Global Feminist Forum

Tuesday, March 7th

6:00pm, McLaren Conference Center
Reception

7:00pm, McLaren Conference Center
The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and Global Women’s Rights Forum present: “Hookup Culture, Sexual Politics and Campus Rape”: A discussion with Leah Fessler and USF students Angela "Anju" Kasturiraj and Kay Nilsson.

Journalist and recent Middlebury graduate Leah Fessler is initiating an important national dialogue on how young people really feel about modern sexual expectations, the intersection of hookup culture and feminism, and more broadly, campus sexual politics. For her senior thesis, “Can She Really, ‘Play That Game, Too’?,” Fessler interviewed more than 300 Middlebury students, professors and alumni to discover whether young people, and young women specifically, were actually enjoying or benefitting from hookup culture. Hear the surprising results in this Town Hall-discussion. This event will also feature thematic performances and stories from a diverse group of USF students.

Leah Fessler is a modern culture writer, public speaker, and creative professional focusing on the intersections of romance, sexual culture, gender dynamics, and technology. She graduated from Middlebury College in 2015 with a degree in English and American literature and a focus in nonfiction creative writing.

For additional information, visit Arts & Ideas at the JCCSF.

Presented in partnership with the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Wednesday, March 8

10:30-11:35am, McLaren Conference Center
“Not Your Mother's Feminism: New Intersections in Media, Art and Activism”: Talk + Q&A by Kim Tran of Third Woman Press: Queer and Feminist of Color Publishing

Kim Tran, UC Berkeley, works on race, gender and coalition building. Her writing has been published locally and nationally in Vice News, Vox and Mic. In 2008 she helped establish the LGBTQ Youthspace, a safe-space and therapeutic program for queer youth of color in San Jose, California. Currently, she is a collective member of Third Woman Press: Queer and Feminist of Color Publishing that has published titles including This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.

11:40-12:45pm, McLaren Conference Center
“Publishing Freedom: Feminism of Color and the Politics of Print”: Workshop by Kim Tran of Third Woman Press: Queer and Feminist of Color Publishing

1-2:05pm, McLaren Conference Center
“Writing the Walls Down”: Poetry/Spoken Word Performance + Q&A

Helen Klonaris, Amir Rabiyah, Celeste Chan, and Janine Mogannam will read their excerpts from the collection Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, which brings together poets exploring the intersections of sexuality, race, and gender with different forms of citizenships and borders - geopolitical, cultural, and symbolic. It offers a cross cultural and nuanced dialogue that not only examines the power of walls to divide, but walls as sites of resistance, (re)connection, and community.

2:15-4:30pm, McLaren Conference Center
“Contesting the Transformation: Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Left”: A Panel Discussion.

• Constanza Tabbush, Universidad de Buenos Aires, “LGBT Rights Yes, Abortion No: Explaining Uneven Trajectories in Argentina under Kirchnerism (2003-2015)”
• Rachel Elfenbein, Simon Fraser University, “Towards Feminist Socialism? Gender, Sexuality, Popular Power, and the State in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution”
• Annie Wilkinson, UC Irvine, “Ecuador's Citizen Revolution (2007-2017): A Lost Decade for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality”
• Elisabeth Jay Friedman, USF Politics, Moderator

4:30-5:30pm, McLaren Conference Center
Reception

7:00-8:30pm, Presentation Theater
The Davies Forum “Crossing Gender in America: Politics, Performance, and Identity" and the Global Women’s Rights Forum present “The F Word”: Performance + Q&A with Fauxnique

The F Word is FEMINISM! No longer unmentionable, now on everyone’s lips – let’s hear it from the painted mouth of a lady drag queen. A frank fabulist whose Fosse-lized focus and forceful frame forge fanciful factual fictions, Fauxnique’s fashionably fierce form of feminism is filled with fucking fantastic feats of hi-femme frippery. See why she broke through the glass ceiling of the male-dominated world of drag to become a queen among queens. Monique Jenkinson (Fauxnique) is a multi-genre performing artist and choreographer whose work uses drag to consider the performance of femininity as a forceful, vulnerable and subversive act. She and her drag queen alter ego Fauxnique have created and performed across the world. Fauxnique made herstory as the first cissexual female to win a major drag pageant. She has been a de Young Museum Irvine Fellow, an Associate Artist at Atlantic Center. She has been named a Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery (GOLDIE) Award for Performance, SF Weekly’s ‘Best Performance Artist,’ and 7X7 Magazine’s ‘Hot 20’ and an Isadora Duncan Dance Award nominee. She was co-director and artist-in-residence at ODC Theater and CounterPULSE, and has created curriculum and taught courses at San Francisco Art Institute and St. Mary’s College of California.

Monday, March 07, 2016

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Studio Theater, Lone Mountain
Echo Brown: “Black Virgins are not for Hipsters.” A Performance and Q+A.

This one-woman show “offers an incisive and side-splitting ride through the maze of race and romance in ‘colorblind’ America, giving the audience an unfettered look at modern courtship rituals, climaxing with a mesmerizing Beyoncé dance tutorial.”

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

9:55-11:40 McLaren Complex
“Transnational and Decolonial Feminisms: Mobilizing Women’s Human Rights from the Margins”

Speakers: Pascha Bueno-Hansen, Assistant Professor and Director of the Sexualities and Gender Studies Minor, University of Delaware and Rosalva Aida Hernandez Castillo, Professor & Senior Researcher at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) in Mexico City with Cecília Santos, Associate Professor, Sociology and Latin American Studies @ USF as Moderator/commentator.

12:45-2:30 McLaren Complex
“Women’s Movements through Media.”

Speakers: Claudia Magallanes Blanco, Coordinator M.A. in Communication and Social Change. Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Elisabeth Jay Friedman, Professor, Politics @ USF, and Dorothy Kidd, Professor, Media Studies @USF.

2:40-4:25 McLaren Complex
Hijabi Monologues. A Performance and Q + A.

“The Hijabi Monologues project is about creating a theater space for the experiences of Muslim women; a space to breathe as they are; a space that does not claim to tell every story and speak for every voice”

5:00-7:00 Cultural Centers UC
Reception and Art Show

Features the work of artists affiliated with the University of San Francisco as students, alumnae, and staff. The exhibit contributes to the Forum’s promotion of an understanding of the interconnectedness of gender, sexuality, race, and social class within the USF/Bay Area community and beyond through the art on display.

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Studio Theatre
Echo Brown: Black Virgins are not for Hipsters.” A Performance and Q+A.

This one-woman show “offers an incisive and side-splitting ride through the maze of race and romance in ‘colorblind’ America, giving the audience an unfettered look at modern courtship rituals, climaxing with a mesmerizing Beyoncé dance tutorial.”

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Feminist Art in Movement: The Sarah Bush Dance Project
6:00-8:00 p.m., McLaren Conference Center 250 & 251 *Reception at 6:00 p.m.,
Performance at 6:30 p.m.*

The Sarah Bush Dance Project (SBDP) is a contemporary dance company based in Oakland. Led by Artistic Director Sarah Bush, SBDP has brought Urban Contemporary dance to venues throughout the Bay Area since 1999. Sarah Bush creates dances that show strong, emotional, well-rounded women — dances that inspire all women to feel better about our place in the world. The company explores issues of identity, gender, and sexuality within the broader themes of love, relationships, loss, power and empowerment.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Engendering Immigration Justice
6:30-8:00 p.m., Fromm Hall, Maier Room

This evening will focus on the ways in which immigration policies at the international, national, and local levels are affected by gender and other intersecting relations of power, and show how women are organizing to achieve a more just and humane immigration politics.

Panelists

Maylei Blackwell
Professor Maylei Blackwell is an interdisciplinary scholar activist, oral historian, and author of ¡Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement, published with University of Texas Press. She is an Assistant Professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies and Women's Studies Department, and affiliated faculty in the American Indian Studies and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies. Her research has two
distinct, but interrelated trajectories that broadly analyze how women's social movements in the U.S. and Mexico are shaped by questions of difference factors such as race, indigeneity, class, sexuality or citizenship status and how these differences impact the possibilities and challenges of transnational organizing.

Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) is a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women with a mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power for social and economic justice. Karina Muñiz, MUA Political Director, Maria Hernández, MUA Immigrant Rights Organizer and Enma Delgado, MUA member will be speakers at this event.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Women Take Back the Tech: Rights, Sexuality and Technology
6:30-8:00 p.m., Fromm Hall, Maier Room

This forum looks at how women are navigating the Internet, using technology to deal with on-line violence and harassment and reclaiming the technology for themselves and communities.

Panelists

Jac sm Kee
Jac sm Kee is a feminist activist and writer. She is the Manager of the Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Rights Program. Her areas of focus include internet governance, human rights and freedoms, sexuality, women’s rights, violence against women and the creative and strategic use of communications technologies for movement building and inclusive political engagement. Jac collaboratively initiated the award-winning global Take Back the Tech! Campaign. She is currently serving as a board member for the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the New York chapter of Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action (CREA NY) and director of Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia (CIJ).

Rose Aguilar
Rose Aguilar hosts Your Call, a public affairs radio show on KALW 91.7 FM. She is the founder of the Use Your Voice workshop series, is working on a new book about older women activists, and is preparing to launch a new radio show about investigative journalism. Rose is author of Red Highways: A Journey into the Heartland, and has written for AlterNet, Truthout, and The Nation.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Violence Among Us: A Dialogue about Sexual Assault on Campus
6:30-8:00 p.m., Fromm Hall, Maier Room

Join survivors, student-leaders, journalists and leading academics in a panel discussion on one of the most important campus issues of our time - sexual assault. This program is being developed with the support of the USF Office of Student Conduct, Rights & Responsibilities. The program will also include spoken word from students.

Panelists

Sofie Karasek
Sofie Karasek is an anti-sexual violence activist and co-founder of End Rape on Campus. She spearheaded two 31-person federal complaints against the University of California, Berkeley, where she is currently a senior studying Political Economy. Sofie has also been a leading advocate for California's groundbreaking affirmative consent law, and has been featured in national and international media including The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, CNN.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Marie Claire.

Aryle Butler
Aryle Butler is a survivor, activist, advocate and student at the University of California, Berkeley currently in her final year working toward her B.A. She's been involved in the filing of 3 federal complaints against UC Berkeley, worked to craft California Senate Bill 967 the "yes means yes" bill, and has received recognition from the non-profit organization Futures Without Violence for her activism work. She hopes to work with human trafficking survivors, particularly those from Eastern Europe.

Danielle Dirks
Danielle Dirks is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Her research focuses on punishment, racial justice, and violent victimization. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. She co-founded the national survivor advocacy organization, End Rape on Campus, and is the co-author of How Ethical Systems Change: Lynching and Capital Punishment and author of the forthcoming Confronting Campus Rape: Legal Landscapes, New Media, and Networked Activism.

Jenna Recupero
Jenna Recupero is the Assistant Director for the Office of Student Conduct, Rights and Responsibilities. In this role she adjudicates cases pertaining to the violation of the University's Alcohol & Drug policy as well as serves as the Intake officer and an Investigator for Title IX related issues for USF's student population. She is able to utilize her skills and passion as a CA State Crisis Intervention Counselor with San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR) to better serve USF's students in their time of need. Jenna has been at USF since 2007 where she earned her MA in the Organization and Leadership Program in the School of Education and has since continued at USF full time in both the Housing & Student Conduct departments. Jenna serves as the Chair for the President's Advisory Committee for the Status of Women.

Monday, March 3, 2014

After Tahrir Square: Women, Art & Activism in Egypt
4:45-6:30, Studio Theater,Lone Mountain

A dramatic reading of excerpts from Rivo-loo-shun by Egyptian playwright Zainab Magdy will serve as a catalyst for conversation with artists, scholars, and students about what is happening currently for women in Egypt, with a particular focus on the tools women are using to express themselves politically and culturally.

Women and Human Rights: a Conversation with Nora Cortiñas, Founding Member/Spokesperson, Asociación Madres De Plaza De Mayo (Línea Fundadora)
7:00-9:00, Handlery Room (LM 100), Lone Mountain

Presented in partnership with the Center for Latino Studies in the Americas (CELASA). A human rights figure of enormousproportions in her native Argentina and internationally, Nora Cortiñas is an indefatigable activist, who works in permanent solidarity with all the major social struggles of our time. Cortiñas will be in conversation with USF students Mary Cruz and Angelica Miramontes.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Lesbian Organizing Across Time & Space
6:00-8:00, Maier Room, Fromm Hall

Mariana Perez Ocaña, founding director of LeSVOZ, a Mexico City-based lesbian human rights organization and magazine, and Madeleine Lim, Director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project and annual film festival (QWOCMAP), will share their experiences organizing for lesbian visibility and rights, and as lesbians working for social justice in coalition with other groups, in Mexico, Singapore, and the United States.

Panelists

Madeleine Lim
Madeleine Lim is an award-winning filmmaker with 20 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer and editor. Her films couple poignant visuals with contemporary themes: lesbians of color, survivors of domestic violence, and immigrants living in America. Her films have been featured at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, museums, universities and broadcast on PBS. She won the 1997 Award of Excellence from the San Jose Film & Video Commission's Joey Awards and the 1998 National Educational Media Network Bronze Apple Award. From 2000 to 2003, she was California Arts Council Artist-in-Residence. In 2005, Madeleine received the LGBT Local Hero Award from KQED-TV in recognition of her leadership and her dedicated service to queer women of color. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP).

Mariana Perez Ocaña
Mariana Perez Ocaña is the founding director of LeSVOZ, a Mexico City-based lesbian human rights organization with 20 years of grassroots work in the lesbian feminist community. The organization publishes LeSVOZ magazine and has advocated for policies including same-sex marriage. She is also a founder of the Mexico City Lesbian March, the first to take place in Latin America.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Women in the Fields: Workers and Farmers in the Global Food Supply Chain
1:00-3:00, McLaren 252

Women make up 40 percent of the farmers and farm workers around the world. They grow, harvest and manage much of the food we eat, from the California strawberry fields to tea plantations in Sri Lanka. This discussion features experts about women working on small farms and on plantations in the U.S and around the world. This panel discussion will examine the situation of women working within the food supply chain today, their unique needs and issues. Additionally the question of what can be done to help female farmers and laborers will be examined.

Panelists

Sandy Brown
Sandy Brown is Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of the Master of Public Affairs Program at USF, affiliated with the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. Her academic research focuses on agriculture and food systems governance, including fair trade certification and labeling and farm labor politics in California and Latin America. She has also worked as a legislative advocate, community-labor organizer, and farm labor consultant and continues to be active around issues of agricultural justice and sustainability in California and beyond.

Rosalinda Guillen
Executive Director, Community to Community Development (C2C) Rosalinda Guillen was born in Texas and grew up working in the migrant farm labor community in the Pacific Northwest. Guillen's training as a community organizer began when she was recruited by the Rainbow Coalition to mobilize around Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign. She then went to work for the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO, serving as an organizer, policy director, and National Vice President. She co-founded Community to Community Development (C2C), "a place-based, grassroots organization committed to creating alliances in order to strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice” in Bellingham, Washington. She currently serves as C2C's Executive Director.

Irit Tamir
Senior Campaigns and Advocacy Adviser, Oxfam International Irit Tamir is the Senior Campaigns and Advocacy Adviser for Oxfam America's Private Sector Department. In her role, she is focused on working with companies to ensure that their business practices result in positive social and environmental impacts for vulnerable communities throughout the world. Most recently, her work has been focused on the food and beverage industry and advocating for better policies and practices.

MONDAY, March 4

7:00-8:30, Studio Theater on Lone Mountain
Art, Gender, and Conflict Arte, Género y Conflicto
Keynote presentation by Patricia Ariza (President, Colombian Theater Corporation) on her performance and peace-building work with women and survivors of violence.

Co-sponsored with Performing Arts for Social Justice (PASJ) and Center for Latino Studies in the Americas (CELASA) Moderator: Roberto Gutiérrez Varea, Associate Professor, PASJ and Co-Director of CELASA

Patricia Ariza is the President of the Colombian Theater Corporation and Director, of Teatro La Candelaria, the first alternative theater group in Colombia. Her cultural work empowers women and marginalized communities to counteract injustice and restore social memory. In addition to co-founding Teatro La Candelaria, she has also served as founder and/or director of the Festival of Women on Stage, the Cultural Theatre Movement, the Colombian Theatre Corporation, the National Festival of New Theatre and the Festival of Alternative Theatre. She has also been cited for her commitment to the reduction of conflict in her native country.

Watch the video.

TUESDAY, March 5

5:00-7:00, Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall
The Power of Women: Corporate Social Responsibility
Moderator: Jennifer Turpin, Provost of USF

This panel brings together leading women from Bay Area corporations and non-profits to engage in a discussion of the role of corporate social responsibility around the world. With globalization, multinational corporations have proliferated and often wield an enormous amount of power. This panel will explore this power and, more specifically, the social obligations and responsibility that come with such power. Facilitated by USF’s own Provost, Jennifer Turpin, this panel will explore such issues as how to ensure fair labor practices and support for women workers in all countries; the relationship between corporate responsibility to shareholders and the key role that corporations can play in ensuring equitable development in many areas of the world; and the role that corporations can play, both at home and abroad, in promoting and protecting human rights, fair labor standards, and sustainable environmental practices. The panelists will also address their own unique experiences as women in positions of power and what advice they have for the next generation of women.

Panel

Linda Hothem founded Pacific American Services, LLC and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Hothem served as Director of International Trade Council from 2005 to 2006, National Association of Foreign Trade Zones from 2002 to 2006 and YMCA of the East Bay from 2001 to 2004. She is a Member at International Warehouse & Logistics Association. She was a Member at Warehousing Education Research Council (WERC), President NorCal, from 1998 to 1999, Distribution Management Association of California (DMAC) since President, 1993.

Ms. Hothem received Awards and Citations including Top 100 Women Owned Businesses in Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times from 1997 to 2005, Top 100 Women Owned Businesses in Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times in 2003, Woman Owned Business of the Year, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 2002, Fastest Growing Business in Bay Area, San Francisco Business Times in 2002, Achievement Award Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Bank of America & NAWBO in 1995, International Business of the Year, Port of Oakland, et al in 1995, Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies, San Francisco Business Times in 1994, Vic Fernandez Award Promoting International Trade, Port of Oakland in 1992.

Ms. Hothem received M.A., Organizational Development from University of San Francisco in December 2003, B.A., Political Science in Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1985, Certificate of Hispanic Studies, University of Barcelona from1983 to 1984 and an Associates Degree in Arts from Cabrillo College.

Erika Guevara-Rosas is a feminist lawyer and human rights activist, who currently serves as the Regional Director for the Americas at the Global Fund for Women (GFW). Erika has over fifteen years of international experience in the fields of human rights and social justice in different countries in the Americas, including Mexico, Ecuador, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Venezuela.

Before joining GFW, Erika worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she served as a Protection/Legal Officer for seven years, working mainly in border areas with war-affected populations. At UNHCR, she was actively involved in the formulation of policy and legal frameworks to ensure respect for refugees’ human rights, particularly of those more vulnerable such as women and children. Erika has also worked for non-profit organizations in Mexico (Sin Fronteras) and Canada (SAVIS), coordinating projects to promote and protect the rights of refugee and migrant women.

At the Global Fund for Women, as the head of the Americas program, Erika is responsible of leading a high-impact regional grant-making program to promote women’s human rights and, to influence transformative social change and women’s abilities to achieve economic independence, political participation and social action.

Erika serves on the boards of directors of the International Museum of Women and the Central American Women’s Fund and is a member of the Women’s Human Rights Education Institute’s Advisory Council and the Transnational Community Reinvestment Fund Advisory Board. She has written several articles on forced migration, gender and women’s issues.

Erika has a Master in Women's Studies, and post-graduate degree on Migration and Refugee Studies from York University in Canada. She received her LL.B from Universidad de Londres in Mexico City. She was born and raised in Mexico. Erika is fluent in Spanish and English, and conversational in Portuguese.

Wendy James is President & CEO of The Better World Group, which she founded in 1999, and directs all operations from the company’s Burbank, California office.

Over the past 30 years, James has developed unique expertise in the media, government, corporate and nonprofit sectors, with a special focus on environmental issues. She works with environmental and environmental justice groups, government organizations and progressive businesses in framing their environmental strategies and implementing advocacy campaigns in support of a wide array of policies and projects.

Wendy currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the California State Parks Foundation where she chairs the Government Relations Committee and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board. For 15 years, she has served on the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis. Wendy recently completed over a decade of service on the Board of Directors for the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) where she served as Vice Chair, and also recently concluded eight years, including service as chair and vice chair, on the Board of Burbank Water & Power, a municipal utility serving more than 50,000 customers. She was selected by the Burbank Chamber of Commerce to represent the organization on the city’s Sustainability Commission. Among her accolades, Wendy was honored by CLCV in 2011 with an Environmental Leadership Award, recognized by the Coalition for Clean Air in 2009 with a Ralph B. Perry III Lifetime Achievement Award, honored by the California Climate Action Registry in 2008, and named Small Business Woman of the Year for California’s 20th Senate District and 43rd and 44th Assembly Districts in 2006.

Wendy has a B.A. degree in Journalism from Michigan State University, with minors in Political Science and Economics. She is accredited in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America and is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Watch the video.

WEDNESDAY, March 6

7:00-9:00, Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall
Sisters in Spirit: An Inter-faith Dialogue on Community, Faith and Social Transformation
Co-sponsored with University Ministry
Moderator: Lauryn Gregorio, B.A. Student Majoring in Theology and Religious Studies

How do women’s spiritual or religious perspectives inform, inspire and guide their work for social justice in their communities and in the world? Join four remarkable women, representing various spiritual faiths and traditions, as they engage in dialogue about the relationship between community, faith, and social transformation.

Panel

Toni Battle is the founder of The Legacy Project, a culture enrichment program, which celebrates the culture, tradition and histories of African American and Native American youth based in San Francisco's Bayview Hunter's Point. She specializes in diversity, cultural dynamics, healing from historical harms, cultural education, race relations, and intra-racial prejudice. She has certification in diversity dynamics from National Multicultural Institute (NMCI), specializing in cross-cultural dynamics/communication, sustained mediation dialogue, developing diversity initiatives, and diversity design & implementation, creating diversity councils, and recruiting and retaining a diverse workgroup and certification in LGBT Training from Out & Equal Workplace Advocates and Social Justice Mediation from Association for Dispute Resolution (ADR).

Bhawana Kamil was born and raised in the Bay Area. She received a BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. Soon after, she accepted Islam in September of 2000. Bhawana traveled overseas to Cairo, Egypt for a few years to study Arabic and Islamic Studies. After her return, she completed a Masters degree in Philosophy from San Jose State University, where she subsequently taught Ethics. Her Masters thesis was entitled, "Toward a Single Consciousness: Challenging 'Un-American-ness' of People of Color."

She is an active member of the Muslim American Society (Bay Area chapter) and is a public speaker. She has spoken at a variety of settings, including schools, universities, churches, conferences, and camps on several topics including ‘An Introduction to Islam,’ ‘Women in Islam,’ 'Islam and the Environment,' and 'Understanding Shariah.'

Bhawana serves as a Board Member on the Interfaith Council for Economics and Justice (ICEJ) for the County of Santa Clara and is a member of Steering Committee for California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL). Bhawana currently teaches Philosophy at Evergreen Valley College.

Mary Waskowiak is a Sister of Mercy born in San Francisco, California. She has ministered in the fields of secondary and seminary education, spirituality and spiritual direction, leadership and facilitation. Mary served in congregational leadership for 16 years, most recently as the President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. She also served in the Presidency for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) from 1996-1999. In her role as LCWR President, Mary attended the month-long Synod for the Americas at the Vatican in 1997. As leader and facilitator Mary has visited and worked in 20 countries throughout the world. She speaks Spanish.

Mary’s strong interests lie in the areas of spirituality and leadership development as they are seen through the lenses of mercy, justice and global need, with particular attention to women and girl children. She believes a deep spirituality born of human vulnerability is foundational to personal and social transformation.

Mary has an M.A. in Pastoral Theology from the University of San Francisco and postgraduate certification in spiritual direction and Jungian psychology from the Institute for Spiritual Leadership in Chicago. She is completing certification as an executive coach through the Center for Right Relationships and the Full Circle Group.

Presently Mary serves as the first Director of Development and Fundraising for Mercy International Association, with offices in Dublin, Ireland and Burlingame, California.

Watch the video.

THURSDAY, March 7

2:30-4:30 McLaren Conference Center, Room 252
Gender and Justice: a conversation on domestic work and the common good
Co-sponsored with the Lane Center
Moderator: Lois Lorentzen, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Co-director of CELASA

This panel will feature activists and scholars addressing social, political, and ethical dimensions of domestic work. Local organizers will highlight current campaigns promoting social justice for domestic workers. The panel will also explore how the realities of gender and migration intersect with this topic.

Panel

María Hernandez, San Francisco Program Coordinator, Mujeres Unidas y Activas. Originally from Mexico City, Ms Hernandez has worked with MUA since 2004 and was hired in 2008. In 2010 Maria helped MUA plan and launch its Sexual Assault Crisis Line, the only Spanish crisis line in Northern California. Maria is a skilled domestic violence advocate and conducts peer-to-peer counseling.

Valerie Francisco received her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at City University of New York, The Graduate Center and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Public Science Project in New York City. She works in collaboration with Filipino immigrant workers and organizers to highlight understudied work conditions of caregivers to the elderly in California.

Catherine Osborne is completing a Ph.D. in Theology at Fordham University, specializing in Catholic Studies. Her article "Migrant Domestic Careworkers": Between the Public and the Private in Catholic Social Teaching" was recently published in the Journal of Religious Ethics.

Lillian Galedo is the executive director of Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ). Ms. Galedo has worked for FAJ since 1980, helping to shape the organization's work on youth leadership development, immigration, support for low-wage workers and civic engagement. FAJ is a lead organization in the California campaign for a Domestic Worker Bill of Rights and the Dignity Campaign for Real Immigration Reform.

Watch the video.

Thursday, March 1

Women in the Media
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall

Screening of Miss Representation (Director: Jennifer Siebel Newsom) Followed by a discussion led by a panel of USF community members from the Program in Gender and Sexualities Studies as well as the Departments of Media Studies, Performing Arts and Social Justice, and Sociology.

Refreshments will be served.
Organizer: Sociology club S.T.E.P (Sociologists Together Empowering People). Co-Sponsors: Department of Sociology and Gender and Sexualities Studies Program.

Monday, March 5

Economic Justice & the Occupy Movement
6:00 pm-8:00 pm, Maier Room, Fromm Hall

This panel provides an opportunity to hear from women who have been organizing around issues related to economic justice for decades and how their work intersects with the Occupy Movement, as well as how to leverage the current momentum for action to implement lasting change.

Speakers

Maria Poblet, Just Cause/Causa Justa

María Poblet is the Executive Director of Causa Justa :: Just Cause. She is Chicana and Argentine, and has more than a decade of experience in Latino community organizing. At St. Peter’s Housing Committee, María was instrumental in transforming a service provision model into a membership and organizing structure, and a grassroots leadership development and political education program. In 2009, she helped lead the merger between St. Peter’s and Just Cause Oakland that created Causa Justa :: Just Cause, bringing together the organization’s respective work in the Latino community in San Francisco and the African American community in Oakland into a single, regional organization for racial and economic justice. She has been a leader in movement building work at the grassroots, including the US Social Forum and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. Maria had the privilege of being mentored for many years by June Jordan, and was the Artistic Director of Poetry for the People before she fell in love with community organizing.

Dorothy Kidd, Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of San Francisco

Dorothy Kidd received her Ph.D. in Communication from Simon Fraser University. She has published extensively in the area of political economy of media, media and social change and community media. Among other publications, she is co-editor of Making Our Media: Global Initiatives Toward a Democratic Public Sphere (Hampton Press, 2009). She has also worked extensively in community radio production.

Rev. Carol Been, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice

Rev. Carol Been, an ordained Lutheran pastor, provides faith-rooted organizing and advocacy training to faith-based organizations and denominations as well as technical assistance, strategic planning and special project management on campaigns addressing economic justice. For almost a decade Rev. Been has been actively using the faith-rooted model in her role as senior organizer with CLUE California (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), director of the Interfaith Council on Race, Religion, Economic and Social Justice in the south bay and addressing systemic poverty and economic inequities in state and federal policy. Rev. Been is active with San Francisco Interfaith Allies of Occupy.

Tuesday, March 6

Gender and Race-based Violence & Criminal Justice
6:00 pm-8:00 pm, Berman Room, Fromm Hall

Speakers

Nikki Jones, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Nikki Jones earned her Ph.D. in Sociology and Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her areas of expertise include urban ethnography, urban sociology, race and ethnic relations, criminology and criminal justice, with a special emphasis on the intersection of race, gender, and justice. Her first book, Between Good and Ghetto: African American Girls and Inner-City Violence, is published in the Rutgers University Press Series in Childhood Studies. Her next book is based on a multi-year, neighborhood-based ethnographic study of how African American men with street or criminal histories (adults and adolescents) change their lives, and their place in the neighborhood once they do. The study is grounded in the Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco and is supported by the William T. Grant Award for early career scholars (2007-2012). Professor Jones is also the recipient of two New Scholar Awards from the American Society of Criminology’s Division on People of Color and Crime (2009) and the Division on Women and Crime (2010), respectively.

Robin S. Levi, Justice Now and Voice of Witness

Robin S. Levi is the Human Rights Director at Justice Now, which partners with people inside women’s prisons to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons. Prior to joining Justice Now, Robin served as Advocacy Director for the Women’s Institute for Leadership for Human Rights; consultant to the Drug Policy Alliance; and staff attorney at the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Robin will read excerpts from her coedited book, Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons, published in the Voice of Witness book series in 2011. She will focus on the process of identifying and collecting narratives, as well as the range of experiences and abuses they found.

Roberta Villalón, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, St. John's University

Originally from Argentina, Roberta Villalón has devoted her professional career to study and struggle against all shapes and forms of power abuse - from governmental corruption to intimate partner violence. Her background in political science and international relations, together with her expertise in Latin America, Latin American immigrants, and feminist theory and praxis, has shaped her sociological perspective distinctively. She is the author ofViolence Against Latina Immigrants: Citizenship, Inequality and Community (NYU Press, 2010). Currently a professor at St. John’s University, New York City, Roberta Villalón continues to be involved in immigrants' and women's rights community organizations as she develops new activist research on human trafficking and the politics of collective memory-making in the Americas.

Wednesday, March 7

Transnational Feminisms & Women in Movements/Uprisings/Revolutions

Speakers

Minoo Moallem, Professor, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Minoo Moellem is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the Chair of Gender and Women's Studies Department at UC Berkeley from 2008-2010 and the Women's Studies Department at San Francisco State University from 2001- 2006. She is the author of Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister. Islamic Fundamentalism and the Cultural Politics of Patriarchy in Iran (University of California Press, 2005). She is also the co-editor (with Caren Kaplan and Norma Alarcon) ofBetween Woman and Nation. Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms and The State(Duke University Press, 1999), and the guest editor of a special issue of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East on Iranian Immigrants, Exiles and Refugees.

Kia Lilly Caldwell, Associate Professor, African and Afro-American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Kia

Lilly Caldwell received her PhD in social anthropology and her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Currently, she is Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies and Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Caldwell is the author of Negras in Brazil: Re- Envisioning Black Women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity(Rutgers University Press, 2007). She has disseminated her research widely, through co-authored volumes and book chapters, as well as invited lectures and conferences in both national and international venues. Dr. Caldwell maintains an active research agenda, participating as Principal Investigator for the Sister Circle Study: Assessing the HIV Prevention Needs of Middle Socioeconomic Status Black Women in North Carolina (funded by the Center for AIDS Research, UNC-Chapel Hill) and formerly serving as an investigator for LinCS 2 Durham, an HIV-prevention research study focusing on black young adults in Durham. Her current book project is tentatively titled The Cultural Politics of Race and Health in Twenty-First Century Brazil.

Tina Shauf, BABAE-San Francisco and GABRIELA-USA

Tina Shauf is a community organizer and youth worker. She was born in the Philippines, raised in Los Angeles county, and earned a B.A. degree in Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. She is currently the Chair of BABAE-San Francisco, a grassroots and volunteer-based organization of Filipina women in San Francisco dedicated to supporting and empowering Pinays through critical education, leadership development, and community building. BABAE is committed to taking up local and global issues directly affecting Filipino women. Tina is also an active member and representative of GABRIELANational Alliance of Women, a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 organizations, institutions, desks and programs of women all over the Philippines seeking to wage a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed Filipino women and the rest of the Filipino people. GABRIELA-USA is the first overseas chapter of the Philippine-based organization, extending the Filipino women's mass movement to the United States.

Thursday, March 8

International Women’s Day: Performing (In)Justice
6:00 pm-7:30 pm, Studio Theater, Lone Mountain

Performers

Rachna Nivas
Rachna Nivas is a Kathak soloist (classical dance of North India), member of the internationally touring Chitresh Das Dance Company (CDDC), and Co-Director of the Chhandam School of Kathak (one of the largest classical Indian dance institutions in the world). Studying under worldrenowned Kathak master, Pandit Chitresh Das, for 14 years, Rachna brings a fierce passion and energy to her performances and is an emerging leader in the field. As a member of CDDC, Rachna has performed in several award-winning productions at prestigious venues in cities all over the U.S. and India, i.e. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Roy and Edna Disney Cal/Arts Theater in Los Angeles, National Center for Performing Arts in Mumbai, National Center for Kathak Dance in New Delhi, amongst many others. On the grassroots level, she is also actively involved in arts education programs at local schools and lecture demonstrations at universities.

Chinaka Hodge
Chinaka Hodge is a writer and spoken word artist. Originally from Oakland, California, Chinaka graduated from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006. She was the San Francisco Bay Area Teen Poetry Slam Champion in 2001, and a member of team Berkeley/Oakland, winners of the (inter)National Teen Poetry Slam and Festival in 2000. She published her spoken word chapbook, Know These Limbs, in Fall 2002. Chinaka was also a recipient of Dave Eggers’ 826Valencia young author scholarship. Sample publications include the McSweeney’s sponsored anthology, My Words Consume Me, and Newsweek Magazine. Her work has also been featured in Teen People Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Oakland Tribune, Scholastic Magazine, Current Magazine, The Annual Women of Color Film Festival, PBS, NPR, C-Span, KPFA and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

Teeoni Newsom
"My name is Teeoni Newsom, I am 34 years of age. I started singing because at a young age my mother was involved in a violent relationship and my singing made her feel better. It put a smile on her face. The very first song I learned to sing for my mother was Super Woman by Karyn White. I learned it because it was my mothers favorite song. Due to a lot of things I saw and went through as a child, when I was introduced to gangs it was comforting, so I easily joined. Thus committing crimes and landing myself in jails and prison. A cycle that continued for me from the age of 18 to 31. Today I am renewed and I am a case manager for young men age ranging from 18 to 25. I do my best to let them know that there is life out there other than the street life. I stress to them that my life changed completely and I'm a better person for it. And every day they strive to be better too."

Thursday, March 8

Closing Reception, with the awarding of the Gender Justice Award by USF’s President Advisory Committee on the Status of Women (PACSW)
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm, Studio Theater, Lone Mountain

Join us for a reception as we honor the recipient of the Gender Justice Award, recognizing exceptional commitment to the promotion of gender justice at USF or in the larger city, national, or global community. For more information on the Gender Justice Awards, visit: http://www.usfca.edu/pacsw/justiceaward/. Co-Sponsors: Office of the Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good; the President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women; the Joan and Ralph Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought; the University Ministry; the Gender and Sexuality Center; the Departments of Performing Arts and Social Justice, Sociology, and Politics ; the Master in International Studies Program; the Programs in African American Studies, Gender and Sexualities, International Studies, Latin American Studies, and Peace and Justice Studies.