Penn State Behrend Hosts Second Annual Conference on Gender
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will host its second annual conference on gender, titled “Fortunes of Gender,” this Friday, Feb. 13. The daylong conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the college’s Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel. The conference is free and open to the public; conference guests should park in the REDC parking deck.
“Fortunes of Gender was designed in such a way that we encourage attendees to really take a bite out of the question, What does the future hold for men and women?,” said Sarah E. Whitney, lecturer in English and program chair for women’s studies. “We’ll address that question from a number of perspectives.”
The conference will feature 31 panelists and moderators, who are participating in six sessions, two of which are concurrent. Participants represent faculty members, executives and students from Penn State Behrend, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Erie DAWN, Gannon University, Mercy Center for Women, Mercyhurst College, Ophelia Project, SafeNet Erie, and West Virginia University.
Session topics include Gender and Pedagogy; International and Lifespan Issues; Community Focus: Serving women and girls in Erie; Subject To Debate: Topics of controversy in gender studies; Student Roundtable: Gender and sexuality on the Penn State Behrend campus; and Clearing Up Mysteries: Faculty and students discuss gender in philosophy and literature.
In addition, the day’s keynote speaker is Penn State Behrend alumna Kristi McKim ’99, who is currently an assistant professor of English at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. Her keynote talk is titled “Fortune as a way of seeing? Cinematic subjectivity and time in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life (1998).”
Attendees are encouraged to visit one of three on-campus eateries to enjoy lunch on their own—Bruno’s Café in Reed Union Building, Clark Café in the Research and Economic Development Center, or The Gazebo at Dobbins Hall. Beverages and snacks only will be available throughout the day in Smith Chapel for attendees. Click here for a campus map.
Visit http://behrendgenderconference.wordpress.com/program/ to view the program for this year’s conference.
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, offers one associate and eight baccalaureate degree programs, a pre-law curriculum, a fifth-year teaching certification, seven minors and a study abroad program in cooperation with Northampton University in England. Students within the school often collaborate with faculty on research and outreach programs, have access to technology-enhanced classrooms, including state-of-the art digital editing and psychology laboratories, and publish “Lake Effect,” a nationally recognized literary magazine edited by students. The school hosts the Creative Writer’s Speaker Series and both the International and Women’s Film Series, plus offers various musical and theater opportunities to its students. For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.