Hollins University Hollins Digital Commons Brazen - Gender & Women's Studies Department Gender & Women’s Studies Newsletters Spring 2011 Brazen (Spring 2011) Hollins University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/brazen Part of the Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Brazen: Newsletter of the Gender & Women's Studes Department. Roanoke, Virginia, Hollins University. Spring 2011. This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Gender & Women’s Studies at Hollins Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brazen - Gender & Women's Studies Department Newsletters by an authorized administrator of Hollins Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. February 21, 2011 Volume IV, Issue 2 bra.zen Contemporary Metaphorical Representations of Arab Femininity by Emily Campbell, ‘12 Note: The following poems were inspired by and informed by various writings and artwork created by contemporary Arab women. Excès du Oiseau Fruit Unafraid femininity, and more- Fall, take the bruises but You can be shapeless, over, I found that these keep them beneath your can flow with the cur- pieces were in dialogue skin—be modest, hued rent, can hide behind with one another Inside this issue: in black and white things less dangerous regarding the same thematic conflicts; these rather than the blues than yourself—things Starting Smart at 2 I identify as and greens of peacocks. which would map you, Hollins Clean yourself, sweep confine you—but you confinement versus the soil from your cage; are a pomegranate, a movement, suppression On Being a Dance Artist 3 you cannot grow any- thing of flesh and color versus subversion, and thing in there (and what and wetness. Although mutilation versus Faculty & 6 would you do with a contained, you do con- wholeness. In my Alumnae News lemon tree?) Don’t let tain, and if spliced apart, poems, I wanted to syn- Student News 6-7 the birds build nests— cut down from a growth thesize these conflicts they are attracted to too high, you will bleed into three distinct New Majors 7 shiny things, and will possibilities to be gath- voices, borrowing decorate themselves ered by birds and sewn symbols gleaned from with pearls and rubies if into bracelets; you are a the work of Arab Just One of the Guys: 8 you let them. fruit unafraid of the dirt, women writers and How Blending In Makes artists in order to Me Unique Found and in the pits of waste and rotting forms, you explore each of the There is coffee on the will open into the void above binaries. The Bound Yet 9 stove, mending in our to meet blackness with Persistently Moving hands; our veils are seed. My first poem, “Excès du Critical Distance folded away—we are in Oiseau,” is titled in Between My Body and Artist’s Statement “Woman” the women’s place. Soon French to suggest the we will serve the coffee, In experiencing the colonization of women’s The Importance of 12 retreat to watch vines stories of Ulfat Idilbi, bodies, and draws on Clothes flower beneath our Leila Abouzeid, Etel birds, jewelry, and needles, and later we Adnan, Salwa Bakr, and lemon trees in order to Book Review: 13 will rest our heads on the works of Lalla create a perspective in Sistah Vegan gardens. But first, we Essaydi, Doris Bittar, favor of women’s will retrieve the Joumana Haddad, I sublimination through Save The Date 14-15 emptied cups, read the discovered a recurrence confinement. silt residue, find pic- in metaphorical tures in their leavings. representations of Arab Continued on pg. 4 Inside Story Headline In Honor of International Women’s Day Gender and Women's Studies Continued on pg. 10 at Hollins presents "Some of those Pelicans Were Gay! Coming Out for the Environment on International Women's Day." by guest lecturer, pattrice jones. Caption describing pic- ture or graphic. pattrice jones is a queer ecofeminist writer, scholar, and activist. She currently teaches psychology and women's studies at Minneapolis Community & Technical College as well as gender studies at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. Her book, Aftershock (Lantern, 2007), offers self-care strategies for social change activists while also putting forward the idea that the same ecofeminist strategies for trauma recovery can help us to heal our violent and violated communities and ecosystems. Please join us Tuesday, March 8th at 7pm in the Green Drawing Room. Starting Smart at Hollins by Candace Norton, ‘08 $tart $mart is an interactive, educational workshop pro- the workforce, and the lessons about doing your salary vided by the Wage Project to teach women, especially research and the salary negotiation role-plays made an students, about how to enter the workforce, and how to impact in my ability to get a job in my chosen career successfully negotiate for equitable pay. As stated by field, and to get paid well to do it. It pays to know the the Wage Project, over the course of her lifetime, a difference between an entry level salary in Roanoke, VA woman will earn $1 million versus the salary for that same less just for being a woman. position in New York City. The The Women’s Institute for $tart $mart workshop highlights Policy Research reports that several online tools that will give women currently earn $0.77 attendees facts and figures that on the dollar compared to will make the process of men in comparable negotiating their salaries much positions; for women of easier. The role-playing activities color this number is even have participants take turns lower: $0.69 for every negotiating salary offers, making dollar earned by a white an initial offer, and learning how man. One of the first steps to get the most out of the benefits to take in order to change this inequality is to become package. I admit, I am not a huge fan of educational informed, and then take action. Hollins students will role-playing, but for me this was probably the most in- have the opportunity to do just that on April 13th.This formative part of the program. will be the second time that the Hollins community has For more information on $tart $mart at Hollins, contact the held a $tart $mart workshop on campus; during my Gender & Women’s Studies Program via Professor Thomas, or final semester at Hollins, Spring 2008, this workshop contact the Career Center at [email protected] or drop by and make an appointment. Visit the Wage Project online at couldn’t have come at a better time. I had only recently http://www.wageproject.org/. decided to forego graduate school in favor of entering Page 2 bra.zen On Being a Dance Artist by Erika Hand, ‘03 N and I were riding the subway back see myself from her point of view to Brooklyn after a show. We were and mine simultaneously. Isn’t that chatting about a mutual friend. To standpoint epistemology? our incredible jubilee, the subway My favorite correction Marjorie doors open and that very friend steps Mussman ever gave in ballet class from the platform onto our car. We went something like this, “Babe. Do discuss the possibility that together, you feel that thing that you’re do- with our powers combined, we may ing? Don’t do that anymore.” Some- be extra psychic. What is the feminist times oversimplifying is right on. dialogue around intuition? We were dancing THE LIVE PER- Why does calling FORMANCE by The Labor Union at Dance Theater Workshop. The New yourself a secretary York Times was in the house that seem so anti- night. The music unexpectedly cut off. Silence. Holding on to each other feminist? with sweaty palms, we danced Look around at the women sitting through the silence. Was the dance next to you, and across from you. better this way? I really wanted to get this job danc- ing for a woman I admired. I de- Thank them. Especially the ones cided it, deep within myself. I put you disagree with. Location-one of my side jobs to pay on bright red lipstick and focused my bills: J says in her lilting British myself before the audition. I got the accent, “Erika! Keep it short, and job. I don’t care what people say Reminders: snappy!” I figure as an executive sec- about makeup being oppressive to Connect to your inner voice. retary she knows what she’s talking women. Wearing lipstick is a And have a laugh. about. Why does calling yourself a choice. secretary seem so anti-feminist? Erika Hand graduated from Hollins As you move through your life, it is in 2003 with a B.A. in Dance and I met the choreographer Pina Bausch to be hoped, as Donna Faye would Women’s Studies. She currently lives twice. The first time she sat perched say, that you will bring your theory and works in New York City. across from me in the hotel lounge at closer to your practice. the Marriott Brooklyn. I was acutely aware of her gaze on me. As if I could SEWSA Conference 2011 Structural Adjustments: Queering Privatization, Framing Disaster The Southeast Women’s Studies Conference Association will take place March 24-26 At Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia This conference will shed light on such issues as the structural adjustment programs that have devastated in- debted economies, the impact on buildings of these (un)natural disasters, and the shifting spaces resulting from gentrification and privatization. SEWSA 2011 will bring together scholars interested in asking how feminist, womanist, and queer modes of analysis can intervene in these narratives and open up possibilities for revisioning alternatives.