Campus News

Author, activist Robin Morgan to speak at UGA during Women’s History Month

Athens, Ga. – In recognition of the 2014 national Women’s History Month theme “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment,” the University of Georgia Institute for Women’s Studies will sponsor numerous events in March, including a visit by award-winning author and journalist Robin Morgan.

Morgan, an award-winning poet, novelist, political theorist, feminist activist, journalist, editor and best-selling author, will present the keynote address. Her lecture, “A New Sisterhood for the Age of Twitter,” will take place on March 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the Zell B. Miller Learning Center, Room 101. A reception will follow the lecture in the rotunda. Both the lecture and reception are free and open to the public.

Morgan is the founder and president of The Sisterhood is Global Institute, co-founder of GlobalSister.org, and co-founder of The Women’s Media Center with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda. She has published more than 20 books, including the now-classic anthologies “Sisterhood is Powerful” and “Sisterhood is Global.” In 1990, as Ms. Magazine editor-in-chief, she relaunched the magazine as an international, award-winning, ad-free bimonthly. She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Prize in Poetry and numerous other honors. She is considered one of the founders and leaders of contemporary feminism in the United States and a leader in the international women’s movement for 30 years.

The Institute for Women’s Studies will continue its tradition of hosting a film festival during Women’s History Month featuring documentaries highlighting women of character, courage and commitment. All of the film screenings will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Zell B. Miller Learning Center, Room 214. This year’s festival will kick off on March 3 with “Trailblazers in Habits,” an intimate portrait of a group of American nuns who have accompanied the disenfranchised in their struggle for social justice. “A Crushing Love: Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism,” a film honoring the achievements of five activist, Latina mothers, will be shown on March 17. A screening of “Sisters of ’77,” a film that documents the historic weekend in November 1977 when the first federally funded National Women’s Conference took place, will be shown on March 24. The film festival will close on March 31 with “Rough Aunties,” a film that follows a group of women as they wage a daily battle to help the people in their communities. All film screenings are free and open to the public.

A complete list of Women’s History Month events at UGA is available online at http://iws.uga.edu/.

Women’s History Month at UGA is sponsored by the Institute for Women’s Studies, which is part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Co-sponsors include the Alumni Association, the College of Education, the department of English, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Office of Inclusion and Diversity, the Graduate School, the department of geography, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the President’s Venture Fund, the Office of the Provost, the department of psychology, the department of religion, the department of Romance languages, the School of Social Work, the department of sociology, Student Affairs and the Jane and Harry Willson Center for Humanities and the Arts.