Professor
Department of English

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021
12:00 - 1:30 pm

To register to receive a link, please go to: 
https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

“Big Red Books: Simone de Beauvoir, Nawal el Saadawi, and Social Reproduction”

Assistant Professor
Departments of History and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

“A Nursing Historian's Reflections on China's Experience on SARS-COV2”

Monday, Sept. 20, 2021
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (EST) 
Zoom Platform

Nicole Barnes begins this talk with a detailed history of the early formation of professional nursing in China in the 1930s and 40s while the nation defended itself against the Japanese army. In this period, remarkable women such as Major General Zhou Meiyu and Dean of Peking Union Medical College School of Nursing Nie Yuchan served as capable and recognized leaders. She then uses her understanding of this history to inform analysis of the place of women in China’s medical profession today, with a focus on how the nation has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To register to receive a link, click here.

Cosponsored by the UB Gender Institute, Department of History, and Confucius Institute.

The Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, in collaboration with the UB Gender Institute and Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, received a Humanities New York grant to support a virtual reading group: Women’s Suffrage Revisited: An Intersectional Reading Group
The series will be facilitated by Carrie Tirado Bramen, director of the UB Gender Institute. The series will have 4 sessions, May 18, June 1, June 15, June 29.  

The Reading Group has concluded but feel free to check out the titles.

May 14 - Noon - 1:00 PM  - Virtual on Zoom

Please join us to celebrate the presentation of the Excellence in Mentoring Award to Professor Michael Rembis, retirements and accomplishments of this past year at the UB Gender Institute’s end-of-year virtual reception.

Please  Register to receive a Zoom link.

Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Education

Wednesday, May 5, 2021
12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 

https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

"Researching the Margins: Feminist Critical Policy Analysis as a Framework of the Center"

Decades of social science research documents the harmful effects of violence, and in particular gender-based and sexual violence, on adolescent female mental, physical, and socioemotional health.  These effects not only can impair development, but prompt negative short- and long-term problems in adulthood.  Despite the existence of long-standing multi-level prevention and intervention legislation and programming, gaps in educational policy research and educator practice remain.  In this talk, Lemke presents feminist critical policy analysis (FCPA) as an integral framing device in the examination of educational policy-making and those normative, but often hidden arrangements of power, which can have intended, unintended, and enacted discriminatory consequences for women and girls.  Lemke also invites critical discussion and reflection on nuanced ethical, methodological, and political considerations, both within and outside of field research.

Friday, April 30, 2021 - 8:30 AM - 3:00 PM - Online Platform

COVID-19 first appeared in China and soon became a global pandemic, but the polities of East Asia have been relatively successful in containing it.  Some African states adopted harsh measures to suppress the pathogen while others drew on experience with AIDS and Ebola to mount effective responses.  Although a wealthy and technologically developed country, the U.S. has been notably ineffective in responding to the pandemic.  This symposium will explore these contradictions and complexities.  It will also discuss the decline in positive international cooperation, which puts all of humanity at risk, and will expose ways states are cooperating to exploit the pandemic to do harm.  

To register please email dussourd@buffalo.edu

For more information, visit https://www.alisondesforges.org/upcoming-events

This symposium honors the life and work of human rights activist Alison Des Forges (1942-2009).

Sponsored by Alison Des Forges Memorial Committee; University at Buffalo: Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy; Confucius Institute; Department of Comparative Literature; Gender Institute; Humanities Institute; James Agee Chair in American Culture; Office of Global Health Initiatives, School of Public Health and Health Professions; Office of the Vice Provost for International Education

PhD Candidate
Global Gender and Sexuality Studies

Wednesday, April 14, 2021
12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 

https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

“Ally or Adversary? Rethinking Feminist Relationships with the State Post-MeToo”

In this talk, Vandenbark discusses how feminist relationships with the state are evolving through a complex interaction of shifting political landscapes, social movements (such as MeToo, Black Lives Matter, RISE, etc.), and bureaucratic reforms. These changes create strategic opportunities for anti-violence advocates which Vandenbark analyzes utilizing Kimberly Morgan and Ann Shola Orloff's conceptualizion of the "many hands of the state" (2018) as well as Indigenous feminist frameworks on state violence. She critically examines the role of the state in addressing sexual violence, as well as the lack of feminist attention to “small S” states, where most sexual assault cases are addressed and adjudicated. Drawing on her dissertation case study of New York’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights (2018), Vandenbark explicates the roles of insiders and outsiders in shaping state responses to sexual violence and the social context in which these changes take place.

Thursday, April 8, 2021 @ 7 p.m.
Alicia Garza, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

Register here: https://bit.ly/GIBookClub

For an UB Libraries E-book copy of The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart  -please go to:  https://search.lib.buffalo.edu/permalink/01SUNY_BUF/n53bqg/alma9939083600004803

Please join us at the 7th Annual Summit - March 24, 2021- 9:00 am EST

Discover what’s current in inclusive pedagogy, science and policy with local thought leaders who are building solutions and influencing change. Meet organizations that support diversity and inclusion initiatives at our Information Fair. Don’t miss this opportunity to be inspired, grow and connect with us!

For more information visit: https://www.buffalo.edu/womeninstem/events/summit.html

MARCH 18, 2020   12:00-1:30 pm  EST
Webinar Platform: Zoom

"RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION IN COVID TIMES"

 

This year’s theme is Supporting Women in STEM in 2020.  The result of the onset of the COVID-19 virus has affected us in many different ways.  We will explore these topics and ways to support, encourage and build community to move forward. Those who register will receive a recording. 

For more information:
https://www.buffalo.edu/womeninstem/events/webinars.html

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

Wednesday, March 17, 2021
12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 

https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

"Preaching Guilt: Religion and Experiences of Painful Sex in College Women"

This research project investigated the relationship between women college students’ pelvic health, sexuality, and religiosity. Currently 20-26% of young women report chronic pain during sexual activity, which is generally a highly preventable and treatable condition. Considering that young girls and women grow up with strong messages about permissible and taboo sexual conduct, gendered expectations of what constitutes “normal” pain-free sex, and the privileging of vaginal-penile intercourse over other forms of non-penetrative sexual activity, we tested if religiosity and religious teachings were contributing factors to women’s experiences of painful sex. Specifically, we examined the relationship between the prevalence of genito-pelvic pain with sex among sexually active female college students based on their sexual conceptualizations and practices, religious self-identification, belief and exposure to religious teachings, and the experiences of sexual shaming and guilt. 

Professor Azim's research centers around women’s reproductive health, agency, and rights in the United States, and specifically on experiences of genito-pelvic pain and psychosocial factors of painful sexual intercourse in young women. Her second line of research encompasses MENA/Arab/Muslim+ women’s perceptions of ethnic identity at the intersection of geopolitical, sociocultural, religious, and gendered factors.

Barbara Smith, Author, activist, and independent scholar 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Time - 7:00 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 
https://bit.ly/BarbaraSmithLecture

Barbara Smith is one of the most important Black feminists of our time. In 1974, she co-founded the Combahee River Collective in Boston, and she co-authored their now famous Combahee River Collective Statement in 1977, which became one of the earliest explorations of the intersection of multiple oppressions, including racism and heterosexism. Smith and Audre Lorde co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1980. Kitchen Table later published her collection Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (1983). Her groundbreaking essay, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” opened the door to serious critical consideration of Black women writers. Her most recent book is the award-winning Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith.

This event is a collaboration with the Department of Africana and American Studies and their 2021 Endowed African American Studies Lecture

Wednesday, March 10th 2021, 5:30 - 6:30pm

What role does art play in times of need? In this moment of upheaval, reckoning, and change, what responsibilities do museums have in representing cultures, past and present, as well as modeling the future of diverse cultural landscapes? UB Art Galleries Curator Liz Park moderates a roundtable discussion with Candice Hopkins and Yesomi Umolu, two leading thinkers and curators in the field of contemporary art. They will share frank reflections on the limits of museums as sites of knowledge and explore the potentials of creating a just and open space in which art can amplify voices and broaden views. 

To register: click here

Cosponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the Gender Institute and UB Art Galleries.

If you are currently working with undergrad or grad student researchers at UB or another area institutions, please encourage them to submit a presentation proposal for STEM for Everyone by March 5, 2021. Any questions can be directed to Chelsea at ubwise@buffalo.edu.

STEM for Everyone: Stories and Examples from Students

Are you an undergraduate or graduate student involved in research or hands-on projects? Would you like to share your work with a broad audience and sharpen your communication skills? Submit your proposal to participate in STEM for Everyone! 

STEM for Everyone, presented by the UB Women in STEM Cooperative (WISC) and UB Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE), invites students to record a 5-minute video presentation about an existing research project or a STEM topic. This event provides a platform for students to communicate the significance of their work to a general audience, an important skill for any STEM professional. Creativity is encouraged!

Participants will benefit from mentorship and constructive feedback from a communication coach as they are preparing their video, and will be eligible to win prizes based on final submissions!

Presentation proposals are due by March 5, 2021.

Final video submissions are due April 11, 2021.

To learn more about STEM for Everyone, and to submit a presentation proposal, visit buffalo.edu/wise/stemforeveryone.

FEBRUARY 18, 2020   12:00-1:30 pm  EST
Webinar Platform: Zoom

"PERSISTING DURING COVID"

This year’s theme is Supporting Women in STEM in 2020.  The result of the onset of the COVID-19 virus has affected us in many different ways.  We will explore these topics and ways to support, encourage and build community to move forward. Those who register will receive a recording. 

For more information:
https://www.buffalo.edu/womeninstem/events/webinars.html

Loretta J. Ross is a Visting Associate Professor of the Study of Women & Gender at Smith College in Northampton, MA in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender.

What if instead of calling people out, we called them in? Professor Loretta J. Ross, a human rights leader who writes and teaches on white supremacy, race, and reproductive justice, is challenging call-out culture. Professor Ross will explore how call-out culture has become toxic and transformed conversations that could otherwise be learning opportunities into sparring matches. How do we uphold our commitment to social justice while resisting the pull of the outrage cycle? Professor Ross will discuss how we can build a unified and strategic human rights movement that uses our differences as a platform for modeling a positive future built on justice and the politics of love, thus shifting away from a past based on the politics of fear and prejudice.

Ross is the founder of SisterSong and long-time social justice activist who co-created the theory of Reproductive Justice in 1994. 

She will be speaking on her current book project Calling in the Calling Out Culture, which was featured recently in The New York Times.

Register for a Zoom link here:  https://bit.ly/RossLecture

Presented in collaboration with the Office of Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence.

Friday, February 12th at Noon - Zoom platform

Join the Gender Institute and the Experiential Learning Network  for an interactive Zoom conversation about catalyzing women's empowerment around the globe—and how you can get involved.

The conversation will be led by Dr. Mara Huber, associate dean for undergraduate research and experiential learning and director of the Experiential Learning Network.

Register here: http://bit.ly/GI_ElnSession

Learn about mentored engagement opportunities through the ELN Project Portal. Global projects begin with guided preparation, exploring the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and researching global NGO partners. Projects are customized based on students’ interests and partner needs with a focus on women’s empowerment and community development. Students who complete their projects earn Global Collaboration digital badges. Students from all background and majors are welcomed View projects to be discussed.

Undergraduate Scholarship
 
The Gender Institute and the Experiential Learning Network jointly award two scholarships to UB undergraduate students. One award for undergraduates conducting research related to women and gender and another for a community-based project with a gender focus. Learn more and apply by March 1.

Professor 
Modern and Contemporary Art 

Wednesday, Feburary 10, 2020
12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 
https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

"The Missing Archive: Bauhaus Designers and the Holocaust" 

Histories of the Bauhaus after the 1933 advent of Germany’s Nazi regime almost invariably describe it as a movement in exile. My current book project, Bauhaus Under National Socialism, mines extensive archival resources to address the vast majority of the Bauhaus’s 1,250 members who remained in Germany and embraced Nazism, survived it, or became its victims. In this talk, I will introduce the project and focus particularly on several female Bauhaus members who were victims of the Holocaust, including architect Zsuzska Bánki, weaver Otti Berger, and metal designer and theater performer Lotte Rothschild. While the work of these Bauhäusler often survived only in part, if at all, compelling photographs of all of them still exist. Through archival sources—often scant materials preserved by family members and friends, including documents, pictures, and private memoirs—I aim to reconstruct what can be determined regarding these women’s work and lives, thinking through Saidiya Hartman’s restorative method of “critical fabulation,” while taking care to distinguish, in Carlo Ginzburg’s words, “truths from possibilities.”

Libby Otto is Professor of Art History and Gender Studies at UB. She is the author of Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics (MIT Press, 2019) and Tempo, Tempo! The Bauhaus Photomontages of Marianne Brandt; the co-author of Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective (Bloomsbury, 2019); and the co-editor of five books including Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism’s Legendary Art School (Bloomsbury, 2019). Her essays and reviews have been published in Artforum, October, and History of Photography, among other places. She is currently writing a book titled Bauhaus Under National Socialism.

“Electric Lights, Tourist Sights: Gendering Dispossession and Settler Colonial Infrastructure at Niagara Falls”

Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development
School of Social Work.

Thursday, November 12, 2020
12:00 - 1:30 pm 
Zoom Platform

To register to receive a link, please go to: 
https://bit.ly/GI-FRA

"Agency Through Thick and Thin: How Girls Exercise Sexual Agency Amid Social Injustice"
I will offer a critical analysis of how common conceptions and depictions of “sexual agency” simultaneously overestimate the power of agency and underestimate the ways in which it is exercised and by whom. Drawing on one of my current studies (supported by the Gender Institute), I will spotlight how Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach offers a different orientation to girls’ sexualities and to systems’ obligations.

Dr. Laina Y. Bay-Cheng is Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Since the beginning of her career, Bay-Cheng has concentrated her research on the imprint of social forces and material conditions on young women’s sexual lives. She combines empirical and conceptual analyses to shift attention away from individual-focused models of sexual risk and toward the systemic roots of girls’ and women’s sexual vulnerability: interlocked gender, class, race, and age-based inequalities and the ideologies that perpetuate them.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020    4:30 pm  - Zoom Platform

 - Set up a Wikipedia account

 - Edit existing pages

 - Use reliable sources and digital archives

No experience necessary!     

Cosponsored by the Women in STEM Cooperative

To register, please go to: https://bit.ly/STEMWikipedia

OCTOBER 22, 2020   12:00-1:30 pm  EST
Webinar Platform: Zoom

"BURNOUT AND WELLNESS (WORK-LIFE BALANCE) IN COVID"

This year’s theme is Supporting Women in STEM in 2020.  The result of the onset of the COVID-19 virus has affected us in many different ways.  We will explore these topics and ways to support, encourage and build community to move forward. Those who register will receive a recording. 

For more information: 
http://womeninstem.buffalo.edu/events/online-series/index.php

Thursday, October 22, 2020
7:00 PM 
Zoom Platform

In this lecture, Lisa Downing will discuss the key themes of her book, Selfish Women. The book offers a provocative rejoinder to many dominant ideas in mainstream culture, as well as in much feminist thinking, about the ethical character of women and the female proclivity to care, to be for the other.  For an excerpt, please click here.

Selfish Women asks why difficult, unpalatable — selfish — women are treated with such ambivalent fascination and demonization. Focusing on controversial and influential figures who have espoused philosophies and politics of selfishness, including Ayn Rand and Margaret Thatcher, it asks whether their ideas of self-interest might, counterintuitively and used against the grain, lend something valuable to feminist politics — and, more broadly, whether progressive politics might be missing a trick in rejecting the notion of "self-interest."

I have known Barbara since her tenure party. This world-shaking event celebrated the awarding of tenure to THREE women at the same time, one of whom was Mary Bisson my colleague and the reason for my presence at the party. Barbara and I stayed in touch.  In addition to Shakespeare (after Jim and family) she was passionately devoted to teaching, especially undergraduates, sometimes to the detriment of her career....She was devoted to them and they were devoted to her.
We wish her a happy, healthy retirement. UB needs faculty who truly care about students and she will be missed."
    -- Gail Willsky, Biochemistry, Professor Emeritus

For the full faculty tribute and a brief biography of Professor Bono, please click here.

"I will always remember Arabella Lyon as the colleague who, when other faculty may have had questions about how best to help a struggling graduate student, got the latter to write, finish, and defend a thoroughly researched and well-written dissertation in what felt like no time. I never quite knew how she did it, but I suspect that her no-nonsense, encouraging yet firm, step-by-step and erudite approach to scholarship and the profession have a lot to do with her remarkable mentoring skills. 
She has also always been as generous with her younger colleagues as she is with students, and I for one am someone who has benefited the most from her savoir faire, other-directedness, and commonsense. 
Arabella is a public humanist who values disagreement, democratic deliberation, and brainstorming as basic conditions of a healthy community, and community is always what she strives to facilitate and model."
--Carine Mardorossian, Professor of English

For the full faculty tribute and a brief biography of Professor Lyon, please click here.

Susan has always been passionate about supporting the careers of other women in science. She has organized the Women Faculty lunches that have been very useful for establishing connections among UB women faculty who, because of our unfortunate geographical distribution, would otherwise not be likely to encounter each other. 

Susan’s efforts on behalf of women have been very much appreciated, and I hope her involvement will continue after her retirement. Finally, Susan and I became friends, getting together many times over the years for meals, concerts, plays etc. (remember those?). Since she is planning to stay in Buffalo these of course will continue-once we are allowed to return to the world.

--Joan S. Baizer, Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Jacobs School of Medicine

For the full faculty tribute and a brief biography of Professor Udin, please click here.

May 13, 2020
"Graduate students in STEM"
1:00 - 2:00 pm  EST (note updated time)
Webinar Platform: Zoom

This year’s theme is Adult Learning Pathways.  The demographics of our students are changing, the avenues that they travel are many and varied.  We will explore these pathways and the various ways these students needs can be met to help them succeed and achieve their goals. Those who register will receive a recording. 

For more information: 
http://womeninstem.buffalo.edu/events/online-series/index.php.

Wednesday, April 22
2:00 - 3:00 pm   Zoom webinar

Kari Winter, Professor
Global Gender Sexuality Studies

Hilary Vandenbark, PhD Candidate (GGSS)
Gender Institute Graduate Assistant

Please join Professor Kari Winter and GGSS  Doctoral candidate/Gender Institute GA, Hilary Vandenbark for an informal Zoom discussion of Vandenbark's doctoral work on sexual violence, as well as sex education reform and domestic violence.

Vandenbark's dissertation analyzes how different components of government respond to sexual violence (the legislature, bureaucracy, and the criminal justice system) and the role of activists, advocacy organizations, and social movements in shaping government policy at the state and federal level.  

Open to all UB students, faculty and staff.

 
   March 4, 2020

   8:30 am Registration 
   Program begins at 9 am.

   9:00 am - 2:00 pm

   To register, please go to:
    http://bit.ly/wisc-summit-2020

Discover what’s current in mentorship, science and policy with local thought leaders who are building solutions and influencing change. Meet organizations that support diversity and inclusion initiatives at our Information Fair. Don’t miss this opportunity to be inspired, grow and connect with us!

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tonya Matthews, Director of STEM Learning Innovation, Associate Provost for Inclusive Workforce Development, Wayne State University 

Dr. Matthews is part of the WSU leadership team setting a vision to address the challenge of an inclusive STEM student success pipeline and pathway from “preK-to-Gray.” Matthews is responsible for implementing the vision of the STEM Innovation Learning Center as an interdisciplinary learning center for WSU undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a hub for WSU K-12 outreach.

According to Matthews, “STEM is about science, technology, engineering, math – and any other letters we need to activate the curiosity and genius of all of our students and our entire workforce to drive innovation, spark invention, and create a world in which we all thrive.” 

Prior to joining the WSU community, Matthews served as President and CEO of the Michigan Science Center (MiSci), leading its journey to reclaim Detroit’s science center legacy and become a STEM Hub for the state of Michigan. While at MiSci, Matthews founded The STEMinista Project, an international initiative that encourages and supports middle school girls’ interest in STEM and STEM careers.  

Known as a thought-leader STEM equity, education, and employability, Matthews has been recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Michigan by Crain’s Business (2016) and honored as a Trailblazer by Career Mastered Magazine (2017).    

Dr. Matthews received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her B.S.E. in biomedical and electrical engineering from Duke University. Matthews is a board member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Science Education. She is currently serving her second term on the National Assessment Governing Board as its Vice-Chair.

Feb 13, 2020
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
509 O’Brien Hall
UB North Campus

Nwando Achebe details her personal journey into becoming an Africanist and gender historian. Along the way, she considers questions relating to the ownership and production of Africanist knowledge; while highlighting several influential interpretive voices that have shaped received canon in ways that are at best, problematic; and at worst, Eurocentric. These voices have worked to interrupt and/or disrupt true understanding and knowing about African women and gender. She ends by offering up her own African- and gender-centered intervention into existing discourse and production of history. Reception will follow lecture.
Cosponsored by the UB Department of History, Gender Institute, School of Law and the Office of the Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence.