Speaker to Celebrate the Beginning of Women’s History Month

By Trista Gropp

Feb. 11, 2011--In honor of March’s Women’s History Month the University of Wisconsin-River Falls will host speaker Manal Hamzeh, Ph.D., on the topic of “De-veiling the Hijabs and Arab-Muslim Feminisms” on Feb. 24. The event is set for 12:30-1:45 p.m. in the Kinnickinnic River Theater located in the University Center.

Hamzeh is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Women’s Studies of New Mexico State University. Her courses feature such topics as arab-muslim feminisms, feminist research methods and feminist postcolonial theories.

“Dr. Hamzeh’s talk is particularly important because of her unique perspective as herself an arabyyah/muslimah in exile from her home country of Jordan, and her work on the hijab, or veil, in relation to young Muslim women,” says Michelle Parkinson, UWRF assistant professor of English.

Other Women’s History Month events at UWRF are “Ally 2: An Advanced Ally Training” on March 3 from 6-9 p.m. in the Kinnickinnic River Theater, and speakers Melanie Ayres and Paige Miller’s presentation “Women and Media” set for March 9 from 2-3 p.m., in the Kinnickinnic River Theater.

The events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Parkinson at michelle.parkinson@uwrf.edu or 715-425-3850.