Feminist Lecture Series

Fall 2011

Tuesdays 12:00-12:50; Stevenson 1002

ALL LECTURES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

September 13. Stacy Malkan. Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. Stacy Malkan is a co-founder and the lead media strategist in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.  Stacy has helped create worldwide media coverage about toxic chemicals in personal care products and the availability of safer alternatives.  She is also the author of the award-winning book, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.

September 20. Johnny Symons. Illuminating Queer Issues through Documentary Film. Sundance and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Johnny Symons talks about using documentary as a tool for social activism through his films DADDY & PAPA and ASK NOT.  DADDY & PAPA (2002) is about the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men raising kids. His newest award-winning documentary, ASK NOT (2008), about gays and lesbians serving in the US military under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival, broadcast nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens, and screened on Capitol Hill.

October 4. Chie Abad. Global Exchange. Chie Abad is an activist for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic, and environmental justice worldwide. Chie spent six years as a garment worker on the Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. territory, where she endured wretched conditions and frequently worked 14-hour shifts. Now Chie educates Americans about the inhumane factory conditions occurring worldwide, including on U.S. soil.

October 18. Debbie Davis. Environmental Justice Coalition for Water. Debbie Davis is Policy Directory for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW), a coalition of more than seventy community-based, non-profits, tribes, faith-based, and environmental groups working to achieve water justice in California. She began her advocacy training in the area of social justice working on issues including women’s homelessness and access to higher education.

November 1.  Julianne Ong Hing. Colorlines Magazine. Julianne Ong Hing is reporter/blogger at ColorLines. ColorLines offers award-winning reporting, analysis, and solutions to today’s racial justice issues. She has written about labor and migration, the politics of globalization, pop culture and consumerism, and food.

November 8. Elizabeth Sekera. Lyon-Martin Health Services. Elizabeth Sekera is an RN and the Clinic Director at Lyon-Martin Health Services.  Founded in 1979, this organization formed as a clinic for lesbians who lacked access to nonjudgmental and affordable health care. The Lyon-Martin Health Services also provides case management and primary healthcare in programs specifically designed for very low-income and uninsured women with HIV.  This clinic became a model for culturally sensitive community-based healthcare.

November 29. Tanene Allison. Brave New Films. Tanene Allison was most recently Political Director at Brave New Films. She began her work as a political activist in the streets of San Francisco, where she organized around homelessness, education, health care and access to political participation, and where she held public office from the ages of 19 to 23. A graduate of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Tanene has worked to bridge policy creation, progressive media and increased political engagement. She's worked at thinkMTV, MTV's political coverage department. She's published everywhere from the Harvard Law Civil Rights Civil Liberties Review to the Huffington Post.

Sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Studies Department with generous support from Instructionally Related Activities Funds.  Contact: Dr. Charlene Tung (tung@sonoma.edu) or 707.664.2086.