The annual Wisconsin Women’s and Gender Studies Conference and 4W Summit on Women, Gender and Well-Being presents “Our Bodies, Our Earth: Voice, Violence, and Peacemaking.”
The event brings together prominent global leaders, national and international scholars, practitioners, students, artists and community members to share information and experiences and build ongoing networks around timely challenges related to women and well-being.
Participants from across disciplines gather for a program of speakers and presenters addressing feminist perspectives on women, gender and voice in research, scholarship, program development, pedagogy, curriculum, creative work and/or community activism. Presenters have been encouraged to draw upon the range of perspectives on gender and social justice to examine the present and future of well-being and empowerment for women, girls and their families, in Wisconsin and the world.
The event includes several keynote lectures and plenary sessions that are free and open to the public.
The Summit will begin at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 12, with the free Soffa Keynote Lecture by Najma Ahmed Abdi, Somali leader and peace-builder. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Human Rights Program and the UW International Division.
A program of concurrent sessions will be offered throughout Friday and Saturday, interspersed with four plenary presentations by local and national activists, artists, scholars, and educators.
The schedule, agenda, speaker information and logistical details for the full conference are here. Register for the full conference here.
Keynotes and Plenaries (Free and Open to the Public)
All taking place in the Pyle Center Alumni Lounge or the Chazen Museum Auditorium.
Thursday, April 12
4:00 p.m. Soffa Lecture and 4W Keynote (Chazen Museum): Najma Ahmed Abdi, Chair, Somali Youth Leadership Forum
5:30-8:00 p.m. Chazen Evening in the Museum Event in conjunction with the exhibition Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art, Docent-led tours of Ancestral Modern Exhibition; works by women artists in the Chazen; and hands-on art activities from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM | Mead Witter Lobby
Friday, April 13
9:00-10:15 a.m. Summit Plenary I (Alumni Lounge): “We Need Talk: Because Silence Is Sabotage” by Janine Latus, truth speaker on sexual assault and intimate partner violence
2:15-3:30 p.m. Summit Plenary II (Chazen): “Our Bodies, Our Land: Rainbow Serpent, Dreaming, Corroborree and Aboriginal Feminism”
- Dr. Devaleena Das (Women’s and Gender Studies), Northern Arizona University
- Dr. Margo Smith, Director of the Kulge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection at the University of Virginia
- Dr. Belinda Wheller (from the School of Humanities and Social Science ), Claflin University, South Carolina
- Dr. Jeanine Leane, University of Melbourne, Australia
5:00-6:30 (Pyle Center): Los Somos History Project Presentation and Reception
Saturday, April 14
9:00-10:15 a.m. Summit Plenary III (Alumni Lounge): “African American Women Beyond the Stereotypes: Mental and Physical Health, Resilience, and Sustainability across the Life Span”
The lives of African American (AA) women—at home and at work—have changed dramatically in the past several decades. Among these changes are: aging of the AA female population; increased labor force participation of AA women, particularly women with children; delay in marriage and childbearing; and a rise in the proportion of AA female-headed single parent families. These trends contribute to AA women’s predisposition for chronic and mental health disorders, and influence access to health care and personal health beliefs and behaviors.
African American women’s health care is evolving to a model that increasingly views these women’s health in terms of the totality of their experience across the life span, including their expanded social and economic roles and the influence of culture, psychology, and social factors on their health. This biopsychosocial model of AA women’s health recognizes that health is the maintenance of psychological and social wellbeing as well as physical health.
Within this context, the African American Health Network focuses its efforts on perinatal health, as well as the health of women over the entire lifespan, including women’s health care utilization; sociomedical risk factors; women’s experience of depression and quality of life, and the physical and mental health effects of these women’s multiple roles as employees, parents and grandparents.
- Gale D. Johnson, Moderator, Director, Wisconsin Well Women Program (WWWP)
- Lisa Peyton-Caire is the Founder and President of The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness
- Dr. Diane Gooding, Professor, Psychology at UW-Madison
- Chanel T. Tyler, MD, Assistant Professor, Maternal-Fetal Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1:00-2:00 p.m. Summit Plenary IV (Alumni Lounge): Indigenous Women Confronting Exploitation Locally and Globally
This plenary panel discussion, sponsored by 4W STREETS (Social Transformations to End Exploitation and Trafficking for Sex), will highlight the work of exceptional indigenous women leaders working to confront sexual and other forms of exploitation of women and girls in their communities. We will hear about their advocacy strategies and approaches to change for the individual women affected and their communities more broadly. By comparing approaches to recovery and wellbeing for indigenous women across regions we will gain insights into how to make life better for all.
- May Sabe Phyu, Director, Gender Equality Network (GEN)
- Emily Loerzel, American Indian Center of Chicago
- Jean M. Geran, 4W Director for Human Rights, Child Protection and Global Policy and Co-Director of the 4W anti-trafficking initiative, ‘Social Transformations to End Exploitation and Trafficking for Sex’ (STREETS)
- Lara B. Gerassi, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work and 4W Director of Sex Trafficking and Exploitation Research and Practice
5:30-6:00 p.m. Closing and Raging Grannies sing us off