Technology
This year, we will explore how technology affects society in ways that can be both empowering and harmful. How can we use social change, environmental awareness and images to embrace the positive aspects of technology and counteract the negative?
Fall 2010
Alia Malek - September 14, 2010 - 4:30pm - Barney Davis Boardroom
Alia Malek is the author of A Country Called Amreeka, a set of profiles of Arab-Americans. Born in Baltimore to Syrian immigrant parents, she began her legal career as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. After working in the legal field in the U.S., Lebanon, and the West Bank, Malek, who has degrees from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities, earned her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. This event is co-sponsored by Beck Lecture Series, Global Studies, and the Sharp Lecture Series.
Rebecca Skloot - October 6, 2010 - 7:30pm - Swasey Chapel
Rebecca Skloot is a science writer and author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book that took Skloot ten years to research and write. The book debuted to widespread critical acclaim, has been hailed as one of the best books of the year by Amazon.com and was named a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick for spring 2010. In addition to writing this enormously popular book, Skloot is the guest editor of The Best American Science Writing 2011, a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine, and has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW.
Women’s Studies Alumni Workshop & Reunion - “An Intergenerational Conversation About Social Change” - October 7,8 & 9, 2010
We are expecting about 40-50 returning alums to engage with us in an intergenerational conversation about social change. How has feminism changed from the 1970's to the present? How can we apply what we learned from the birth of Women's Studies at Denison to other new programs representing current social change?
The Century Project Exhibition - October 25 - 29, 2010 - Welsh Hills Room
The Century Project, by photographer Frank Cordelle, is a chronological series of nude photographic portraits of more than one hundred women and girls from the moment of birth to nearly a hundred years of age. A diverse group of photographs comprising women of many ages, shapes, sizes, and life experiences is presented in this exquisitely disarming project. Most of the images are accompanied by moving statements written by the women themselves.
Dr. Annalee Newitz - October 26, 2010 - 4:30pm - Higley Auditorium
Annalee Newitz is an American journalist who covers the cultural impact of science and technology, such as topics on open source software and hacker subcultures. She writes for many periodicals from Popular Science to Wired, and since 1999 has had a syndicated weekly column called Techsploitation.
Open Shutters Iraq Exhibition & Film - November & December, 2010 - Bryant Arts Center - Opening Reception November 5, 2010 @ 4:00pm
The Open Shutter Iraq project, directed by Eugenie Dolberg, examines the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines, through the eyes of nine women. The exhibition consists of nine photographic essays and writing by women from all over Iraq, of different social and political backgrounds with no previous photographic experience, examining the lived experience of war and occupation and telling their story in their own voices--the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines.
Film Synopsis
A 102 minute feature documentary, OPEN SHUTTERS IRAQ (directed by Maysoon Pachachi) documents a remarkable photography project; a group of women, from five cities in Iraq, live and work together in a traditional courtyard house in the Old City of the Syrian capital, Damascus. There they learn to take photographs, and at the same time, present their 'life maps' to each other; large charts full of family photos, scrawled poetry and quotations, the names of emotions and crisscrossing green, red and black marker lines, detailing all the ups and downs, forwards and reverses of their lives. With grief, humor, and defiance, the women are able to unearth memories and tell stories, which have remained buried for 30 years in the course of just trying to survive devastating years of war, dictatorship and sanctions. In the end, they have woven together the threads of their individual lives into a collective fabric. And because this is a creative project, the experience is transformative; the act of remembering and listening is dynamic and productive. As one woman says, 'It is our feelings taking the pictures, not us'. Event co-sponsored by International Studies, Student Activities, Communication, Education, International Student Services, Black Studies, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Sociology/Anthropology, and Political Science.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber - November 3, 2010 - 4:30pm - Slayter Auditorium
Ecologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and human health. This event is co-sponsored by The Ronneberg Endowed Fund
The Body Positive - November 8 & 9, 2010
The Body Positive empowers people to unleash their energy and creativity by strengthening their body esteem and self love.
Spring 2011
Open Shutters: Iraq Photo Exhibition – January & February, 2011 – Knapp Hall 1st – 3rd floors
Opening Reception & Film Viewing – January 21, 2011 - 4:00pm - Reception to be held in Knapp 201 - 5:00pm – Film viewing in Higley Auditorium
The Open Shutter Iraq project, directed by Eugenie Dolberg, examines the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines, through the eyes of nine women. The exhibition consists of nine photographic essays and writing by women from all over Iraq, of different social and political backgrounds with no previous photographic experience, examining the lived experience of war and occupation and telling their story in their own voices--the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines.
Film Synopsis
A 102 minute feature documentary, OPEN SHUTTERS IRAQ (directed by Maysoon Pachachi) documents a remarkable photography project; a group of women, from five cities in Iraq, live and work together in a traditional courtyard house in the Old City of the Syrian capital, Damascus. There they learn to take photographs, and at the same time, present their 'life maps' to each other; large charts full of family photos, scrawled poetry and quotations, the names of emotions and crisscrossing green, red and black marker lines, detailing all the ups and downs, forwards and reverses of their lives. With grief, humor, defiance, the women are able to unearth memories and tell stories, which have remained buried for 30 years in the course of just trying to survive devastating years of war, dictatorship and sanctions. In the end, they have woven together the threads of their individual lives into a collective fabric. And because this is a creative project, the experience is transformative; the act of remembering and listening is dynamic and productive. As one woman says, 'It is our feelings taking the pictures, not us'.
Event co-sponsored by Studio Art Department, Spectrum Series, and Global Studies Seminar.
Human Rights Film Festival:
2/01 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium – “In The Land of the Free”, Vadim Jean
2/08 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium – “Out In The Silence”, Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer
2/15 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium – “Last Best Chance”, Michael Camerini and Shari Robertson
2/22 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium – “Enemies of the People”, Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath
Event co-sponsored by International Studies, Student Activities, Communication, Education, International Student Services, Black Studies, Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, Sociology/Anthropology, and Political Science.
Paul Rusesabagina – February 17 - 7:30pm - Swasey Chapel
For two months of his life, Paul Rusesabagina held insanity at bay as he watched his country fall into the grips of genocide in 1994. A Hutu manager of a luxury hotel in Rwanda, he sheltered over 1,200 people, including his own Tutsi wife and children, saving their lives at a time when extremists massacred more than 800,000 members of the Tutsi and moderate Hutu tribes in just 100 days.
Considered the “Rwandan Schindler,” his wrenching story and that of the genocide is chronicled in the critically acclaimed film, Hotel Rwanda, a riveting account of a man finding courage within himself to save others in the midst of his country’s darkest moment.
Event co-sponsored by DCGA.
Samhita Mukhopadhyay – February 21, 2011 – 4:30pm - Higley Auditorium
Samhita Mukhopadhyay is an activist, writer, and technologist based in Brooklyn, NY. She has written and spoken extensively on race, media, technology and gender, with a specific focus on the intersection of race and gender, whether in popular culture or politics. She is the technology director at the Center for Media Justice an Oakland based org that provides media strategy and action for justice based grass-roots organizing groups and was recently named Executive Editor of Feministing.com.
Francophone Film Festival:
2/24 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium - “Welcome”, Philippe Lioret
2/25 – 6pm, Higley Auditorium – “Paris”, Cedric Klapisch
2/28 – 7pm, Slayter Auditorium – “Bluebeard”, Catherine Breillat
3/01 – 4:30pm, Higley Auditorium – “It’s Hard Being Loved by Jerks”, Daniel Leconte
3/09 – 7:30pm, Slayter Auditorium – “Coco Before Chanel”, Anne Fontaine
Event co-sponsored by the Patty Foresman Fund, Communication, Sociology/Anthropology, Denison Film Society & the Tourness Festival Grant.
Isis Nusair Book Reading - March 3, 2011 – 4:30pm – Knapp 201
Professor Isis Nusair reads from her recent publication "Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel." Offering a rich and multidimensional portrait of the lived realities of Palestinians within the state of Israel, Displaced at Home gathers a group of Palestinian women scholars who present unflinching critiques of the complexities and challenges inherent in the lives of this understudied but important minority within Israel.
Cristina Masters – March 28, 2011 – 4:30pm - Higley Auditorium
Dr. Cristina Masters is a lecturer in the Centre for International Politics in the Politics Discipline Area at the University of Manchester. Her current research is on a book project, Militarism, Gender & (In)Security: Biopolitical Technologies of Security and the War on Terror (Routledge, forthcoming autumn 2010). The book project explores the current biopolitical fetishisation of technology evident in contemporary practices of war.
Sharon Marcus – April 4, 2011 - 4:30pm - Higley Auditorium
Dr. Sharon Marcus is Orlando Harriman Professor of English at Columbia University. She earned her B.A. in Comparative Literature, Brown (1986); Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Johns Hopkins (1995). Professor Marcus specializes in nineteenth-century British and French novels, urban and architectural studies, and feminist and queer theory. In addition to Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London (University of California Press, 1999), she has recently published articles on the representation of lesbians in 19th-century literary criticism and on Victorian fashion plates. She recently completed a book entitled Between Women: Friendship, Desire and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton University Press, 2007).
Juliet Eilperin – April 7, 2011 - 4:30pm - Burton Morgan Lecture Hall
"How Green Policy Clashes with a Blue and Red Electoral Landscape: U.S. Environmentalism in an Era of Political Polarization" A born-and-bred Washington, Juliet Eilperin graduated in 1992 magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she received a bachelor’s in Politics with a certificate in Latin American Studies. In the fall of 1992 she went to Seoul, South Korea on a Luce Scholarship, which allowed her to cover politics and economics for an English-language magazine. Returning to Washington, Ms. Eilperin wrote for Louisiana and Florida papers at States News Service and then joined Roll Call newspaper after the Republicans seized Congress in 1994. In March 1998 she joined The Washington Post as its House of Representatives reporter, where she covered the impeachment of Bill Clinton, lobbying, legislation, and four national congressional campaigns.
Event co-sponsored by the Provost's Office, Creative Writing, Communication, Environmental Studies.
Vagina Monologues – April 20 & 21, 2011 - time & location to be determined
V-Day is a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sex slavery.
Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.
Susan Bordo – April 25, 2011 - 4:30pm - Slayter Auditorium
"What Did Anne Boleyn Really Look Like?: Lessons from History on Representation, Beauty, and the Body."
Susan Bordo is Professor of English and Gender and Women's Studies and holds the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. She lectures nationally on topics such as eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, beauty and evolutionary theory, racism and the body, masculinity and the male body, adoption, and the impact of contemporary media.