{"id":7996,"date":"2023-04-25T06:04:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T23:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/?p=7996"},"modified":"2023-04-25T06:04:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T23:04:39","slug":"reflecting-on-womens-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/reflecting-on-womens-history-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on Women\u2019s History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story by Ava Vano<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying Disruptors and Trailblazers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel began with Dr. Brenda Roy and her four students speaking about what they have learned in the Women and Gender Studies English Composition II classroom. Roy spoke about the class\u2019s attitudes towards gender and through what perspective she sought to approach that, and explained that the course is designed on\u201c[Using] gender as the primary, but not the only lens to explore course texts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the class, students read a variety of short stories, poetry, essays and watched TED talks exploring women\u2019s stories. Why does this matter? Roy\u2019s goal is to \u201cCenter students’ own lived experiences\u201d and to create \u201cembodied citizens outside the classroom,\u201d according to her presentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The “Global Storytelling about Women: Empowerment and Disruption” panel held at the Highland Presentation Hall and moderated by Philosophy Professor and Service-Learning Program Coordinator Linda Cox. — Photos by Angelica Ruzanova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each of the four students got the opportunity to present their own topics pertaining to the course that they were passionate about. Attendees saw presentations about gender socialization, personal impacts of one\u2019s own gender, thoughts about \u201cThe Yellow Wallpaper\u201d by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and an analysis of \u201cGirl\u201d by Jamaica Kincaid. These students explored what it means to be a woman personally, but also what literature has taught us about womanhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monstrous Women Around the World<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next presentation was \u201cMonstrous Women Around the World\u201d given by Professor Alex Watkins. Watkins spoke about themes of monsters as cultural ideals and how monsters are a way to villainize and disempower certain groups, referencing Jeffrey Cohen\u2019s \u201cMonster Culture (Seven Theses)\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Laura Elander shares her research and excerpts of her students’ essays during her presentation. Her topic demonstrated the importance of intersectionality in literary text and how difficult it is to navigate literature in higher education today. — Photos by Angelica Ruzanova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A keynote from this presentation was the fourth thesis, \u201cThe Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference,\u201d in which she reflects upon \u201cthe other\u201d and our fear of that idea. This is applicable to many different groups of people and is something that is ever present within our media. Overall, through this presentation, the attendees were given the opportunity to reflect upon what people have the tendency to fear and why exactly they do that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous Women in Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third presentation was \u201cIndigenous Women in Politics\u201d by Professor Vanessa Faz. She began the presentation by pointing out the issue of indigenous women going missing every day, and the lack of funding and police presence on reservations that has made this issue go under the radar in many instances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a brighter note, the main point of her presentation was to celebrate the indigenous women that were able to break through the political sphere and were elected into government positions. For example, Deb Haaland was the first Native American woman elected into Congress and to hold a cabinet position, and Sharice Davids followed Haaland to be the second Native woman in Congress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faz points out that there were no Native Americans elected into Congress from 1902 to 2018, making the barriers these women broke down even more impressive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Cinderella Stories: How Fairy Tales Reflect the Feminine Ideal <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final presentation was \u201cCinderella Stories and the Feminine Ideal – How Stories Shape Our Perception\u201d given by Professor Lauren Elander who is a dual credit high school teacher from Round Rock ISD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elander has the unique challenge of teaching high school students and finding texts that all students can see themselves in, expressing that challenge by asking \u201cHow am I going to find a text for everybody?\u201d Elander gives students the option to write about texts and material not in the curriculum if they feel drawn to it, giving students the opportunity to find texts they are passionate about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The “Cinderella Stories” panel discusses the portrayal of womanhood and what it does to collective psyche. — Photos by Angelica Ruzanova<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elander presented Cinderella stories across all different cultures and what expectations from women are shown through their depiction. Intersectionality is a key concept for the interpretation of texts within Elander\u2019s classroom, and as her students navigate their course material, they are given the opportunity to reflect upon themselves and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Women\u2019s History Month has come to an end, we can still find the time to reflect upon women\u2019s stories and the challenges they face through literature. This panel gave several women the opportunity to share their stories and empower other women through the recognition, acknowledgement, and exploration of topics that may otherwise be overlooked. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACC International Programs and Office of Experiential Learning hosted Global Storytelling about Women: Empowerment and Disruption panel on March 28 with presentations from staff and students alike. The presenters discussed a variety of topics such as feminine ideals, fairy tales, monsters in literature, and stories of indigenous women in politics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4103,"featured_media":7997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1094,1232,100,1548,1681,1685,1676,1686,1678,1683,1687,1677,1682,1680,1684,1679,1625],"class_list":["post-7996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-accent","tag-angelica-ruzanova","tag-austin-community-college","tag-ava-vano","tag-charlotte-perkins-gilman","tag-deb-haaland","tag-dr-brenda-roy","tag-global-cinderella-stories","tag-global-storytelling-about-women","tag-indigenous-women-in-politics","tag-lauren-elander","tag-linda-cox","tag-monstrous-women-around-the-world","tag-the-yellow-wallpaper","tag-vanessa-faz","tag-women","tag-womens-history-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}