UC Women's Studies Co-Hosts National Conference

NWSA Comes ‘Home’ for the First Time: UC’s Women’s Studies was among the founding members of the

National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA).

Now UC’S Women’s Studies Department is the lead host for the June 2008 NWSA annual conference. Almost 1,500 feminist scholars and activists will gather at the downtown Millennium Hotel and Convention Center from June 19–22 to focus on race and sexual politics locally, nationally and internationally.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and UC President Nancy Zimpher will welcome conference attendees. UC Professor Emeritus Patricia Hill-Collins, author of

Black Feminist Thought

will be the keynote speaker. On-site registration will be available.

The conference provides an opportunity for faculty, students, scholars, activists and community and cultural workers to share research findings, strategies and programmatic concerns for effecting social change.

Anne Sisson Runyan, head of the Department of Women’s Studies in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Cincinnati, says that siting the conference in Cincinnati — and therefore UC’s major role in it — was based largely on the national reputation of UC’s Women’s Studies Department and its pioneering Friends of Women’s Studies community donor organization.

“Ours is one of the oldest and strongest programs in the country,” says Runyan. “And we have long provided national leadership in graduate education in the field.” For example, the department offers a master’s of arts degree in women’s studies and a MA/JD joint degree with the College of Law, which were among the first degree programs of their kind, along with an undergraduate major and minor. The NWSA, representing over 800 women’s studies programs and women’s centers in the United States, leads the field of women’s studies in educational and social transformation.

UC’s Women's Studies was founded in 1974 to nurture leadership, scholarship and activism in women. The National Women's Studies Association was established three years later as a professional organization dedicated to the field of women's studies, as well as its teaching, learning, research and service.

“From its beginnings in the 1970s, the field of women’s studies has always connected theory and practice,” explains Runyan. “Women’s studies academic programs and campus women’s centers developed side-by-side.”

“At the conference, many of our own faculty and graduate students from UC Women’s Studies are presenting and chairing panels. Two UC friends of women’s studies panels are also on the program, featuring such women community and campus leaders as former UC trustee Jean Bonham, former Cincinnati councilwoman and civil rights leader Marian Spencer, and former UC first lady Bea Winkler, all of whom advocated the creation of UC women’s studies and have been longtime donors to it,” says Runyan. “And as women’s centers also are a significant feature in feminist history, their issues are also programmatically addressed at the conference. Barb Rinto, director of the UC Women’s Center, has arranged for a special gathering of women’s center directors with the women’s fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.”

The NWSA annual conference is intended to provide a forum conducive to dialogue and collective action among women dedicated to feminist education and changes. The gatherings include plenary sessions that feature a diversity of leading scholars and activists, small sessions and workshops, as well as cultural events and feminist entertainment.

The theme for this year’s NWSA conference is “Resisting Hegemonies: Race and Sexual Politics in Nation, Region, Empire.”

“The NWSA conference theme on race and sexual politics was put forward by UC Women’s Studies because of the special need in Cincinnati to address racial, sexual and gender inequalities,” Runyan says. “The historic democratic presidential campaign also made it important to focus on race and gender politics.”

The conference will include plenary sessions that feature a diversity of leading scholars and activists, small sessions and workshops, as well as cultural events and feminist entertainment, such as a concert by MUSE, Cincinnati’s nationally known women’s choir.

The keynote speaker this year, UC Professor Emerita Patricia Hill Collins, served as the Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Sociology in the Department of African and African-American Studies in UC’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. She was also Women’s Studies Department faculty affiliate at UC. Collins is a social theorist whose research, scholarship and activism have examined intersecting power relations of race, gender, social class, sexuality and/or nation.

Collins has taught at several institutions, held editorial positions with professional journals, lectured widely in the United States and abroad, served in many capacities in professional organizations, and has acted as consultant for a number of community organizations. In 2007, she was elected the 100th President of the American Sociological Association — the first African-American woman to hold this position in ASA’s 104-year history.

Conference Details
Pre-conference networking events on June 18 and June 19 will offer professional development opportunities for women's and gender studies and women's center administrators.

The general conference begins on Thursday evening and concludes Sunday afternoon. It features concurrent breakout sessions, new member events and professional development sessions for graduate students and junior faculty. Special events include a creative writers series, film series, book exhibition, critical issues sessions, presidential sessions and area excursions. The tribute panel for 2008, a session format intended to honor past scholarship that has set new directions for the field, will feature a tribute to Black feminist thought.

In addition to the MUSE concert, a performance of Cincinnatian Kathy Y. Wilson’s one-woman show, “Your Negro Tour Guide” will be given. A special tour of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Cincinnati Museum Center has been arranged and a list of woman/minority/LGBTQ-owned restaurants is being offered as part of a feminist guide to Cincinnati.

Other area women’s studies programs and women’s centers at Xavier, Ohio State, Ohio University, Wright State and the University of Dayton are co-sponsoring the conference with UC as the lead local organizer.

Key Links:

Conference Home

Schedule

UC’s Department of Women’s Studies

About UC’s Department of Women’s Studies
UC’s Department of Women's Studies is the academic home for the study of women and gender at the University of Cincinnati. Through interdisciplinary teaching, research and community outreach, it seeks to create a more inclusive and transformative understanding of women and men. The department explores the intersections of race, nationality, class, gender and sexuality. Informed by feminist perspectives, it nurtures the development of leaders, scholars and activists and builds scholarly community among core and affiliate faculty across the university. The department serves as a catalyst for curricular, institutional, societal and global change.

Founded in 1974, the Department of Women's Studies, one of the oldest and most established programs in the country, offers many levels of study

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Master of Arts (MA) one of the first in the country

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MA/JD joint degree program between Women's Studies and UC’s College of Law

, the first in the country and still one of very few

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Graduate Certificate

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Undergraduate major (BA) or minor

About the National Women's Studies Association
Established in 1977, NWSA is a professional organization whose membership is made up of more than 800 women’s studies programs and campus women’s centers across the country and whose mission is dedicated to leading the field of women's studies, including its teaching, learning, research and service. It is headquartered at the University of Maryland.