FYI... Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- > PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE! > > Conference > > The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color > > April 28-29, 2000 (Originally scheduled for April 14-15, 2000) > > University of California, Santa Cruz > > >The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color will bring >together >activists whose work challenges violence against women of color to >explore >and strategize around the relationships among racism, colonialism, and >gender violence in the lives and histories of women of color. The >purpose >of this conference is to analyze the connections between sexual and >domestic violence in communities of color and the political and >economic >structures of violence nationally and globally. This conference will >explore the ways in which colonization is itself an act of sexual >violence >directed against colonized communities. This conference will also >analyze >the ways in which modern capitalism is constituted through the sexual >exploitation of women in the Third World and women of color in the US, >as >evidenced by the global trafficking of women and the super-exploitation >of >female labor in multinational industries. The Color of Violence will >also >explore the relationship between the prison system and sexual/domestic >violence. > > >Keynote Presenters: > >Angela Y. Davis. Co-founder of Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison >Industrial Complex > >Haunani Kay Trask, Ka Lahui Hawai'i > >Speakers confirmed to date: > >Bernadine Atcheson and Mary Ann Mills (Traditional Dena'ina): Activists >against medical experimentation on Alaska Native communities. > >Roma Balzer (Maori): Domestic violence advocate > >Anannya Bhattacharjee: Andolan: Organizing South Asian Workers and >SAMAR > >Kum Kum Bhavnani: Co-editor, Women of Color Series, New York: >Routledge. > >Peggy Bird (Santo Domingo Pueblo): Mending the Sacred Hoop > >Tillie Blackbear (Lakota): White Buffalo Calf Women's Shelter > >Chrystos (Menominee). Author of several books of poetry which address >sexual violence in Native communities. Her titles include Not >Vanishing, >Fugitive Colors, and Dream On. > >Nancy Cooper (Ojibway): Community Council of the Aboriginal Legal >Services Clinic. > >Kimberle Crenshaw: Author, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that >Formed the Movement. Author of several essays that address violence >against women of color. > >Adrienne Davis. Professor of Law at Washington College of Law in >American >University. > >Rosa Linda Fregoso: Professor at UC Davis. Work focuses on media >representations of Latinas and violence. > >Yoko Fukumura: Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence > >Ines Hernandez-Avila (Nez Perce) Professor of Native Studies, UC Davis > >Kata Issari: Former President of National Coalition Against Sexual >Assault > >Isabel Kang: Founder of KAN-WIN, a Korean battered women's hotline. > >Val Kanuha: Anti-violence advocate > >Kamala Kempadoo: Author and editor of Global Sex Workers: Rights, >Resistance and Redefinition, and Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex >Work >in the Caribbean. > >Mimi Kim: Long-time activist with the Asian Women's Shelter, which >provides shelter Asian American battered women. > >Nantawan Lewis: Author of forthcoming book on Thai women and sex >tourism. > >Lourdes Lugo: Puerto Rican Cultural Center > >Leni Marin: Family Violence Prevention Fund > >Margo Okazawa-Rey: San Francisco State University > >Beth Richie: Domestic violence activist. Author of Compelled to >Crime: >The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women. > >Loretta Rivera (Seneca): Domestic violence activist > >Loretta Ross: Center for Human Rights Education > >Luana Ross (Salish): Author of Inventing the Savage: The Social >Construction of Native American Criminality. > >Lourdes Santaballa: Immigrant and Refugee Battered Women's Task Force >Meg >Henson Scales: Publisher of the Harlem Howl > >Aishah Shahidah Simmons: Film Maker > >Gail Small: Native Action > >Alexandra Suh: Rainbow Center > >Neferti Tadiar: Professor of History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz > >Blanca Tavera: Domestic violence advocate. > >Sujata Warrier: Anti-violence advocate > >Traci West: Christian ethicist at Drew University. Author of >forthcoming >book on Black women, religion, and violence. > >Janelle White: San Francisco Women Against Rape > >Sherry Wilson (Ho Chunk Nation): Women of All Red Nations > >Pat Zavella: Professor of Community Studies, UC Santa Cruz > > >Conference Themes > >Women of color live in the dangerous intersections of gender and race. >Within the mainstream anti-violence movement, women of color who >survive >sexual or domestic abuse are often told that they must pit themselves >against their (violent) communities to begin the healing process. >Communities of color, meanwhile, often advocate that women keep silent >about the sexual and domestic violence in order to maintain a united >front >against racism. Clearly, women of color must find a way to transform >these practices within both anti-racist and feminist movements around >issues of violence. The Color of Violence will provide an opportunity >to >develop analyses and strategies toward both goals: first, challenging >violence within communities of color, and second, shifting the focus of >the dominant anti-violence against women movement away from a purely >gender-based politic. > >This work is timely and important because, increasingly, mainstream >anti-violence advocates are demanding longer prison sentences for >batterers and sex offenders as a front line approach to stopping >violence >against women. However, the criminal justice system has always been >brutally oppressive toward communities of color. The Color of Violence >will explore alternatives to relying solely on the criminal justice >system >for addressing sexual and domestic violence in order to minimize harm >to >communities of color. Furthermore, since most women in prison are >women >of color, the conference will also examine the relationship between the >sexual exploitation of women in prison and sexual violence against >women >outside of prison. > >The relationship between the criminal justice system and the media has >proven particularly deleterious to communities of color. Take, for >example, the narrow but pervasive media messages surrounding the O.J. >Simpson and Mike Tyson cases, both of which portrayed men of color as >categorical perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence. Simpson in >particular became the archetypal black male predator of white women. >In >each of these national discussions about sexual and domestic violence, >the >criminal justice system was depicted as society's protector from the >violent proclivities of black men; from each of these national >discussions, the perspectives of women of color were noticeably absent. >The Color of Violence will explore the ways in which the media >perpetuate >the victimization of women of color both by portraying them as silent >and >powerless and by shutting them out of the national discussions that >affect >them. This conference will also examine attempts by several artists to >intervene in mainstream media practices by developing counter- >representations of women of color and violence. > >The Color of Violence, however, will not only highlight the >contemporary >experiences of women of color and their relationships to gender >violence, >but also explore topics that histories of US colonialism have typically >neglected: the ways in which gender violence shapes the very processes >of >racism and colonialism and assists in oppressing communities of color. >We >wish to analyze the relationship between personal and institutional >violence in the lives and histories of women of color. Religion is a >particularly important topic because religious oppression has always >involved a high degree of gender violence, especially in the Americas. >On >the other hand, religion and spirituality can also serve as the >foundation >for resistance to colonization. Related topics include the ways in >which >sexual and domestic violence operate in attacks on immigrants' rights >and >Indian treaty rights, the proliferation of prisons, militarism, >economic >neo-colonialism, and institutional racism. We will also seek to >broaden >understandings of gender violence to include analyses of the ways in >which >the very bodies women of color have been and continue to be colonized, >especially through the attacks on the reproductive rights of women of >color, medical experimentation on communities of color, and biocolonial >attacks on indigenous communities through such projects as the Human >Genome Diversity Project. > > >TENTATIVE PROGRAM > >Friday > >Keynote Speaker: Angela Davis >Respondents: to be determined > >Saturday > >Plenary Session: 9:00 - 10:45 > >Workshops: 11:00 - 12:45 > > US Colonialism and Violence Against Women of Color > Law Enforcement & Violence Against Women of Color > Challenging the Depoliticization of the Anti-Violence Movement > Media/Cultural Representations of Violence Against Women of >Color > Racism and Heterosexism > >Lunch: 12:45 - 1:45 > >Plenary Session: 1:45 - 3:30 > >Workshops: 3:45 - 5:30 > > Breaking the Silence on Violence in Communities of Color > Religion, Spirituality, and Violence Against Women > Violence Against Women of Color and the Global Economy > Colonized Bodies of Women of Color > Militarism and Violence > >Dinner Break: 5:30 - 7:30 > >Cultural Performances and Literary Readings: 7:30 -10:00 >Closing Keynote: Haunani Kay Trask > >To receive registration materials, contact Andrea Smith at ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or write or call at the following address: > >Andrea Smith >123 Felix Street, #4 >Santa Cruz, CA 95060 >831-460-1856 >831-459-3733 (fax) >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >-30- > > >[Articles on BRC-NEWS may be forwarded and posted on other mailing >lists/discussion forums, as long as proper attribution is given to the >author and originating publication, and the wording is not altered in >any way. In particular, if there is a reference to a web site where an >article was originally located, please do *not* remove that. > >Do *not* publish or post the entire text of any copyrighted articles on >web sites (web-based discussion forums exempted) or in print, without >getting *explicit* permission from the article author or copyright >holder. Check the fair use provisions of the copyright law in your >country for details on what you can and can't do. > >As a courtesy, we'd appreciate it if you let folks know how to >subscribe >to BRC-NEWS, by leaving in the first two lines of the signature below.] > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >- >-- >BRC-NEWS: Black Radical Congress - General News/Alerts/Announcements >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >- >-- >Subscribe: Email "subscribe brc-news" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >- >-- > ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker Division of Environmental Management & Design Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 ************************************
