KINGSTON, R.I.- October 5, 2018- Loretta J. Ross, a visiting associate professor in Hampshire College’s Women’s Studies Department and co-founder and national coordinator of the SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012 will discuss “Reproductive Justice, Intersectionality, and Human Rights for the 21st Century” Tuesday, Oct. 16, as part of the University’s 2018 Honors Colloquium on Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action. The series is free and open to the public and takes place in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, at 7 p.m.

Ross and others coined the term “reproductive justice” several years ago, defining it as a positive approach that links sexuality, health, and human rights to social justice movements.

Ross is a nationally recognized trainer on using the transformative power of reproductive justice to build an inclusive human rights movement. She is an expert on women’s issues, hate groups, racism and intolerance, human rights, and violence against women. Her work focuses on intersectionality, or the complex and cumulative effects of discrimination, within social justice issues and how they affect social change and the delivery of social services across movements.

Ross has appeared on CNN, BET, “Lead Story,” “Good Morning America,” “The Donahue Show,” “Democracy Now” and “The Charlie Rose Show.” She is a member of the Women’s Media Center’s Progressive Women’s Voices.

Ross was the national co-director of the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants. As part of a four-decade history in social justice activism between 1996 to 2004, she was the founder and executive director of the National Center for Human Rights Education in Atlanta, Georgia.

Before that, she was the program research director at the Center for Democratic Renewal/National Anti-Klan Network, where she led projects researching hate groups and working with universities, schools and community groups to fight all forms of bigotry. Ross launched the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women in the 1980s and led delegations of women of color to many international conferences on women’s issues and human rights.

Ross was one of the first African American women to direct a rape crisis center in the 1970s. She is a co-author of “Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice,” written with Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried and Elena Gutiérrez, published by South End Press in 2004, and author of “The Color of Choice” chapter in “Incite! Women of Color Against Violence,” published in 2006. She has also written extensively on the history of African American women and reproductive justice activism.

Ross is a rape survivor who was forced to raise a child born of incest. She is a survivor of sterilization abuse and serves as a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. She serves as a consultant for Smith College, collecting oral histories of feminists of color for the Sophia Smith Collection, which also contains her personal archives.

Ross is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University and a second honorary doctorate awarded by Smith College in 2013.

Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action will explore, at this pivotal time in society, the relevance of gender in shaping human rights and how our rising consciousness about gender issues is leading to vibrant social discussions, rearrangements of power and perceptions, and new possibilities. The series includes lectures, exhibits, a theater production and a film screening, all intended to help demonstrate the significant impact of women in society and to deepen the conversation about gender roles and stereotypes and the impact they have on our actions.

Coordinators of the 2018 colloquium, marking its 55th year, are Rosario Pisa, professor and director of URI’s Gender and Women’s Studies program; Kyle Kusz, associate professor of kinesiology; Helen Mederer, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; and Smita Ramnarain, assistant professor of economics.

MAJOR Sponsor URI Honors Program

Sponsors URI Office of the President • URI Office of the Provost • The Mark and Donna Ross Honors Colloquium Humanities Endowment • The Thomas Silvia and Shannon Chandley Honors Colloquium Endowment • URI College of Arts and Sciences • URI College of Arts and Sciences Kenneth and Susan Kermes Distinguished Lecture Endowment • URI College of Pharmacy • URI John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service • URI Gender and Women’s Studies Program • URI Office of Community, Equity and Diversity • URI Theatre Department • URI College of Engineering • URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences • URI College of Health Sciences • URI College of Business • URI College of Nursing • URI Division of Student Affairs • URI Department of Communications and Marketing • URI Department of Publications and Creative Services • URI ITS Instructional Technology and Media Services • URI Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies • URI Department of Computer Science and Statistics • URI Department of Economics • URI Department of English • URI Department of Sociology and Anthropology • URI Gender and Sexuality Center • URI Multicultural Student Services Center • URI Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science