade and Darjeeling Tea Production
Sarah Beskey, Anthropology and School of Natural Resources, MSU and Environment Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Michigan
Peace and Justice Studies Lecture Series
Co-Sponsored by: Peace and Justice Studies, Food Justice and Sovereignty Research Group, Asian Studies Center
November 14

Film Screening: Evolution of a Criminal
Panel on Youth and the Criminal Justice System in Michigan
Panelists:
Carl Taylor, MSU Department of Sociology
Kristen Staley, Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency
Jane Zehnder-Merrell, Project Director of "Kids Count in Michigan," Michigan League for Public Policy
Lois DeMott, Family Participation Program in Michigan
November 13

Protest, Power, and Perseverance: Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Panelists:
Dr. Freya Anderson Rivers, author of the memoir "Swallowed Tears" and first black woman to enroll at LSU in 1964
Jewell Debnam, PhD Candidate, MSU Department of History
Dr. Eva Evans, 24th International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Former Chairman of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights
Carmen Benavides, Retired Lansing School District Principal
Co-Sponsored by: Women's Reource Center and the American Association of University Women
November 12

Tapestry as Testimony: Arpilleras of Chile, and Broken, an installation addressing human trafficking
Arpilleras Collector:
Eliana Loveluck
Artists: 
Sally Thielen
Susan Clinthorne
Co-Sponsored by: MSU Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, Our Daily Work/ Our Daily Lives, MSU History Department, Peace and Justice Studies
November 3-21

"Be One For Change": A Conversation with Sharon Love
Speakers:
Sharon Love, Founder of One Love Foundation
Katie Hood, CEO of One Love Foundation
Val O'Brien, MSU Police
Erica Schmittdiel, MSU Safe Place
Co-Sponsored by: One Love Foundation, MSU Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence, MSU Safe Place, MSU GenCen, MSU Women's Resource Center
November 3

Film Screening: America the Beautiful 3: The Sexualization of Our Youth
Discussion with director: Darryl Roberts
Co-Sponsored by: MSU Sexual Assault Program, Women's Resource Center, Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, Office of the University Physician, Olin Health Education
October 27

Colloquia Talk: The Boy Problem: Educating Boys in Urban America, 1870-1970
Julia Grant, James Madison College
October 24

Decoupling Transnational Activism in Ghana: Movements, States, and Soft Repression
Kathleen Fallon, Department of Sociology, Stony Brook University
Co-Sponsored by: African Studies and the Department of Sociology
October 17

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery
Robert Kolker
Co-Sponsored by: Women's Resource Center, School of Criminal Justice, College of Communication Arts and Sciences
October 10

Colloquia Talk: The Bible in the Bedroom: American Evangelicals, Sexuality, and Salvation
Amy DeRogatis, Department of Religious Studies
September 26