2010 Gender Symposium

The Science of Gender and Sex

March 10-12, 2010

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Art Exhibition 

Featuring work by L&C contributors as well as by Portland artists, the exhibit displaysed a variety of approaches to questions of gender and identity in a wide range of different media.  Curated by L&C students Kelsey Chapple and Casey MacDonald

Learn more about the 2010 Gender Studies Symposium in the video below.

Schedule of Events

Sessions designated with  AIDS Ribbon were part of this year’s Lewis & Clark College AIDS Summit, co-sponsored by United Sexualities.

Wednesday, March 10

9:45-11:15 am, Thayer
Controversies of Contraception and Childbirth
Moderator:  Melissa Osmond, L&C Associate Director for Health Promotion
Elizabeth Arveda Kissling
, Professor of Women’s/Gender Studies, Eastern Washington University, “Pills, Periods, and Postfeminism: The New Way to Market Birth Control”
Miglena Sternadori
, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Media and Journalism, University of South Dakota, “Birthing Narratives in the News: Gendered Notions of ”˜Real’ Womanhood”
Cat Livingston
, Family Medicine/Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, “Under the Knife: Cesarean Birth and Empowerment”

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Stamm AIDS Ribbon
Think Positive: Perspectives on HIV/AIDS Activism and Awareness
Moderator:  Carolyn Worthge, L&C student
Annika Shore
, Youth HIV Education Coordinator, Cascade AIDS Project
Marc Peterson
and guest, Positive Support Association, “Living with HIV/AIDS: Stories of Courage in the Face of Fear and Stigma”
Tom Schoeneman
, L&C Professor of Psychology, “Social Representations of AIDS”

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Thayer
She Blinded Me With Science: Women and Girls in Science
Moderator:  Liz Stanhope, L&C Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Jennifer Ryder
, Reed College student, “Competent Women Doing Men’s Work: The Recruitment and Conflict of Scientific Womanpower in the United States, 1950-1970”
Anne Bentley
, L&C Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Brenda Britsch, PhD, Co-Principal Investigator, National Girls Collaborative Project
Roberta Hunte, career counselor, Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., “Tradeswomen: How Far Have We Come in 40 Years?”
Alexis Bruemmer, software Engineer, IBM Corporation, “IBM’s Technology Camps for Girls Encourage Next Generation Engineers and Scientists”

1:45-3:15 pm, Stamm
Roundtable:  Androgyny

Moderator: Linda Isako Angst, L&C Assistant Professor of Anthropology
L&C students Carly Elvendahl, Danielle Fagre, Liska Havel, Addie Jones, Sophie Shaddy-Farnsworth, Maile Speakman, and Tehya Wood

1:45-3:15 pm, Thayer
Roundtable: Smelling Like a Rose: Challenging Traditionally Gendered Thinking in the Perfume Industry through Technology
Diana Wiener Rosengard
, L&C alumna, “Feminine Things” blogger
Angela Sanders
, “Now Smell This!” blogger
This discussion will examine the impact of internet blogging on taste-making, ways
the internet has increased the average woman’s influence over success in the    industry and gendered marketing approaches, and the ability of more women to   become professional perfumers thanks to online direct sales.  The session will   include an opportunity to blind sniff several fragrances in order to challenge   stereotypical thinking about the gendering of scent.

Featured Event

3:30-5:00, Council Chamber
“Pink Brain, Blue Brain: Hormones, Learning, and the Biology of Sex Differences”

Lise Eliot, Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Chicago Medical School
Introduced by Ian Feis, L&C student

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Lise Eliot’s most recent book is Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome Gaps—and What We Can Do About It, an examination of gender and the brain that has been greeted with rave reviews. Dr. Eliot has published more than 50 works, including peer-reviewed journal articles, magazine pieces, and an earlier book, What’s Going on in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life (2000). She teaches courses in medical neuroscience and biomedical ethics at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago.

Keynote Event

7:30 pm, Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber
“Is Sex More Like Dancing or Digestion?  Unpacking the Medicalization of Sexuality” 

Leonore Tiefer, researcher, sex therapist, activist, and educator
Introduced by Andrew Janeba, L&C student and symposium co-chair
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Leonore Tiefer began her career with a Psychology PhD on hormones and hamsters, followed by an academic position and work in an animal laboratory. Responding to the call of feminist politics and the world of sexology for people, she later re-specialized in clinical psychology with a focus on sex and gender problems.  She is currently Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at both New York University School of Medicine and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and has a private psychotherapy and sex therapy practice in Manhattan. 

Dr. Tiefer has written widely about the medicalization of men’s and women’s sexuality.  Her c.v. contains over 150 scientific and professional publications, and her books have been translated into several languages.  She has been interviewed by news media around the world as the foremost critic of “disease-mongering” trends in the medical management of women’s sexual problems, and she has been invited to deliver keynote talks at conferences from London to Berlin to Istanbul to Calcutta.  Her educational anti-medicalization campaign, newviewcampaign.org, was formed in 2000 as a grassroots network to challenge the distorted and oversimplified messages about sexuality that the pharmaceutical industry relies on to sell its new drugs.  Dr. Tiefer has received many professional awards, including the Alfred C. Kinsey Award and Distinguished Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, as well as the Lifetime Career Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.

 

Thursday, March 11

9:45-11:15 am, Stamm
Moderator:  Janet Davidson, L&C Associate Professor of Psychology
Disorders in Doubt: PMS, Anorexia, and Depression
Andrew Janeba
, L&C student and symposium co-chair, “PMS: A Social or Medical Phenomenon?”
Emily Wilson
, L&C student, “Constructing Ana: The Social Construction of Anorexia Nervosa and Pro-Anorexic Online Communities”
Dawn Salgado
, L&C Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, “Engendering Depression: Why Gender Matters”

9:45-11:15 am, Thayer
Workshop: New View Approach to Sex Therapy

Join keynote speaker Leonore Tiefer for a workshop addressing ways to integrate a non-medical view of sexual problems into clinical practice and teaching.  Experiential exercises will help participants understand the basis of the medical model approach and help them reframe their own views of sexual problems.

9:45-11:15 am, Council Chamber
Roundtable: The Biological Basis of Sex and Gender Identity

Moderator: Yueping Zhang, L&C Associate Professor of Psychology
L&C students Yan Chen, Sarah O’Brien, Megan Pearlman, and Nathaniel Wynn

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Gray
Roundtable: So, You’re a Gender Studies Minor, Now What!

Bring your lunch for a brownbag discussion.
Moderator: Ian Feis, L&C student
Katie Carter, program director, In Other Words bookstore
Caitlin Bishop
, L&C alumna, Queer Caucus Outreach Intern, Portland Women’s Crisis Line

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Council Chamber
My Body, Whose Business?
Moderator:  Deborah Heath, L&C Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of Gender Studies
Danielle Barnes
, Whitman College student, “Border Crossing: Intersexuality and Biological Citizenship”
Elizabeth Reis
, Associate Professor of Women’s/Gender Studies, University of Oregon, “Surgeries in Search of Disorders: Intersex and Circumcision in American History”
Joelle Ruby Ryan
, University of New Hampshire, “It is Not the TransPerson who is ”˜Disordered’ but the Society in Which S/he Lives: Fighting Back Against Old-Guard Scientists and their Reactionary Sex/Gender Ideologies”

1:00-1:30 pm, Stamm
Performance: Getting to Know You—Summer Evenings at Galerie Studio St. St.

A presentation performance by L&C student Elizabeth Jaeger focusing on
issues of gender euphoria, and negotiating the limits of fantasy and play in
terms of getting to know a person as who they are, and who they want to be.

1:45-3:15 pm, Stamm
Disabling Assumptions
Moderator:  Lili Pill-Kahan, L&C student
David Ray Walker, Consultant and Facilitator, “Disabling Perceptions”
Emi Koyama and Sy Waranch, Bridges to Independence, “LGBTQ+DD: Experiences from Organizing First-Ever Drag Show Featuring Artists with Developmental Disabilities”
Johnny Lake
, Professor, Northwest Christian University, “Race, Sex, and Co-constructed Inequality”
Dave Jenkins,
free-lance writer and graphic artist, “It’s Hard to Look Pretty on Crutches: Ten Things You Need to Know About My Sex Life”  

1:45-3:15 pm, Council Chamber
Engendering Support: Strengths-Based Approaches to Working with Boys and Girls in Educational and Counseling Contexts
Peter Mortola
, L&C Associate Professor of Counseling and School Psychology
Sara Exposito
, L&C Assistant Professor of Education
Diane Gans
, alumna, L&C graduate program in counseling psychology
Stephen Grant
, school social worker
Howard Hiton
, licensed professional counselor

1:45-3:15 pm, Thayer
Roundtable: Biology of Romantic Love

Moderator: Yueping Zhang, L&C Associate Professor of Psychology
L&C students Paige Dinnie, Sarah Gordon, Jessamy Holland, and Edwin Ivan Ramirez

Featured Event AIDS Ribbon

3:30-5:00 pm, Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber
“Affection is Our Best Protection: Early AIDS Activism and the Legacy of Gay Liberation”

Jennifer Brier
, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Introduced by Maisha Foster-O’Neal, L&C student and symposium co-chair

JenniferBrier2 Jennifer Brier’s recent book, Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis, argues that the AIDS epidemic had a profound effect on the U.S. political landscape because it allowed for a wide range of actors to influence the shape of American politics, especially on issues such as gay and lesbian rights, reproductive health, racial justice, and international development. Her work on AIDS grows out of her interests in exploring the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality in the recent past. She is currently co-curating an exhibition on LGBT history that will open at the Chicago History Museum in June 2011.


6:00-7:15 pm, Thayer
Workshop: Finding Your Way to Satisfying Sex

Join Amy Cooper, a clinical sexologist and sexual enrichment coach, for an experiential workshop in which participants will examine their attitudes and behaviors related to sexual satisfaction and enjoyment. Topics will include potential differences in sexual needs and desires and the right to explore one’s eroticism.

Keynote Event

7:30 pm, Templeton Campus Center, Council Chamber
“The New Science of Darwinian Feminism: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Mating and Parenting Patterns”

Amy Parish, Lecturer in Anthropology, Arts and Letters, and Gender Studies, University of Southern California
Introduced by Danielle Fagre, L&C student and symposium co-chair 

AmyParishsmall Amy Parish is a biological anthropologist, primatologist, and Darwinian feminist.  For the last twenty years she has been studying the world’s captive population of bonobos, who are among the closest living relatives of humans.  In her research, Dr. Parish uses an evolutionary approach to shed light on the origins of human behavior.  An award-winning teacher, Dr. Parish also serves on the Board of Directors for the Arusha Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping HIV-infected women in Tanzania, as well as the board of Up the River Endeavors, an organization devoted to sustainable development, global peace, and social justice.  Her work was recently featured in Ms. magazine, and she has appeared on Nova, National Geographic Explorer, NPR, and Discovery Health Channel productions. 

 

Friday, March 12

9:45-11:15 am, Stamm
Roundtable:  “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm: How Sexuality is Crafted Around Male Desire”

Moderator: Linda Isako Angst, L&C Assistant Professor of Anthropology
L&C students Kelly Aldinger, Hilary Gray, Lili Pill-Kahan, and Rhiannon Troutman

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Stamm
Cancer Culture
Moderator:  Daena Goldsmith, L&C Professor of Communication
Jan Spencer, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker, Samaritan Regional Cancer Cente, “Intimacy After Cancer”
Ray Friedman, MD. FACR., Professor of Radiology, Oregon Health & Science University, “Why Mammography
Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP, Adjunct Associate Professor, Portland State
University, “rBGH, Hormones, Breast Cancer, and Pink Ribbons”
Deandra Ellerbe, Public Relations Chair, Pink Phoenix Dragon Boat Team,
“Quality of Life After Breast Cancer”

11:30 am-1:00 pm, Fir Acres Black Box Theatre
Performance: Jabulile!
L&C student Kemiyondo Coutinho.
An accomplished young storyteller gives life to the struggles and secrets of four market vendors from Swaziland. Transforming herself into a dozen different characters, Kemiyondo Coutinho finds the humor and resiliency in these women who seek a way past loss and brutality to the future.
Please join Kemi and Professor Stephanie Arnold for a post-show discussion.

1:45-3:15 pm, Stamm
Reproductive Technology: How Science Shapes Parenthood
Moderator:  Alla Khalitova, L&C student and symposium co-chair
Sandra Reineke
, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies, University of Idaho, “Need Ovum, Can Travel: Cross-Border Reproductive Medicine, Foreign Abortions, and the Quest for Feminist Solidarity”
Erin Sapp
, Tulane University graduate student, “The Fate of Fatherhood: A Marxist Analysis of the Implications of New Reproductive Technologies for the Social Institution of Fatherhood”
Cori Feist
, genetic counselor, Oregon Health & Science University Perinatal Center
“The A.R.T. of Reproduction: A union of genetics & sex”

3:30-5:00 pm, Stamm
Field Work on Indigenous Women’s Empowerment
Moderator: Emily Dowd, L&C student
Maraya Massin-Levey
, L&C student, “Indigenous Women’s Movement: Empowerment, Communal Re-Structuring and the Creation of Translocal Meshworks from Oaxaca, Mexico to Woodburn, Oregon”
Karina Garibay
, Washington State University student, “Politics, State and Indigenous Women-The Case of the P’Urhepecha”
Rose High Bear, co-founder and executive producer, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc., “Deg Hit ”˜an Dine: Matrilineal Perspectives”
3:30-5:00 pm, Council Chamber AIDS Ribbon
Sex Work and HIV/AIDS: An Intimate Look
Moderator:  David Rosengard, L&C Campus Living Area Director
Crystal Tenty
, direct service specialist, Portland Women’s Crisis Line/Sex Worker Outreach Coalition, “Providing Advocacy and Support to Sex Workers”
Haven Wheelock, IDU HS program assistant, Outside In and Sex Workers Outreach Coalition, “Preventing HIV in Populations Who Engage in IV Drug Use and Sex Work”
Jessica Guernsey
, Board of Directors, Rahab’s Sisters, “Radical Hospitality-Meeting Women Where They Are”
Donna Standing Rock, Cascade AIDS Project, “Sex Work and HIV”

6:30-7:30 pm, Tamarack Lounge AIDS Ribbon
Workshop: Safer Sex Toys with It’s My Pleasure

Alix Olson performance

Due to circumstances beyond her control, Alix Olson had to cancel tonight’s performance. 

8:00 pm, Council Chamber orlando
Orlando
(1992)

Introduced by Rishona Zimring, L&C Associate Professor of English

Directed by Sally Potter and inspired by the 1928 novel by Virginia Woolf,  Orlando  is a gender-bending epic that spans 400 years in the life of its androgynous title character, played by Tilda Swinton.  This visually stunning film received Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.  As film critic Roger Ebert explained, “This is the kind of movie you want to talk about afterward.”  Enjoy it on the big screen in Council Chamber.