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Smith Discussion to Look at Gender-Based
Censorship in Democracies
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Even in
democratic societies, voices of feminist, activist women
-- especially writers -- are often muted or marginalized.
How
one comes to resist such silencing, in its various forms,
will be examined during a panel discussion at Smith College
titled "Spoken Not Heard: Democracy, Feminism and the
Challenge of Gender-Based Censorship," which will take
place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, in Neilson Library
Browsing Room. The event is free, open to the public and
wheelchair accessible. The speakers for this event
will be Gertrude Fester, a commissioner on the Commission
for Gender
Equality in South Africa; Patricia
McFadden a Smith College research affiliate active in the
Zimbabwean women's movement; and Meredith Tax, founding director
of Women's WORLD, a global network of women writers founded
to defend women writers against censorship.
"Domestic and foreign policy-makers
who impact such issues as war, sexual practices and reproductive
health often suppress
the very feminist writers and activists who are most knowledgable
about them," notes Paula Giddings, professor of Afro-American
studies, who will be moderating the discussion.
"The panelists," Giddings
continues,"... all writer/activists,
have not only written about and worked directly with such
issues, but are analytical of notions, such as nationalism,
which provide both a means to insert a politically conscious
agenda and the rationale to suppress feminist expression."
Fester
will talk about her efforts and those of women of the African
National Congress to ensure their participation
in the reconstruction of civil society in post-apartheid
South Africa. McFadden will discuss the contested
relationship between citizenship privileges and gender in
post-colonial
Zimbabwe.
Tax, a writer and longtime feminist
activist, will share her observations of gender-based censorship
among
women
writers from Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and
the U.S. seeking
the assistance of Women's WORLD.
For more information,
call Rene Heavlow at (413) 585-4292.
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Office of College
Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 |
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Marti
Hobbes
News Assistant
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
mhobbes@email.smith.edu
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