Indiana University Northwest’s One Book…One Campus…One Community… reading initiative for 2018-19 has partnered with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program (WGS) to recognize International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 7 from 9 to 5 p.m., in the John W. Anderson Library Conference Center. The conference is free and open to the public.
This year, the signature event culminating the chosen book for the 2018-19 academic year, Women and Power: A Manifesto, by Mary Beard, is a long-standing student research conference sponsored by the WGS program. Highlights include presentations by a nationally known writer and prominent activist, and IU Northwest students, who will discuss their research on gender-related topics, including the Me Too movement, sexual and physical abuse, and women’s health issues.
Women and Power traces the origins of misogyny, examines the pitfalls of gender, and explores cultural assumptions about women and leadership roles. The speakers, Author Karen Bender and Activist Donna Hylton, will speak on topics consistent with the themes that Beard addresses.
At noon, Dr. Karen Bender will speak. Dr. Bender is a novelist and short story writer, whose work has topped several coveted book lists and earned several honors, including the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a visiting distinguished professor of creative writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.
Following another round of student presentations, Donna Hylton will address the conference at 3 p.m. in a talk about mass incarceration, recidivism, and prison gender inequality. Hylton is a women’s rights activist and criminal justice reform advocate. Her memoir, A Little Piece of Light, tells the story of the childhood abuse she endured, the events that led to her incarceration and how she learned to live, love, and trust again.
The event will conclude with a book signing by Bender as well as the announcement of the chosen One Book selection for the 2019-20 academic year.
Additional resources about the book, as well as information about IU Northwest’s One Book... One Campus... One Community... reading initiative, are available at www.iun.edu/onebook.
