KINGSTON, R.I. — September 6, 2018 — Rosaria Pisa and her University of Rhode Island colleagues felt fairly confident about two years ago that the country would elect its first woman president and that gender equity would become a top priority.

“We felt that URI should be part of the conversation,” said Pisa, professor and director of URI’s Gender and Women’s Studies program and one of the coordinators of this year’s URI Honors Colloquium. “We envisioned a lively and mostly optimistic discussion about gender and gender equity issues in U.S. society and beyond.”

But in the fall of 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and what began with hopes for a positive discussion turned into a call to action.

The result of numerous conversations with faculty, staff and students turned into URI’s 2018 Honors Colloquium, “Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action,” which begins Sept. 25 and runs through Dec. 6 with lectures, art exhibits, a theater production, and film series.

Now in its 55th year, the colloquium is the University’s premier free public lecture series. All lectures will be held Tuesdays at 7 p.m., from Sept. 25 through Dec. 4 in Edwards Hall, 64 Upper College Road, Kingston Campus. Here is the complete schedule, which includes all of the colloquium programming.

Prior to the election, Pisa and the other coordinators had numerous meetings to plan the colloquium, but the tone changed after Trump won the presidency.

“We realized this topic was more important than ever,” Pisa said. “It was now clear that we had to continue the battle for hard-fought rights earned over the decades. The timing of the Women’s March in January 2017 coincided with our efforts, inspired us, and reinforced that we were on the right track.”

She said the University can now play a leading role in helping our campus and larger community understand the significance of gender in society and become more aware of the status of women’s rights and the work that still needs to be done. Pisa also affirms that, “It is important to question the gender binary and move toward a more gender inclusive and equal society.”

Lynne Derbyshire, associate professor and director of the Honors Program, said the conversations that happened around the development of this year’s series were not always easy. “We wanted this to be inclusive and so we were very cognizant of individual groups’ experiences,” Derbyshire said.

Series coordinator Helen Mederer, professor and department chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, who focuses on work-life issues in her research, said “Feminism is a very difficult conversation, even among thoughtful people. There is great variation in the way people think about the issue. In this colloquium, we address gender, race, class and the intersectionality of those issues.”

In the end, Pisa said one of her big hopes with this year’s program is that the speakers inspire URI students to stay informed about the issues that affect us all and translate that awareness into meaningful action, from activism and civic engagement to public service.

Another colloquium coordinator, Kyle Kusz, associate professor of kinesiology, whose research has investigated how President Trump has used sport through his campaign and presidency to reignite the culture wars by stoking both racial and gender resentments is looking forward to “hearing how students who take the colloquium course make sense of the gender and racial politics that underlie so many of today’s headlines. I want to know how they navigate changing gender ideas and norms in their own lives. And I’m interested in learning how many have already been involved in social activism.”

Smita Ramnarain, assistant professor of economics, said she is pleased that she and her fellow coordinators and other members of the University were able to put together such a strong program.

“The speakers participating in the colloquium are all inspiring figures and thought leaders in their respective fields, and will set the stage for the campus community to come together to participate in this important conversation,” Ramnarain said. “We want to show that gender equality is not simply the isolated concern of select groups, but rather, one that deeply impacts each one of us. It is also intimately connected to issues of social justice and transformation, equity, and the kind of future we envision for ourselves as a society.”

Speakers include nationally known journalists, artists and politicians

Author and columnist Jessica Valenti will open the colloquium with her talk, “Gender, Power and the Future of Feminism,” Tuesday, Sept. 25.

On Oct. 2, Jennifer Finney Boylan will discuss “Transgender Identity and Resistance: The Power of Story.” She is an author, activist and inaugural Anna Quindlen Writer in Residence at Barnard College, Columbia University. The talk is URI’s Gender and Sexuality Center Coming Out Month Keynote Lecture.

Claudia Rankine, will address “Contemporary Black Women Artists: Intertextuality and Counter-Narratives” on Oct. 9.  Pisa said Rankine’s poetry, plays, and other creative works challenge us to not turn away from the hard and often uncomfortable truths about race and gender relations in America. In her groundbreaking and award winning poetry book, Citizen: An American Lyric, Rankine casts a disconcerting spotlight on the challenges members of marginal groups face in their everyday lives and the toll that takes on their emotional and psychological well-being.

Born in Jamaica in 1963, Rankine is the recipient of the MacArthur genius grant and other prestigious awards including the Guggenheim and the Jackson Poetry Prize.  She is a poet, playwright, and author of several anthologies. Among her critically-acclaimed works are Citizen: An American Lyric (2014), Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (2004), and PLOT (2001). Her latest play is White Card, an interrogation of racial assumptions and the invisibility of whiteness.

Nancy Folbre, professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will speak on “The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems” on Oct. 23. A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and winner of the 2004 Leontief Prize of the Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University, she received the  University of Massachusetts 2006-2007 Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from the University of Texas, a master of arts degree in Latin American Studies, also from the University of Texas, and a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Economics in May 1979.

Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, author and host of the Edge of Sports podcast, will speak Oct. 30 on “Reimagining Masculinity, Sports, and Resistance.”

The series continues through November and wraps up Dec. 4 with a panel discussion on “Gender in Politics: Voices, Power, Action.” The panelists will be Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island governor; Nellie Gorbea, Rhode Island Secretary of State and Danica Roem of the Virginia House of Delegates, the first transgender U.S. legislator. The panel will be moderated by Maureen Moakley, URI professor of political science, who is also a commentator on Rhode Island Public Radio.

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