Genderfest ’08 Looks at Women in the World

After years of researching feminist literature and its relationship to political movements, Carrie Preston, an assistant professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, concluded that theory only goes so far. To get the students in her Critical Studies in Literature and Gender class to think about activism, they’d have to become activists themselves.

“I organized this class around the question of whether or not feminist and gender theory promote activism and have relevance to our lives,” Preston says. “To explore that question, the class would need to engage in service learning and experience activism.”

The result is Genderfest, a two-week festival that looks at women’s roles and representation in politics, religion, and the media and examines issues of race, safety, and sexuality. The events begin tonight with a panel discussion on women and electoral politics, featuring Dean of Arts and Sciences Virginia Sapiro, and conclude on Saturday, March 29, with a rally against violence affecting women of color. Genderfest is cosponsored by the women’s studies program and the student organization Every Person Counts.

“At first, it was Women’s Week,” says Gabby Fish (CAS’09), a student in Preston’s class. “But it’s not just about women. We wanted to express how gender works at BU today, what it means to students, what it means to be a woman, and what it means to be a male feminist. To describe the diversity of gender and how to express it for ourselves.”

Other events planned include a lecture titled Sex(ism), Identity, and Intimacy in a Pornographic Culture, by Gail Dines, a professor of sociology and women’s studies and chair of American studies at Wheelock College, and Media Diet: Tipping the Scales Towards the Acceptance of Real Beauty, a discussion of body image by Judy Norsigan (Hon.’07), a coauthor of Our Bodies, Ourselves, and Nancy Redd, a former Miss Virginia and author of Body Drama. Students will also present an adaptation of the 1907 women’s suffrage play Votes for Women, on Friday, March 21, and a gallery exhibition of student artwork will be on display on Tuesday, March 25.

Although Genderfest officially begins today, Preston says that from an educational perspective, it’s already been a success in her classroom. “The students are beginning to think through how gender impacts their lives at Boston University — they have had conversations with each other and their friends, and occasionally, they’ve been teased by other students for their engagement in this project,” she says. “All of this teaches them about gender in ways that I can’t in the classroom.”

Tonight’s event, Women and Electoral Politics: A New Era? with Dean Virginia Sapiro, Pippa Norris, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Douglas Kriner, a CAS assistant professor of political science, takes place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Metcalf Trustee Center, One Sherborn St., ninth floor. For a complete listing of Genderfest events, click here; click here for the Facebook listing.

Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.