Calvin celebrates women's history month

Summary: Calvin College's gender studies program will celebrate Women's History Month by featuring three books about gender issues. During March, Calvin will welcome the authors of two of those books and will hold a panel discussion on the third.

Martha McCaughey, author of "The Caveman Mystique: Pop-Darwinism and the Debates over Sex, Violence and Science," will kickoff the month's festivities at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, in the Meeter Center Lecture Hall.

Calvin communication arts and sciences professor Helen Sterk and Annelies Knoppers, co-authors of "Paradoxes and Taboos: Gender, Culture and Physicality," will speak about their book at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, in the Meeter Center Lecture Hall. Knoppers is a professor at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on gender and ethnicity/race as they manifest themselves in organizational management and in sports, health and physical education.

A panel discussion of "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," will provide a bookend for the Women's History Month events. The book, co-authored by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, focuses on gender issues as experienced by women in developing countries.

Simona Goi, chair of the gender studies program at Calvin, hopes that the Calvin community, particularly students, will attend the Women's History Month events.

"I think it's important to look at how life has changed for women-and hasn't changed-over time to appreciate the changes women are making worldwide," said Goi.

All three events are free and open to the public.

For more info, contact Simona Goi at 616-526-6459, sgoi@calvin.edu

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Received on Tue Mar 2 10:29:43 2010