New Mexico State University’s Women’s Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences will host several events throughout March in honor of Women’s History Month.
“Women’s Studies faculty in the interdisciplinary studies department are delighted to pay tribute to women who have struggled and achieved so much across the globe, in documented as well as undocumented ways,” said Patricia Wojahn, interim head for the interdisciplinary studies department at NMSU. “There is much work to be done to reclaim women’s histories, experiences and accomplishments, and much to celebrate.”
The celebration will begin with the “International Day of the Woman Celebration” from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, at the Nason House on the NMSU Campus.
During this event, students, staff and faculty will read poetry and short stories and perform. The winners of the 2016 Best Women’s Studies Paper Award will be announced, and the first issue of “SJZ: Social Justice Zine” will be circulated. A reception will follow the readings.
“The creative works of our colleagues at NMSU and in the greater region highlight the intellectual and creative efforts done by people in our community, and beyond national and international borders, that raise awareness on gender and identity, violence and struggle, and love and life,” said Cynthia Bejarano, regent’s professor of interdisciplinary studies in the Women’s Studies Program.
On Wednesday, March 9, Manal Hamzeh, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies in the Women’s Studies Program, will host a workshop through the NMSU Teaching Academy, titled “Postcolonial/anti-racist feminist pedagogy,” from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Milton Hall, Room 50.
This workshop will provide an overview of a socially dialogical pedagogy, or a teaching and learning process committed to social justice. Some of the methods that will be explored during the workshop include “storying” experiences, writing collaboration and critical self-reflections on one’s teaching and learning process.
Participants are asked to bring a copy of a current syllabus to the workshop. To register for this workshop, visitteaching.nmsu.edu/events/.
At 9 p.m. the following Saturday, March 12, the department will sponsor a reception following a showing of “In the Time of the Butterflies,” at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts, 1000 E. University Ave. The play will begin at 7:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, March 22, and Wednesday, March 23, the J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium will take place on the NMSU campus. This year’s theme is “Social justice for LGBTQ identities in the Borderlands.”
As part of the symposium events happening off campus, the film “Two Spirits” will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 19, in the Good Samaritan Auditorium, 3011 Buena Vida Circle in Las Cruces. “Two Spirits” is an award-winning film interweaving the disappearance, and more recent reclaiming, of the two-spirit tradition.
The guest speaker at the event, Renae Gray, will share experiences from her life as an indigenous Navajo trans woman. For a full schedule of events for the J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium, visit artsci.nmsu.edu/calendar/1615/
As an extended Women’s History Month activity, Laura Anh Williams, assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies and director of the Women’s Studies Program, will present a talk, titled “Food Trucks, Race and Masculinity,” as part of the Spring 2016 College of Arts and Sciences colloquium series, “Arts and Sciences in Popular Culture.” The talk will take place at 4 p.m. Monday, April 11, in Science Hall, Room 107.
The NMSU Women’s Studies Program will also host the first annual Feminist Border Arts Film Festival from 5-7 p.m.Monday, April 18, in the Hardman-Jacobs Undergraduate Learning Center, Room 204. The film festival will showcase the work of filmmakers whose films engage in social justice, issues connected to gender, race, class, sexuality, gender identity, the Borderlands, transnationalism, dis/ability and other categories of identity and difference.
For more information on NMSU’s Women’s History Month events, visit wsprogram.nmsu.edu/womens-
Author: Dana Beasley – NMSU
