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?