WSU Women’s Studies

January 2007

Volume XIII

 

 

Text Box: Contents

 

Text Box: Coordinators Corner                    1 Fall Semester Activities            1 Why Run for Political Office?                    2 Scholarships 2006/2007                   3 Upcoming Feature                 3             Women’s Studies Minor Program     3 Women's History Month                       4  

 

Becky Johns

 

Coordinator’s Corner

Text Box:     Fall semester has flown by and spring semester 2007 is underway.  We had two successful Introduction to Women’s Studies courses (one at WSU- Davis) fall semester; we are offering two sections again this semester. The Women’s Studies program anticipates a very busy spring (see Women’s History Month activities planning).      We are offering a special topics course (WS 4900) this semester in conjunction with an international conference.  We hope to be able to find funding for all interested faculty and students to attend.  From April 26-28, 2007, Syracuse University will host Feminism,

  

Text Box: Sexuality, and the Return of Religion. Speakers include Hélène Cixous, Gianni Vattimo, Judith Butler, Sarah Coakley, bell hooks, Mark Jordan, Catherine Keller, and Saba Mahmood. Questions and topics of interest include: What does the “return” of religion mean for women and for human sexuality? What new openings for feminism and gender theory are being made by intellectuals' renewed interest in religion? How can we reimagine God and the divine beyond patriarchy and homophobia? How can/will feminist/gender theory respond to the worldwide resurgence of religious fundamentalism? The registration fee is $60 (students)

  

Text Box: and $125 (non-students.) You can learn more by visiting thecollege.syr.edu/admin/pcr-conference/.  You do not have to be registered for the course to travel and attend the conference with our group; but let us know if you'd like to attend and steer interested students toward the course.     Thanks to Lisa (secretary) and Tiffani (work-study secretary) for all they do for us, especially dealing with major chaos during Christmas break when our offices were painted, cleaned and re-organized.  Come by the offices on the third floor of the Social Science Building and see our new look!     

  

Student Social(s)/ Love Your Body Day/ Major Fest

Text Box: number of students.  Plans for a similar spring social are underway.                  * * * * *      On 18 October, "Love Your Body Day", we were pleased to have good  attendance at both the afternoon and evening films and discussions, and in particular, to see several men participating along with the women.  Gloria Wurst moderated the discussion following a showing of "Killing Us Softly III" and Kim Hyatt led the evening discussion of "Slim Hopes."  It was encouraging that the students in the audience were very interested in and engaged with the issues presented; both events were quite successful.    * * * * *

 

Text Box:     The program hosted a fall social for students on October 26, during the latter portion of the Introduction to Women’s Studies class. It was very well attended by students, faculty and members of the executive council.  A few non-traditional students who participated in the event have expressed interest in minoring in Women’s Studies  and have stopped by the office for more information.  This new format for the social allowed many students to attend who might not have been attracted to the event in the past.  This could, ultimately, inform students more effectively about our program, drawing more interest and helping to increase course enrollment and completion of minor requirements by a larger

  

 

Text Box: Thanks to the volunteers who staffed our tables for Major Fest on 1 November and for Scholarship Day on 15   November.  At both events, interest in the program and related potential scholarship support was robust; the supply of handouts was exhausted and we had to make more copies.  If you know of students in your classes who might be potential women's studies minors, please refer them to the office for more information.  We would be happy to include them on a distribution list for notification of upcoming events.     

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

What matters now, as always, is not what we can't do: it is what we can, and must, do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt Text Box:  

  

Why Run for Political Office?  

Kay Rawson Swan Comments

 

 

    RUNNING FOR THE UTAH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES [in the fall of 2006] was a civic duty I felt that I had. I believe in the Democratic process, and, when I realized that my LDS home teacher was once again running unopposed, I knew something had to be done. Winning campaigns have been part of my life, ever since 8th grade class president. After conducting, as Chair, a Utah Women and Families commission meeting in Salt Lake City, I drove to the Utah State Capitol and paid my $15 and filled out a one-page application to be a candidate for the Utah House of Representative from District 12, representing Roy. I immediately drove straight to my opponent's home and informed him, I would be running WITH him this election. He immediately tried to talk me out of it. It would cost too much money, etc. I assured him I was willing to try and raise the money to be able to give him a respectable partner in the democratic process. I explained to his family that it wasn't a personal thing. I like them all and have even had his daughter come to work for me. We did make a decision for both, Republican and Democrat, to not put lawn signs up in our neighborhood.

    Balance in the legislature is very important to a healthy democratic society. Currently, the Democrats have only 19 out of 77 Legislative seats, 6 out of 29 Senate seats. Weber County Democrats hold only 1 out of 9 offices in county governance. In the business world, there are laws against a monopoly.

    The first thing to do was to go to our Caucus meeting in May.  All the Democrats in Roy meet together in one meeting instead of like the Republicans, where each neighborhood had a Republican caucus and delegates fought to be the "elected" delegate to be able to vote at the Republican county convention. Republicans had several candidates file for each office. Delegates at the county convention determine which two will be on the ballot.

    At our Democratic caucus meeting, I was the only candidate. After everyone attending was elected as delegates, the chairman of the district (elected a year ago in the Democratic organization convention), introduced me. I proceeded to find out what each attendee was concerned about for the state of Utah. Calling each person by name, I organized their comments into committee topics and had each of them volunteer to be on a committee about their concerns, e.g., education, health care, environmental or responsible development, and transportation. They were my campaign committee: approving my brochure, educating high school students, putting up signs, raising money for advertisements, volunteering to go door to door, getting citizens that have moved into new neighborhoods registered, handing out early voting forms, calling all registered voters to "Get out the Vote", and take them to the polls, if they needed a ride to vote.

    Democracy is a process. I've heard people complain that when they get to the polls, they don't know anyone on the ballot. It is because they didn't do their part to get someone they know on the ballot. When someone would tell me or my grandchild that they never vote. I felt like saying "then move to another country. You don't deserve to fly that flag in your yard!" I got 2,180 votes in a district where there are only 1,364 known Democrats and 5,698 Republicans. My opponent got 60% and I earned 40% of voter support. I was able to articulate the issues about Balance, Transparent politics, Education, Health Care, Quality Child Care, Equity Pay and Fair taxes for hard working families. I am glad that I had the COURAGE to run.

 

 

 

 

 

Kay Rawson Swan is the community representative on the Women's Studies Executive Council and has a long history of being active in pursuing women's issues in Utah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Women's Studies  Reading Group… will meet again at Wisebird Bookery on 23 February at 3 PM. We will be discussing "The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai. Please join us to share your thoughts, even if you've been unable to finish reading the book! If you have questions or comments about our meetings, please let us know (626-7632.)  

 

Making Dreams Come True . . .

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Scholarships 2006/07

Text Box:     During the 2006/2007 academic year, we hope to acquire additional funding for scholarships; this would enable us to make additional awards in the 2007/2008 academic year.  Scholarship applications are available in the Women’s Studies office in SS381 for both the Phoenix Achievement Award [for non-traditional  students and the Women's Studies Traditional [for  recent

  

Text Box: high school students]  Scholarships.  Applications are due February 1, 2007 to be considered for the 2007/ 2008 academic year.      Faculty members, please help us by encouraging students who qualify to apply for aid.  We look forward to having many applicants this year!   Scholarship Donations: If you are interested, or if

  

Text Box: you know someone else  who might be interested,   in making a contribution to our Women’s Studies Traditional Scholarship or other funds, or if you would like to set up an additional scholarship, please contact the Women’s Studies office at 626-7632 or 626-8049.

  

Text Box: consideration. We will be contacting faculty to request participation in this project; if you'd like to be first on the list, give us a call!  We'd be delighted to hear from you.

 Text Box: teach courses in the program to respond to a series of questions related to women's issues and the program; selected answers will be published in the newsletter.  If there are particular questions of this nature that come to mind for you, please feel free to submit them, as hard copies or via email, for Text Box:     In the next issue of our newsletter, we plan to introduce a new feature that we hope will help students get to know more about women's issues, as well as about individual faculty members who teach the courses in our Women's Studies Program.  We will ask faculty who Look For Our Upcoming Feature

 

 

 

Women’s Studies Minor Program

Text Box:      Women’s Studies is devoted to the academic study of women’s roles, contributions and scholarship.  You will be asked to look inside yourself to tackle negativism and look at women’s realities outside of the media and mainstream portrayals.  You will learn to recognize bias and faulty reasoning

  

Text Box: and to view issues from multiple angles.  You will be challenged to discover more about yourself and to find ways to make a difference in society.       You can utilize skills acquired in a Women’s Studies minor in business, law, journalism, social sciences, arts and

  

Text Box: humanities and other areas.  WSU graduates with a Women’s Studies minor have been accepted to well-respected graduate and professional schools, including the University of Utah and Notre Dame University Law School.      Contact the Women’s Studies office for more information. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box:  We’re on the Web! See us at: www.weber.edu/womenstudies

Weber State University

Women’s Studies Program

1217 University Circle

Ogden, UT  84408-1217

 

Phone

(801) 626-7632

 

Fax

(801) 626-7130

 

E-mail

womenstudies@weber.edu

 

Affiliations: 
National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)

 

The Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW)
 

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Women's History Month Planning

Text Box:     We are in the process of assembling our Women's History Month calendar to include events from all over campus, as well as those sponsored by Women's Studies.  As March is fast approaching, we would like to get suggestions regarding speakers that we could sponsor.  Also, if you haven't notified us yet of activities, films, speakers, etc., that pertain to

  

Text Box: women's issues and concerns and will be sponsored by your respective departments during March, please do so.  We would like to add them to our calendar as well as to ensure that we are not in conflict with other important events and to help with distributing publicity.  

  

 

Suggestions/Comments Are Welcome


We value your input!


 If you have any suggestions for activities you would like to see sponsored by Women’s Studies, including films, panel discussions, etc. please contact us at 801-626-7632.

To offer comments and/or suggestions regarding the newsletter, please contact the Women’s Studies office. 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: CUSTOMER NAME STREET ADDRESS Address 2 CITY, ST  ZIP Code

 

Text Box: Weber State University WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM 1217 uNIVERSITY CIRCLE OGDEN, UT  84408-1217