Call for Submissions: EXTENDED!

The Feminist Action Project, a two-day conference at the University of Texas at Austin on March 30-31, 2012, is seeking panel and workshop submissions.

This year’s theme is Relationships: building alliances and bridging movements. We hope for this theme to encompass relationships between people, generations, and movements as described in the lists below. We want to make space for conversation on nurturing interpersonal ties and exploring how social justice movements can collaborate and build productive relationships together.

Our goals for the conference include: including the experiences and perspectives of both students and community members, prioritizing 101-level introductions to theories and movements, emphasizing “art as resistance,” and helping broaden the feminist community by framing its issues in relation to other activisms.

Submissions should be consistent with the theme and goals. We welcome academic proposals as well as practical and activist ones, but we prefer interactive models such as discussions and skill-building workshops. This is a relatively small conference that traditionally draws 80-100 people, which allows for involved discussion. We are particularly interested in proposals dealing with one or more of the following topics:

Relationships between people:

• Healthy sexuality 
• Consent
• Non-mainstream romantic/sexual identities
• Practicing feminism in close relationships
• Exploring female relationships
• Breaking down “girl hate”
• Confronting oppressive acts/speech
• Calling others out
• Being a constructive ally
• Activist self-care
• Violence, bullying, and harassment

Relationships between movements:

• Confronting –isms and oppression within feminist movements
• Tensions between women of color movements and ‘mainstream’ feminism
• Collaboration between feminist generations/waves
• Trans* and gender identity activism and the LGBT mainstream
• Race and economic rights activism (like Occupy Wall Street)
• Disability rights activism and intersectionality

101-level intersections:

• Privilege and power
• Sexism
• Racism
• Classism
• Ableism
• Sexual & gender identities
• Body activism
• Indigenous rights movements

In accordance with these themes, we are honored to announce one of this year’s keynote speakers: Dr. Radhika Balakrishnan, an accomplished scholar of gender, economics, and human rights, will be joining us on the evening of Friday, March 30. The next day, the theatrical jazz aesthetic writer and artist Sharon Bridgforth will speak and perform to finish the conference.

Please include in your submission:
• Title of panel, workshop, or presentation
• A brief description of 300-500 words
• Description of AV and space requirements
• Your name and contact information (phone and email preferred)

The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2012. Please submit all documents via email to feministactionproject@gmail.com, with “Attn: Programming Committee” in the subject line. You can send the submission as a Microsoft Word file, .pdf, or text file. If postal mail works better for you, please send it to: Feminist Action Project, c/o Gender and Sexuality Center, 1 University Station, A4400, Austin, TX, 78712.

We are very excited about this year’s conference and we look forward to hearing from you!

  

To bridge means loosening our borders, not closing off to others. Bridging is the work of opening the gate to the stranger, within and without.

•

Gloria Anzaldúa

2012 conference

Greetings from the third generation of Feminist Action Project! We are very excited about this year's conference, which will be held on March 30 and 31, 2012, on the UT-Austin campus.

Keep an eye out for the Call for Submissions, especially if you have ideas for workshops, presentations, panels, or performances that fit the theme "Relationships: Building alliances, bridging movements"! We want to make space for conversation on nurturing interpersonal ties while exploring how social justice movements can collaborate and build productive relationships.

Use the links on the left to find us on Facebook and Twitter, or e-mail us if you want to get involved in the planning process. We always welcome new voices and perspectives, and we hope to hear your feedback and ideas for making this conference valuable for everyone!

Conference Photos!

Hey everybody!

The Second Annual Feminist Action Project Conference was a huge success!  Loretta Ross and Marianne Kirby were AWESOME!  They gave some incredible speeches, shedding light on new issues or issues we have never considered in that light before.  Thank you so much to all of our presenters, our sponsors, donors, and especially our guests for making this conference an unforgettable event!

Now for a few photos!

60 people sitting in a conference room facing Marianne Kirby as she speaks

Closer shot of Marianne Kirby laughing and facing the audience

 Marianne Kirby's Talk

Posters of Gloria Anzaldúa, Dolores Huerta, and Betty Dodson propped on a table

 Signs from Feminist Action Project's earlier action about women's representation on UT campus statues

In front of a stage curtain: two students standing and speaking and Loretta Ross sitting at a table

 Introducing Loretta Ross

In front of the School of Social Work: close shot of twelve committee members wearing white shirts with the conference logo

Another shot of the same group from farther away, everyone celebrating

 Feminist Action Project 2011 organizing committee

It's almost here!

We're so excited that the conference is coming up tomorrow! It will be so amazing to see you all at this event that has been in the works for the past six months.

Programming notes from the first brainstorming sessions

Please bring your ideas, your passion, and your voice.

Some of us (and Gloria Anzaldua!) at the Feminist Coming Out Day event

We can't wait to meet you!

In solidarity, 

the Feminist Action Project Committee

Quick hit: Last day for full registration

Register today to guarantee your meals and Vagina Monologues ticket for this weekend's conference! Check out registration in the link on the left frame, and e-mail us at feministactionproject@gmail.com with any questions.

See you soon!

Panel Profile: Sex Work

Is sex work a feminist issue? Is it an empowering form of sexual expression? The workshop and discussion on sex work seeks to delve into an often misunderstood aspect of society from a sex-positive position. The workshop will introduce elements of sex work ranging from erotic dancing, pornography and prostitution. Topics such as the different types of sex work, the difficulties embedded in the industry and the resources available for workers and advocates will be discussed. Come engage in the discussion on sex work on April 2 - an issue that has been poorly understood and left feminists divided!

Panel schedule

All of the panels will be held in the School of Social Work Building (SSW) at the University of Texas at Austin. This building is located at 1925 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, TX.

We look forward to seeing you there! Keep checking back for more panel profile posts as the week goes on.

	2.116	Texas voices 2.122	101 track 2.118
A 9:45-11	Workshop and Discussion of Sex Work	Beyond Waves of Controversy: Feminist Art Making & Queer Political Forms	Feminist Intersectionality
B 11:15-12:30	We’ve Got the Power:  Redefining Artistic and Cultural Representations of Women’s Bodies	The "Feminist" Politician: A Discussion	Advertising: What Are We Really Being Sold?
C 3:30-4:45	Women of Color in the Media: Deconstructing a Lens of Inequality	From Cuts to Curry: Budget Cuts, Sweet Potato Curry and Feminism in Action at UT-Austin	Organizing: Building Activist Skills
D 5-6:15	Airport Security, Our Bodies, and Rape Survivors	Speak	Exploring Body Diversity

Beyond Waves of Controversy: Feminist Art Making & Queer Political Forms

What makes art controversial? Who decides what is controversial in the art world? Sometimes the simple presence of the female body, or the gender of the artist’s body, signifies a work as “inappropriate” or aesthetically compartmentalized within a community. By discussing the artwork and curatorial efforts of female artists and activists, this presentation will explore the significance, consequence, and language of social spaces that accompany art making and art exhibitions in the predominantly Christian conservative community of Lubbock, Texas.

We will discuss the waves of controversy we have encountered, diffused, or created, within our academic and artistic practices. We will contemplate the queer representations of women’s bodies for social and political gain in our community and will share our collaborative attempts to push the envelope of stereotypical definitions and visualizations of the female body through our art, our organizing activisms.

While we intend to empower through our feminist artworks, we also recognize how we are often influenced by a culture that exploits the female body and the beauty ideal, leaving us to negotiate our own chauvinistic participation in the controversy of the female body.

Panel on Budget Cuts and Feminist Action on Saturday, Feb. 2nd, 2011!

Recent organizing efforts through The Students Speak (TSS) (an anti-budget cuts organization for students and community members) aims to explore the relationship between feminist action and how organizing against budget cuts performs this work? As a concerned community member and student, I am looking forward to attending this panel and learning about how and what I can do to make change for the better.

Panel Profile: Airport Security, Our Bodies, and Rape Survivors: A Roundtable Discussion

As citizens and human beings, what should we value more: protection from terrorism or protection of civil liberties? How do the policies and procedures of the Transport Security Administration (TSA) affect rape survivors? Is this a feminist issue? These are just a few questions to be considered during this discussion on airport security and rape survivors. The discussion will discuss the arrest of a local Austin woman and rape survivor after she refused the TSA pat-down at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. How is this particular incident indicative of the larger issues of violation and safety, and should we have to choose? This seems like it will be a lively and enlightening discussion on a very relevant topic.

Panel profile: Exploring Body Diversity

[Over the next week, we will be posting information on each of the conference panels, workshops, and presentations in anticipation of the panel sessions on Saturday, April 2. Check it out!]

Interested in size acceptance, fat activism, sizeism, or food politics? This presentation is for you:

Join us for an interactive discussion with a special focus on providing a brief overview and exploration of several body diversity concepts, including the Health At Every Size movement (HAES), fat activism, and body acceptance. The presenter will report on prejudice associated with body types in medical and professional fields as well as a history of ideal body shapes in America, and a discussion will follow with audience participation and sharing experiences.

Come learn more about body diversity and how it intersects with feminism and other social justice movements!

Schedule announced

Check out the conference schedule!  Later this week we will announce the details of each panel, presentation, or workshop and where they fit into the schedule of breakout sessions.  You'll see that each session is 1 hour and 15 minutes long, with a 15 minute break in between.  This will give everyone time to have a good discussion and then decompress and breathe between each activity:


Friday, April 1

3:00pm	Registration/check-in
4:00	Icebreakers and power shuffle
4:45	Discussion
5:30	Walk/transport to and eat at SAC
6:30	Seating for Vagina Monologues
9:00-TBA	Discussion

_________________________________

Saturday, April 2

8:30am	Check-in/breakfast
9:00	Opening plenary
9:45-11:00	Session A
11:15-12:30pm	Session B
12:45-1:45	Lunch and Marianne Kirby
2:00-3:15	Keynote: Loretta Ross
3:30-4:45	Session C
5:00-6:15	Session D
6:30-7:00	Closing plenary

Quick hit: FCOD representation

Remember our event on March 8, International Women's Day and Feminist Coming Out Day? Check out the results at the official Feminist Coming Out Day website where we are an official affiliated campus:

http://feministcomingoutday.com/tagged/University_of_Texas_at_Austin

Photograph of the UT-Austin tower framed by an L-shaped poster which says "This is what a feminist looks like/March 08 2011/www.feministcomingoutday.com" in the style of the official logo.

The rest of the site has information on the national movement, other campus affiliates, merchandise (for a donation), and ways to get involved. Look around and submit your own feminist portrait or 'click' moment to add to the archive.
Photographs are still being posted from the event, so keep an eye out for your portrait if you were one of our participants on the 8th. Thank you to everyone who came out and represented feminism at UT!

Feminist Coming Out Day

What does a feminist look like? Come join the discussion at the Feminist Action Project table at the International Women's Day collective event:

Place: West Mall, UT-Austin campus
Date: Tuesday, March 8
Time: 11am-2pm

Pose with our picture frame for inclusion in the online archive of feminists on campuses across the U.S., or submit your own statement or image on their website with UT-Austin in the text. Get all the details and the submission form at www.feministcomingoutday.com. The more different faces and voices we can get to represent UT and Feminist Action Project, the better! Go to the site and read through the feminist coming out and 'click' moments of students across the country.

Template for Facebook profile pictures:
"This is what a feminist looks like" down the
right side, "March 08 2011/
www.feministcomingoutday.com" across
the bottom in red and black text.

At Tuesday's event, also check out our statue project- which feminists would you like to see as statues at UT? Who is recognized on campus and who is left out? We'll have posters of Gloria Anzaldua, Betty Dodson, and Dolores Huerta along with information on these powerful women. What would campus look like if one of them had a statue instead of Jefferson Davis (for example)? Come on over and join the conversation.

Thank you: Center for Mexican American Studies

We are very pleased to announce the generous support of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. They are invested in supporting feminist and social justice inquiry, and we are very excited to work with them as the conference draws near.
The following is part of their mission statement, which describes the importance of their work:

Center for Mexican
American Studies logo:
CMAS in yellow text
in a maroon circle

The mission of CMAS is to serve Texas and the nation as a leader in the intellectual development of Mexican American Studies. The establishment of CMAS represents an institutional recognition of the importance of the Mexican American people in the history, culture, and society of the United States.
Faculty and students affiliated with CMAS have worked to enhance our understanding of the Mexican and Mexican American experience, as well as the broader Latino experience, and to strengthen the presence of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in the intellectual terrain, both within and beyond US borders.

Please check out their website to find out more about their academic programs, publications, and extensive public programming calendar. Especially with budgeting so tight across cultural and identity studies departments this year, we appreciate the support of related programs and departments like CMAS. Don't forget to see all of our sponsors on the Sponsors and special thanks page!

Keynote: Loretta Ross

We are honored to welcome Loretta Ross to Feminist Action Project this year as our featured keynote speaker. Her work has been very influential across activist movements and aligns with our priorities of intersectionality and bodily experience. We will feature more from her on this blog before the conference, but in the meantime learn more about her and her work below (with permission from Soapbox Inc.):

Black-and-white portrait photograph
of Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a network founded in 1997 of 80 women of color and allied organizations that work on reproductive justice issues. In 2004, Ms. Ross was National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. Between 1996-2004, she was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE) in Atlanta, Georgia. She lectures frequently on human rights, women’s rights and hate groups and right wing organizations.

Ms. Ross was one of the first African American women to direct the first rape crisis center in the United States in the 1970s.  From 1985 to 1989, she served as the Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, organizing the first national conference on Women of Color and Reproductive Rights in 1987.  Prior to developing NCHRE in 1996, she served as the national program research director for the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR) (formerly the National Anti-Klan Network) from 1990 to 1995 and program director of the National Black Women’s Health Project from 1989-1990. She is a political commentator for Pacifica News Service, and has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET. Ross has also been a keynote speaker at numerous statewide and national conferences focusing on sexual and domestic violence.

Publications include “African American Women and Abortion After Roe,” in Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle: 1950-2000 (Beacon Press) edited by Rickie Solinger and Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice (South End Press), co-authored with Jael Silliman, Marlene Fried, and Elena Gutierrez, published in 2004 (awarded the Myers Outstanding Book Award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights), She is also the author of “The Color of Choice” chapter in The Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology, published in 2006. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University. Ms. Ross is presently writing a book on reproductive rights entitled Black Abortion.

If you are interested in the organizations and events mentioned above, please check out these links:

• SisterSong
  
• Center for Democratic Renewal
  
• March for Women's Lives 2004
  
• National Center for Human Rights Education

Donate online

Do you or people you know have some extra change for change? It's a bad joke but for a good cause: we now have a way for anyone to donate any amount to Feminist Action Project through PayPal. To check it out, go to Donate online under Pages in the left frame, or follow this link:

http://feministactionproject.blogspot.com/p/donation.html

Every contribution goes straight toward event supplies, registration funding, and especially bringing Loretta Ross to come speak and inspire us.

If you would like to donate through the mail or in person, please feel free to make out a check or money order to UT-Austin with Gender and Sexuality Center in the notes. The canceled check serves as a tax-deductible donation receipt! Please e-mail us or call at 512-232-1831 if you have any questions.

Registration is open!

The time has come! Registration has begun for the big event. You can use the link to "Registration" in the left frame under Pages, or follow this link to the form and PayPal button:

http://feministactionproject.blogspot.com/p/registration.html

A registration fee affords you the following pleasures:

• Participation in both days of the conference
  
• Admission to the Vagina Monologues performance on the night of Friday, April 1 (for the first 50 registrants)
  
• Breakfast, lunch, and snacks on Saturday, April 2
  
• The stylings of Loretta Ross, Marianne Kirby, and many other distinguished speakers and panelists

This is a self-supporting feminist event, but we don't want financial hardship to prevent anyone from attending. The registration fee is a sliding scale from $10-$20 dollars. If all you can pay is $10, we completely understand are are glad you'll be able to join us. If you are able to pay the $20 (or more), it will help others attend who would otherwise not be able to, which will in turn make the event and our community stronger.

We can't wait to get everything started! As always, please contact us with any questions, and we look forward to working with you in April.

Quick link!

In Clutch, an online magazine for "young, contemporary women of color," Dan Tres Omi writes about feminism from a black male perspective in his January 24th article, "Black Male Feminist: What Feminism Means to Me." Check it out:

Being a black male feminist does not imply that I have arrived. I am a work in progress and I don’t have all the answers. I am thankful that I have several sister warrior friends in my corner. They are supportive, loving, strong, and intelligent. I have come to realize that in the words of the wonderful Dr. bell hooks, feminism is for everybody.

Check it out! What do you think?

Call for Submissions extended!

We folks at the Feminist Action Project know things can get busy – classes, jobs, family – and so we’d like to extend the due date for our call for submissions until Monday, February 14, 2011. We are very impressed with the submissions we've received and look forward to seeing more! Please feel free to pass this information along to any and all who might be interested.

As always, you are welcome to contact us at feministactionproject [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions or want to get involved!

Make sure you check out the text version of our Call for Submissions below or at the permanent link here.

Call for Submissions

The Feminist Action Project, a two-day conference to be held at the University of Texas at Austin on April 1st and 2nd, 2011, is seeking panel and workshop submissions.

This year’s theme is Feminism is for Every(body). We intend this theme to encompass both accessibility to feminism and matters of lived and physical bodies. Our goals for the conference include: emphasizing “art as resistance”, including in equal measure the experiences and perspectives of academic and community members, making space for discussion about what feminism means (addressing stereotypes, myths, and stigma), and helping broaden the feminist community by framing its issues in relation to other activist movements. In addition to the larger global perspective of the conference, we hope for one programming track to focus on issues specific or pertinent to Texas.

Submissions should be consistent with the theme and goals. We welcome academically- oriented proposals as well as practical and activist ones, but we prefer interactive and conversational models. We are particularly interested in proposals dealing with:

marked bodies
• ‘race’ and racism
• queerness and gendered bodies
• fat and body activism
• disability
• ageism

governed bodies/body justice
• sex work
• reproductive justice
• human trafficking
• immigration

self-care
• self-esteem and self-care
• self-care in protest situations
• self-care in difficult economic times
• class and economic issues

accessing feminism
• feminist issues on campus
• barriers to adopting the label ‘feminist’
• movement intersectionality and organizing
• global feminisms

In accordance with these themes, we are honored to announce this year’s keynote speaker:  Loretta Ross, a highly accomplished women’s human rights, race, and reproductive justice activist. Marianne Kirby, a fat activist and blogger, will also be joining us for panels.

Please include in your submission:
• Title of panel, workshop, or presentation
• Brief description, no more than 300 words
• Description of AV and space requirements
• Your name and contact information (cell phone and e-mail preferred)

The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2011. Please submit all documents via email to feministactionproject@gmail.com, with “Attn: Programming Committee” in the subject line. You can send the submission as a Microsoft Word file, .pdf, or text file. If postal mail works better for you, please send it to: Feminist Action Project, Attn: Programming Committee, 1 University Station, A6220, SOC #529, Austin, TX, 78712.

We are very excited about this year’s conference and we look forward to hearing from you!

Radical simply means grasping at the root.

-Audre Lorde

•

A genuine feminist politics always brings us from bondage to freedom, from lovelessness to loving ... There can be no love without justice.

- bell hooks
Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

2011 conference

Greetings from the second generation of Feminist Action Project! We are very excited about this year's conference, which will be held on April 1st and 2nd on the UT-Austin campus.

Keep an eye out for the Call for Submissions, especially if you have ideas for workshops, presentations, panels, or performances that fit the theme "Feminism is for Every(body)"! This theme encompasses the issues surrounding accessibility to feminism as well as body politics and experiences.

Use the links on the left to find us on Facebook and Twitter, or e-mail us if you want to get involved in the planning process. We always welcome new voices and perspectives, and we hope to hear your feedback and ideas for making this conference valuable for everyone!