[337] MTSU EVENTS CHALLENGE WOMEN TO BE “CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 27, 2008EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU EVENTS CHALLENGE WOMEN TO BE “CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE”
National Women’s History Month Celebration Takes Its Cue from Shirley Chisholm

(MURFREESBORO) – The late U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) said, “I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change.” Her words form the theme for the 2009 National Women’s History Month celebration at MTSU with events scheduled throughout March and into April. Chisholm, an African-American lawyer from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of New York City, was the first black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1972, she became the first African-American woman ever to run for the presidential nomination of a major party. Her face graces the official MTSU National Women’s History Month button.
“The reaction from faculty, staff and students is so gratifying,” says Terri Johnson, chair of the National Women’s History Month Committee and director of the June Anderson Women’s Center. “The whole campus is engaged in National Women’s History Month. It’s not just a month. All year long, they’re learning about women’s history.”
The keynote speaker for this year’s celebration is feminist author bell hooks (lower case is correct), who will deliver a presentation titled “Feminism Forever: Continuing the Struggle” at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, in MTSU’s Keathley University Center Theater. Her appearance is sponsored by the June Anderson Women’s Center, the National Women’s History Month and Black History Month committees, the Distinguished Lecture Fund and the Virginia Peck Trust. Acclaimed as one of the nation’s leading public intellectuals by The Atlantic and one of “100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life” by Utne Reader, hooks’ first book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (South End Press, 1981) was named one of the “20 most influential women’s books of the last 20 years” by Publishers’ Weekly in 1992. Her most recent books include Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics and Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism with Amalia Mesa-Bains. Dr. Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, will present “Recognizing and Lessening Systems of Privilege with Regard to Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation,” a workshop for administrators, faculty and staff, as part
of the Women’s Studies conference at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in the Tom H.

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Jackson Building. She also will guide a workshop for students and titled “Coming to See Privilege Systems: The Surprising Journey” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, in the State Farm Lecture Hall.
McIntosh’s events are co-sponsored by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, the National Women’s History Month Committee, the Women’s Studies Program, the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Learning, Teaching, and Innovative Technologies Center, the American Association of University Women, and the Holocaust Studies Committee.
“The excitement of having two nationally and internationally known intellectuals here invigorates the entire campus community and ignites our desire for change and activism,” says Johnson of hooks and McIntosh.
Other highlights include “Tennessee Women for the Vote: A Suffrage Rally, 1913,” dramatized by Ayne Cantrell, Elvira Casal, Ann Funkhouser, Elyce Helford and Kris Pruitt on Thursday, March 5; the International Women’s Day Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 18; the Interdisciplinary Conference in Women’s Studies on Thursday, March 26, and Friday, March 27; a lecture by The Hon. Martha C. Daughtrey, U.S. Court of Appeals on Thursday, March 26; and “Daddy’s Scrapbook: Reflection of a Negro League Daughter” with Harriet Hamilton on Friday, March 27. All events are open to the public, and all are free of charge except the International Women’s Day Luncheon. For complete information, go to www.mtsu.edu/jawc or contact the June Anderson Women’s Center at 615-898-2193 or jawc@mtsu.edu.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For jpegs of bell hooks and Dr. Peggy McIntosh, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.