College of Law Hosts Conference to Discuss Community Building, Women s Movement and Social Justice Advocacy

What impact does the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) have in response to gender violence? How is food security influenced by the global agenda for the women’s movement? And should sexual rights be considered human rights? These challenging questions and topics will be discussed at the Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice “Social Justice Feminism Conference, held Oct. 25-27, 2012 at the law school.

Keynote speakers for this event will be Patricia Hill Collins, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Cincinnati; and, Anika Rahman, President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women. Professor Collins will provide the keynote address at the Thursday evening (Oct. 25) opening banquet, titled “Why Social Justice Feminism? Lessons from Black Feminism and Intersectionality,” (This event only will be held at the Contemporary Arts Center.)  Rahman will be the keynote speaker on Friday (Oct. 26) at 12:15 p.m., speaking on the topic “Social Justice Feminism in Action” at the law school.

Unique to this conference is its focus on the many facets of social justice feminism. Concurrent panel discussions include topics such as

• Feminist Approaches to Criminal Justice Reform
• New Responses to Gender Violence
• Food Security and Social Justice Feminism
• Single-sex Education and Social Justice Feminism
• Women’s Rights Globally
• Class, Race, and Reproductive Freedom
• …and more.

A truly interdisciplinary endeavor, presenters include faculty and students from the law school; faculty and students from across the university—including representatives from departments such as English, Africana Studies, History, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; as well as activists and scholars from across the country.

 In addition to two and a-half days of engaging, thought-provoking programming, the conference will host a viewing of “Sisters of ’77,” a documentary chronicling the first National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas in 1977. This event, the first federally funded women’s conference, changed the course of history and the lives of the women who attended. It incorporates rare archival footage and interviews of leaders relating this history to the present, including former first ladies: Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter; and leaders such as Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Coretta Scott King, and Barbara Jordan.

About the Conference. For more information about the conference, visit the conference website. UC students and faculty attending up to three seminars may attend free. 

Sponsors. The Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice thanks its sponsors for their generous support: the Stephen H. Wilder Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee. This program also was made possible in part by a grant from the Cincinnati Bar Foundation.