Musings of a #lonelyfeminist Issue 5!

Check out this sweet mini-doc about our conference!!! Special thanks to Elizabeth Kushnereit, Victoria Chapa, and Remigo Vitales!

Workshop Descriptions

If you were curious about the workshops during the conference, we are very happy to have these wonderful workshops on Saturday. Hope we will see you there!

Session A (12:20-1:50 pm)

Perspectives from Feminist Generations / Waves in Texas

Rocío Villalobos, Glenn Scott, Alice Embree

Gender & Sexuality Center, SAC 2.112

We will lead a conversation with two feminist activists from the Second Wave of the 1970’s and two young feminists currently organizing on reproductive justice, immigrant justice and anti-racism. These four facilitators will build a conversation around the following questions: What drew you to activism? What was the historical context? What are the challenges you face(d) in your activism? What can others learn from your experience? Throughout the workshop, the discussion leaders will promote active dialogue with participants around the above questions and others that arise.

Building Accessibility Into Your Intersectionality: Combatting Ableism in Progressive Movements

Jessica Mitchell

Executive Conference Room, SAC 3.114

Progressive movements have often excluded the needs of disabled individuals, creating divisions between disability activists and other progressive causes and furthering barriers to intersectionality. These barriers are often thought of as physical, yet frequently transgress corporeal bounds into mental and emotional spaces to create psychologically toxic environments to those with medical, physical, emotional, and neurodevelopmental disabilities. 

This workshop will address the details of these environments, the causes, and how they are maintained. We will learn how to build environments that areaccessible, safe, and welcoming to disabled individuals physically, mentally, and emotionally and learn how to respond when disabled needs are not met. Areas covered will include language, physical spaces, organizing and event planning, protests and demonstrations, and inclusionary practices.

Muted Voices, Botched History

Kate Lemley and Aja Rodriguez

Student Government Office, SAC 2.102

Our interactive, group discussion-based workshop aims to discuss the history of silencing voices in US History. We will examine privilege and power and the effects these concepts have had on public education and what is thereby perceived to be "general knowledge" in the United States. Texas State Graduate Student Aja Rodriguez and UT Undergrad Kate Lemley plan to facilitate these ideas in both historical and modern lights.

Session B (2:00- 3:20 pm)

Humans Cosplaying Robots: Exploring Vulnerability Through Art Making

PLUMP

Gender & Sexuality Center, SAC 2.112

Our goal is to hold a media and art making workshop that incorporates, highlights, and draws from our identities and experiences as fat queer femme people both as a collective and as individuals. We will hold a conversation about the ways in which personal identities and proximities to privilege and marginalization inform the media that we create as well as the media that we see and are surrounded by. During the course of this workshop we will accomplish this by presenting writing prompts we have gathered about bodies and how bodies inform experiences. We will hold space for those who feel alienated by or uninterested in using writing in their art-making, and speak about our experiences creating FAT: the play as well as FAT: the play: the zine.

Doing Feminism in Austin: Intersectional Feminist Praxis at Work

Women’s Community Center of Central Texas

Student Government Office, SAC 2.102

Jobs in social justice organizations are coveted and hard to come by. But those organizations can sometimes be surprisingly unjust places on the inside. Employees deal with low pay, little or no benefits, long hours, minimal flexibility, little power-sharing, and few opportunities for professional growth or development, all with the expectation that you’re grateful to be able to work for the cause. Systems like fundraising often clash with feminist values. The presenters on this panel will talk about how they work to create feminist space within and around the non-profit industrial complex. We’ll talk about what feminist workspace can look like, sustainability, accountability, what professionalism means in a feminist context, practicing intersectionality, practicing solidarity rather than charity, and more.

What Is it That We’re Talking About Here: An Exploration of (Some) of the Basic Components of Sexism

Ana “Ixchel” Rosal

Executive Conference Room, SAC 3.114

This workshop is geared toward those who are new to and/or curious about the work of the women’s movement and feminism. Through this workshop, participants will examine some of the basic mechanism of sexism. What does sexism look like? How do we experience it in our daily lives? What are the institutions that uphold sexist oppression and how do they do that? Come with your questions, and an open mind, and together will build a shared understanding of how sexism works.

Session C (3:30-4:50 pm)

Sex Work and Feminism

Texas Sexes

Multicultural Engagement Center, SAC 1.102

A collective of Austin area Sex Workers will hold a panel made up of current and former sex workers. We will speak about our work and answer questions, as well as discuss how our work intersects with feminisms and other issues.

Trigger warning: we will be talking about many different types of sexuality, BDSM, trauma among other things

What Goods Are We Really Being Sold?

Shane Whalley

Executive Conference Room, SAC 3.114

When you watch commercials do you feel like there is more going on than just being sold a product? In this workshop we will watch commercials and talk about what they "teach" about gender roles.

Parking and Location Information

Conference Venue

The Feminist Action Project Conference is located in the Student Activity Center (SAC) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Parking

The University of Texas does not provide free parking to most people except under certain circumstances. The weekend of the conference is also the Longhorn Run, so folks hoping to drive on campus should should anticipate a lot of traffic. Visitors with a  disability license plate or disabled person placard may park at any surface lot spaces marked "D" for free. More information about parking is available online at Parking for Visitors page. 

Registration Open for 2015 Conference

We are now live with registration for this year's conference registration! You can fill out this form either on this page or at  our Conference 2015 Registration Survey Form. 
This year's event will begin with a keynote speech by Feminista Jones in the evening of March 27th and will continue the next day with a day full of workshops on Saturday March 28th. The title is “Examining Intersections, Building Alliances.” We hope for this theme to encompass community building and a thorough examination of feminist history. 
Make sure to hit submit!




Wait! Did you scroll through the whole form and hit "Submit"? Thank you for checking. The suggested registration fee of $15 includes snacks, food and drink, admission to Friday’s performance evening; and all other conference activities. 
Please note the sliding scale if you are unable to pay $15, or if you wish to donate more. No one is turned away for lack of funds! 
Payments can be made the day of the conference through check, cash, or Paypal. 
Thank you! 
Register! 

Call for Submissions 2015

The Feminist Action Project Conference, a two-day conference at the University of Texas at Austin on March 27th-28th 2015, is seeking panel and workshop submissions. 
This year's event will begin with a keynote speech by Feminista Jones in the evening of March 27th and will continue the next day with a day full of workshops on Saturday March 28th. The title is “Examining Intersections, Building Alliances.” We hope for this theme to encompass community building and a thorough examination of feminist history.

Our goals for the conference are: including the experiences and perspectives of both students and community members, prioritizing 101-level introductions to theories and movements, highlighting the complexities of identity in relation to the feminist and other activist communities, and to put a special emphasis on language and space.

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 models such as discussions and skill-building workshops. We are particularly interested in proposals dealing with one or more of the following themes:

The deadline for submissions is Friday February 27th at 5:00 pm. Please submit you application in our online survey. Please direct all questions to feministactionproject@gmail.com

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

Check out Musings of a #lonelyfeminist Issue 4

Check out the digital copy of Musings of a #lonelyfeminist Issue 4: Undefining Feminism!