[336] Sexual Slavery Survivor To Keynote Conference At MTSU

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

SEXUAL SLAVERY SURVIVOR TO KEYNOTE CONFERENCE AT MTSU
Somaly Mam Part of Diverse Exploration of Worldwide Women’s and Gender Issues

(MURFREESBORO) – Internationally heralded anti-human trafficking activist Somaly Mam will be the keynote speaker for the MTSU Women’s and Gender Studies Program’s ninth biennial Interdisciplinary Conference slated for March 23-26.
Mam is slated to speak on “The Road to Lost Innocence: Human Trafficking and Sex Slavery—A Personal Journey” at 3:15 p.m. Friday, March 25, in the Tom H. Jackson Building. This event only is free and open to the public. Mam will sign books following her address.
Born into extreme poverty in Cambodia, Mam was sold into slavery as a child and forced to work in a brothel, where she was tortured and raped daily. After Mam’s best friend was murdered, Mam escaped and vowed to fight the underground economy that feeds on the brutal sexual exploitation of the vulnerable.
In 2007, Mam established the Somaly Mam Foundation to support anti-trafficking organizations. She has won numerous awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation and the World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child. In 2006, she was honored as a CNN Hero and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2009 by Time magazine.
Mam’s appearance is only one highlight of the conference, which is based on the theme of Global Discourses in Women’s and Gender Studies.
“We welcome scholars, activists, nonprofit professionals, students and others who engage issues of social justice, particularly those related to women and gender,” says Dr. Newtona “Tina” Johnson, director of the MTSU Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Dr. Nancy Rupprecht, professor of history at MTSU, will moderate a special session titled “When Death Panels Were Real: The Abuse of Medical Ethics” from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 24 in the Jackson Building.
Also on Thursday, March 24, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building, Travis D. Gatling, associate professor and associate director of the School of Dance at Ohio University, will lead a workshop on using nonverbal communication to engage creativity and diversity in the classroom.
“Women without Men,” a movie centered around the 1953 British- and American-backed coup that brought down Iran’s democratically-elected government, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24, in the Jackson Building. Dr. Allen Hibbard, director of MTSU’s Middle East Center, will moderate a panel discussion following the film.

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“Engendered Movement: A Dance Concert and Discussion” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 25, in the Tennessee Room of the James Union Building. Professor Kim Neal Nofsinger, Director of Dance and Artistic Director of the Middle Tennessee Dance Theatre, will moderate the question-and-answer session.
Admission to the conference is free for MTSU faculty, staff and students. Registration fees for the public and other information are available at http://www.mtsu.edu/womenstu/conference/index.shtml. Direct any questions to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program office at 615-898-5910 or womenstu@mtsu.edu.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a color jpeg of Somaly Mam, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Media Relations at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.


Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. Recently, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.