The Spring 2015 Women on Wednesday speaker series looks to the future of feminist movements.
The annual Women on Wednesday speaker series looks to the future of feminist movements, activism, issues and the role of the Women’s Center at St. Cloud State University for spring semester.
Related links
The Women on Wednesday series kicks off at noon Feb. 4 in the Atwood Memorial Center theater with “What’s Next? The LGBTQ Community Looks Forward.” The talk will look at what’s next for the LGBTQ movement following the significant changes in U.S. society through the marriage equality efforts and successes in Minnesota related to the anti-bullying Safe Schools Act passed in May.
The discussion features two LGBTQ rights advocates:
- Monica Meyer is the executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the leading state organization supporting LGBTQ rights. She is also a founder of the Minnesota Safe Schools for All Coalition and received the 2014 Women of the Year Award from the Minnesota Women’s Consortium and the 2013 Community Hero Award from the Family Equality Council.
- Nimisha Nagalia is a student majoring in psychology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She is an officer of her campus’ Queer, Straight Alliance and worked for Vote for Equality, a non-profit organization working to build LGBT political power and fight anti-LGBT prejudice. She volunteered at Take Action Minnesota.
The Feb. 4 discussion is co-sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center.
The spring semester series “The Future of Gender Justice: Be the Difference!” is a follow-up to the Fall 2014 series, “Then and Now: 25 Years of Women Who WOW,” which explored the work of the Women’s Center and its impact on the lives of students at St. Cloud State since the center opened. The spring semester series, in contrast, will explore the work left to be accomplished by feminist movements.
Spring 2015
Women on Wednesday schedule
> Feb. 11 “The Best Party Ever: Male Allies Challenge Gender Violence”
> Feb. 18 “Latinas and Grassroots Organizing in Central Minnesota”
> Feb. 25 “‘My Masculinity Helps’: Film Screening and Discussion”
> March 4 “‘Pornland: How the Porn Industry Has Hijacked Our Sexuality’: Film and Discussion”
> March 18 “Hollaback!: An Exploration of Identity and Street Harassment in the Age of Online Feminism”
> March 25 “Expanding the Conversation: Hmong and Somali Women’s Empowerment Forum”
> April 1 “Yes Means Yes: A Dialouge About Affirmative Consent Policies”
> April 8 “Is Beyonce a ‘Real’ Feminist? Celebrity Feminisms, Activisms and System Change”
> April 15 “SLUT: The Play — A Post-Play Discussion”
“The Future of Gender Justice: Be the Difference!” explores:
- What will feminist activism look like in the future and what effect will it have?
- What issues or challenges will women and women-identified individuals face in the future?
- What are the roles of men in gender justice movements?
- Based on current statistics and projections, what will women’s roles in traditionally male spaces look like?
The St. Cloud State Women’s Center was born from activism of faculty, staff and students with leadership from the Women’s Studies Program. Its mission is to advance women and address gender inequity through advocacy, support services, educational programming, scholarships and systems change.
Since its inception, Women on Wednesday has hosted more than 750 women from all walks of life, areas of expertise, diverse identities and life experiences.
The Women’s Center’s noon-hour lecture series, Women on Wednesday, brings diverse women and programming to St. Cloud State to cover political, social, legal and economic issues affecting women’s lives. Lectures are held each Wednesday at noon in the Atwood Memorial Center theater. Women on Wednesday is free and open to the public.
