Pumpkins!

Here are some pictures from the Pumpkin Carving day at the centre. Thanks to Abby for organizing and to Heather for the treats and great pie!

GENDER AND ISLAM COURSE!

Gender and Islam

WMST 425B

Term 2 (Jan 08, 2007 to Apr 12, 2007) UBC Vancouver

An interdisciplinary course from a feminist, postcolonial, critical perspective

What do we mean by the ‘woman question’ in Islam?

Why is Gender such a crucial issue in debates on Islam?

What are the voices and actions of Muslim women saying to us?


In this course we will problematize assumptions of binary opposites such as ‘Islam versus the West’, ‘good versus evil’ ‘active versus passive’ or ‘freedom versus oppression’, in relation to Gender and Islam.

We will examine and unpack from a critical, feminist perspective, questions and debates on Gender and Islam that are complex and often fraught with conflict.

To this end, we will

* interrogate neo-colonial, predominantly western, constructs of Muslim women
* problematize notions of Muslim women’s oppressions
* examine diverse challenges that Muslim women face
* explore complex avenues of Muslim women’s resistance and agency
* listen to the voices of Muslim women, including scholars, activists and feminists

Our aim will be to understand Muslim women’s interactions with and approaches to religion and society, and their lived experiences and struggles as they negotiate complicated spaces and influences at the local and transnational levels.

Credits: 3

Pre-requisites: WMST 100

(Permission of the Instructor is also permissible)

For more information contact:

Women's Studies Program,

University of British Columbia
1896 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C, V6T 1Z1

Tel: 604-822-9171 Fax: 604-822-9169

E-mail: wmst1@interchange.ubc.ca

Or visit the UBC website http://ubc.ca/

More Stuff!

1. Tuesday Oct. 17 - 6:30 pm
Global Day of Solidarity with Bolivia
Public Forum and Film
Room 1400, SFU Harbour Centre,

2. Saturday Oct. 21 - 8:00 pm
Welcome Potluck for Lydia Robles, Women's Secretary, Federation of Factory Workers Cochabamba, Bolivia
65 West Cordova. Lore Kril Co-op

3. Sunday Oct. 22 - 7:00 pm
Information Session & Discussion with Lydia Robles
733 Beatty St. - YWCA Hotel

More information:

====================

1. Global Day of Solidarity with Bolivia:
forum and film screening

Segal Room (1400) at Harbour Centre,
Simon Fraser University (downtown)
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, British Columbia

Tuesday, October 17 at 6:30pm

Organized by Bolivia Campaign BC

This public forum supports the Bolivian campaign to bring
former President Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada to
trial for his role in the 2003 massacre of civilians in the
city of El Alto during the "gas war". Lozada currently lives
in exile in the US.

The forum will show the documentary film "Fusil Metralla,
El Pueblo No Se Calla", a Bolivian production featuring
faces and images from the 2003 social unrest that lead
to the resignation of President "Goni" Lozada.

It will also feature testimony by Patricio Quispe via a
video recorded in Bolivia. Quispe is the President of the
Association of Victims of the 2003 massacre ordered
by Goni.

As well, there will be a live interview with the president
of the Committee to Promote the Trial Against Goni
live from Bolivia via telephone.

=============================

2. Saturday Oct. 21 - 8:00 pm
Welcome Potluck for Lydia Robles, Women's Secretary, Federation of Factory Workers Cochabamba, Bolivia
65 West Cordova. Lore Kril Co-op

Come join us to welcome Lydia Robles. Lydia worked in the Coronilla pasta factory in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where together with other workers she organized the Federation of Factory Workers. In the Federation she participates in the "School of the People May First" teaching courses on political-union mobilisation. Lydia's union was the principal organization behind the events knows as the "Water War" in Cochabamba (April 2,000), where a popular uprising prevented the privatization of the city's water supply and forced the giant transnational corporation Bechtel out of Bolivia.

Please bring tasty dishes and warm solidarity! Donations to cover the expense of Lydia's trip will be gladly accepted.

==============================
========

3. Sunday Oct. 22 - 7:00 pm
Information Session & Discussion with Lydia Robles
733 Beatty St. - YWCA Hotel

Come hear Lydia Robles, Women's Secretary, Federation of Factory Workers, and political-popular educator from Bolivia, share her experiences of working within the labour and social movements in Bolivia. Following Lydia's presentation there will be time for questions and discussion with her.


For further information, contact:
boliviasolidarity@gmail.com
boliviacampaign@yahoo.ca
604-715-4097

All events organized by:
Bolivia Campaign BC



EMBODIED NON-VIOLENCE

December 3, 9, 16, 2006 - 9:30 -4:00

Suite 210 - 207 West Hastings ( Dominion Building)

Embodied Non-Violence is both an approach to restoring self-worth and
vitality after experiences of violence and a way to live out of non-violence
in situations of conflict. This three day workshop will explore different
levels and ways of embodying non-violence. Drawing on ecofeminist spiritual
principles we will use embodiment practice, dance, movement, popular
theatre, and ritual to explore ways of incorporating body awareness and
non-verbal practices in non-violent conflict. Objectives of the workshop
are to learn:

o Embodiment practice (awareness of body sensations and circulation of
energy)

o How violence and trauma affect the body and the benefits of
non-verbal approaches in countering the effects of violence

o Embodied non-violence as spiritual practice

o The politics of non-violence

o How to embody non-violence collectively in creative, fun and
powerful ways incorporating theatre and dance

o Using ritual and ceremony as non-violent practice

o Non-violent conflict across cultural differences


The workshop takes place for one day on three consecutive weekends in order
to allow participants to practice embodiment during the week and thus be
able to better absorb the teachings of the next sessions. Cost for the three
days (Sunday December 3, Saturday December 9 and 16th) is $75 to $150, or
$25 to $50 per day, sliding scale based on income. No one will be turned
away. Pre-register by November 17th at 604-215-8295 or at
interfaith.summerinstitute@shaw.ca.

Denise Nadeau works as a theologian, movement therapist and popular educator. She has a certificate in Body-Mind Psychotherapy, EMDR, and has training in Somatic Education, Anna Halpern's Life-Art Method, Popular Theatre and Playback Theatre. Much of her recent work has focused on combining expressive art therapies and spiritual practices in the repair of sexist, racist, heterosexist and colonial violence. She was cofounder of the Vancouver Non-Violence Direct Action Training Collective and has developed and taught Embodied Non-Violence in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. She is a member of the Justice, Peace and Social Movements Interreligious Collective.

Stuff

Hi all!
This are some pictures of the dinner organized by Heather with our awesome new students (and some of their family) at a Ethiopian restarant in Commercial...There are LOTS OF STUFF going on, and fortunately Naomi took over the gradlist so that will make communication more efficient, also I will be posting here events and political issues that come up on the mail.
An Anti-Coke Committee has been formed in Campus to disseminate information on Coke's policies in "third world Countries", you can check some info at:
Commercialization in Canadian Schools
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/Reports/2006/05/Commercialism/

Exclusivity Contracts on Campus
www.polarisinstitute.org/pdf/Bottled_Water-Campus_Exclusivity_Contracts.pdf

Bottled Water:
http://www.polarisinstitute.org/pubs/pubs_inside_the_bottle.html

Other Canadian campuses: http://umanitoba.ca/manitoban/2005-2006/1019/906.cola.contracts.on.canadian.campuses.examined.php

Coke update in india
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14104

Coke update in Colombia:
www.killercoke.org

And you contact them through dharshi_u@hotmail.com

Also, there is the The Gender Performances Research/Reflection Group

So far endorsed and supported by Women's and Gender Studies UBC – Pride – Critical Studies on Sexuality – Access and Diversity – Gender and Womyn Continuum
The group is intended to be a self-taught group formed by graduate and undergraduate students and academics interested in exploring the significance of gender binaries and how we are affected by these categories, by heterosexism and heteronormativity, while also to reflect on the multiplicity of political/personal responses to heteronormativity.
Objectives:
a) to engage on theoretical analsysis in particular with Queer Theory, GLTQ literature & film
b) to learn about local activism related to the questioning and resisting of gender binaries,
c) to produce a number of outcomes (i. e. a play, a video, a live performance, a publication, an intervention) that will elicit questioning and reflection on campus. The group could benefit also of taking a certain “experiential” element, of understanding our own positioning and our subjectivity as mediated by gender experiences, framed on different national, cultural, ethnical, political and historical contexts. But this is up to the participants the degree of self-reflexivity they want to bring to the learning process. Measures like confidentiality and self-care would have to be agreed, as well as the exploration of more inclusive, as well as gender-subversive, language and practices.

Crane -located in Brock Hall- seems to be the best option right now for a place to hold it. If this option is used the sessions will need to take place in the evenings (except for Tuesday evening from 4:00-6:00 when the Equity Ambassadors uses the space), or the weekends. This space is both comfortable, has microwave and fridge, and is free. The dynamics of the group are to finally be agreed between the actual members, but here are some possible guidelines:
A list of relevant bibliography will be elaborated with the help of academics and activists. We will include in this list not only books but audiovisual materials (movies to watch), performances to attend, and whatever help us broaden our understanding and reflection on the way gender categories are present in our own identity construction. Elaborate a number of scholars and activists who can join us as guest speakers. Elaborate a calendar schedule for the sessions: I suggest one a month, for 2 or 3 hours. Distribute the readings so everybody gets to present an author/idea and facilitate a discussion with some questions. This sessions will be alternated with other activites as mentioned above (watching a film, attending a performance, etc.).

PEOPLE FROM THE CENTRE HAS A PREFERENTIAL SEAT! But we will open the invitation to other students as well to complete around 20 participants?

Women Studies at UBC Graduate Students Association

Women Studies at UBC Graduate Students Association
Hey Everyone! I am one of the new MA students this year and will be involved with the WSGSA. I am looking forward to all the planned activities and organizing! Thanks for facilitating the meeting Sam and Manuela. Thanks also to everyone who made my welcome to UBC such a WONDERFUL experience so far. I look forward to meeting everyone else over the year!

Jane

ANYBODY OUT THERE?

OK, so many of us are crazy these days over our UGF applications, others, are really into their research, their coursework and their lives. Still, I want to invite you to get involved actively this term with our graduate associaton while you're in the program. Currently, we are in the process of elections and of voting our "Constitution" or Policy Document. We have distributed it by mail so you should have it, please give us feedback, we want to assure the maximum efficiency and representativity for our student association. We also have some projects that we want to discuss with you and get you involved with. We have been meeting with other groups on campus, like the Womyn and Gender Continuum with whom we'll be organizing some stuff throughout the year.... There is information about ongoing issues on Campus that we should be taking note on. I went to a Forum organized by the Social Justice Centre and they informed us about the AMS/UBC contract of exclusivity with Coca-Cola (a multinational known for their terrorist persecution of union leaders, inhuman labor practices and environmental impact of their plants in India and Central and Latin America), the further Development Projects UBC is planning to carry in campus, etc. We will be organizing again for the Female Masculinities project in case you want to jump in, will carry out an Archival Project for the Centre and also plan to do some fundraising activities for our association. As you can see, there is lots of stuff we have been planning but none of this makes sense without you guys, your feedback, your opinions, iniciatives and support, so...SEE YOU ON OUR MEETING WED 27th AT 11 FOR ELECTIONS!
Cheers,
Manuela

I like cake

Good morning! Here are a couple of pictures from Wynn's farewell party! Also, a picture of the fabulous Georgia O'Keeffe cake that we had at the party - and a shameless plug: my cousin, Jenn, makes these amazing art cakes so if you know of anyone who needs a special cake...
Happy weekend everyone.
Kim