Please join the Department of Political Science as we commemorate the passage of the 19th amendment and welcome Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Anita Earls. Justice Earls is an African-American civil rights attorney, educator, and founder of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ).
Her lecture, “Movements to Expand the Franchise and Perfect our Democracy: A Legal Perspective,” will examine the fight for women’s suffrage in light of her experiences in voting rights mobilization in the South. Bridging past and present struggles for voting rights.
CANCELED. WILL BE RESCHEDULED IN FALL 2020.
Panelists:
- Danielle Atkinson, founding director of Mothering Justice
- Stephanie Chang, member of the State House of Representatives and co-founder and past president of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote-Michigan
- Dessa Cosma, Executive Director of Detroit Disability Power
- Sharon Dolente, voting rights strategist at Michigan’s ACLU
- Michael Steinberg (moderator), Professor from Practice, UM Law School, former legal director, Michigan ACLU
Join us for an online presentation with Assistant Curator of Manuscripts Jayne Ptolemy as she explores some of the ways to uncover women’s stories within the rich collections of the Clements Library. Inspired by the centennial of the 19th Amendment, this lecture muses on the power of including the quieter histories of everyday women in our celebrations of the anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.
This program is the first of three sessions in our Fall 2020 Discover Series: Women’s History in the Archives.
Open to all
Registration required at myumi.ch/wlnQw
Please join the Department of Political Science as we commemorate the passage of the 19th amendment and welcome Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Anita Earls. Justice Earls is an African-American civil rights attorney, educator, and founder of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ). Her lecture, “Movements to Expand the Franchise and Perfect our Democracy: A Legal Perspective,” will examine the fight for women’s suffrage in light of her experiences in voting rights mobilization in the South. Bridging past and present struggles for voting rights, her lecture will take place on Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at 4:00 PM.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://umich.zoom.us/j/99237351067
Continuing Challenges to Suffrage in Michigan in 2020: Who Still Can’t Vote?
October 12, 2020 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Event online via Zoom; https://umich.zoom.us/j/94834992200
Panel discussion with:
- Stephanie Chang, Michigan State Senator and a board member of Rising Voices of Asian American Families.
- Dessa Cosma, Executive Director of Detroit Disability Power and a founding partner of the People with Disabilities Voting Rights Coalition.
- Reverend Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP and leader of voting rights campaigns, including Take Your Souls to the Polls and Promote the Vote.
- Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Law Professor and director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University, as well as an appellate judge for numerous tribal courts.
- Moderated by Michael Steinberg, Law Professor and Director of the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at UM Law School, former legal director of Michigan ACLU.
Organized by Women and Gender Studies, The Ford School, LSA
Sponsored by: The entire Suffrage 2020 Collaboration and the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester
What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States? The Constitution does not define who gets to be a citizen, or what citizenship means. Rather, citizenship has been defined over time, often through struggle and activism by people who were denied the full rights of citizenship. The Clements Library in partnership with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences will host a virtual panel discussion featuring Derrick Spires of Cornell University (author of The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States) and Martha Jones of Johns Hopkins University (author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America and Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All).The conversation will be moderated by Ben Vinson III, Provost of Case Western Reserve University.
Open to all
Register at myumi.ch/1pv0A
Since the nation’s founding, Americans have used images to define political power and gender roles. Popular pictures praised male political leaders, while cartoons mocked women who sought rights. In the mid-nineteenth century, women’s rights activists like Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony challenged these powerful norms by distributing engraved and photographic portraits that represented women as political leaders. Over time, suffragists developed a national visual campaign to win voting rights. Their photographs captured their public protests and demonstrated their dedication to their cause for mass audiences. Allison Lange’s talk is based on her book, Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, published in May 2020 by the University of Chicago Press. The book focuses on the ways that women’s rights activists and their opponents used images to define gender and power during the suffrage movement.
Presented by the William L. Clements Library in partnership with the Michigan Photographic Historical Society
Open to all
Registration required at myumi.ch/518Od
Register on Eventbrite
Schedule At-A-Glance for Wednesday, November 18:
12:00PM – 1:00PM [Keynote] Glass Ceilings and Maternal Walls: Women and Academic Leadership President Elizabeth Bradley (she/her/hers)President, Vassar College
4:30PM – 5:00PM [Keynote] The Power of Women in 2020, Erin Vilardi, Founder and CEO of Vote Run Lead
5:00PM – 6:00PM [Featured Workshop]: Vote Run Lead’s 90-Day Challenge, Shannon M. Garrett, Chief Strategy Officer, Michigan Women’s CommissionCo-Founder and Board Member, Vote Run LeadFounder and CEO, SMG Strategies.
In this signature Vote Run Lead workshop, we challenge you to take 30 politicalactions in 90 days, accelerating the growth of your political networks and knowhow to learn to Run As You Are! Led by Co-Founder and Board Member, ShannonGarrett.
The Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP) conference is a multi-day virtual meeting November 18-21, 2020, that brings together academics and activists to explore the critical history of women’s suffrage and political power, and the future possibilities for expanding gender equity in political participation and representation in the United States and across the globe. This conference intends to have a particular focus on womxn of color and will conceptualize suffrage broadly as encompassing civic participation and political power within and outside of electoral politics, and will include a critical perspective on the role of white supremacy in the suffrage movement. There will also be a portion of the conference dedicated to women’s power in higher education, with a view to drawing links between the exclusion of diverse women’s voices in the academy, and women’s broader political power.
More information on the conference website.
Register on Eventbrite
Schedule At-A-Glance for Thursday, November 19:
9:00AM – 10:30AM Panel: The Politics of Women’s Power
- Whistleblowing Women: Hollywood Representations of Women Labor Activists, Liz Deegan, Michigan State University, Department of English
- Too Fat for Body Positivity: How the Body Positive Movement Fails Fat Bodies,Katie Paulot, Michigan State University, James Madison College
- Women in U.S. Postsecondary Education: A Decolonial, Historical Analysis of Women Students’ Access, Alyssa Stefanese Yates, Michigan State University, Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education
- Hortense Spillers’s repairing Black Women’s Power through and against PsychoanalysisSeohyun “Sen” Kim, Michigan State University, Department of English
- Equality Towards a New Practice of Societal Structures: The Evolution of Elena Ferrante’s Protagonists, Juliet Guzzetta, Michigan State University, Department of English
10:45AM – 12:15PM Discussion: Sexuality & Reproductive Rights Are for Everyone: Including Women with Disabilities in Advocacy,Activism, and Research,Rebecca Kammes, Michigan State University, Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education
1:00PM – 2:30PM Panel: Transnational Feminisms, Women, & Conflict
- Finding Chinese Feminisms in Transnational Feminisms, Yuanfang Dai, Michigan State University, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
- International Anticolonial Womanhood: Marthe Moumié’s Political Thought and Chinese KnowledgeProduction on Cameroon, 1956-1965,Caitlin Barker, Michigan State University, Department of History
- The Role of Women in Conflict Resolution and the Post-Conflict Environment in Global South,Odirin Omiegbe, Delta State University, Nigeria, Department of Educational Psychology
- Sisters Are Doing it for Themselves: How Female Combatants Gender Peace Agreements in Civil Wars, Jakana Thomas, Michigan State University, Department of Political Science
3:00PM – 4:15PM Book Talk: Jewish Women and Power
- The Superwoman: How a Jewish Journalist Empowered Women to Fight for the Vote, Lori Harrison-Kahan, Boston College, Department of English
- American Jewish Women and the Politics of Power in the Turn-of-the-Century Women’s Movement,Melissa R. Klapper, Rowan University, Department of History
4:30PM – 6:00PM Panel: Women’s Suffrage & Political Participation: Historical Examinations
- Fair Chances: Suffrage Activism at American World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1876-1915, Tracey Jean Boisseau, Purdue University, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
- “Did you see any women in men’s clothes at the polls?” Black Women and Voting Rumors inReconstruction South Carolina, Cappy Yarbough, The College of Charleston, Department of History
- Ballot Please !!!: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, President Ulysses S. Grant, and the Election of 1872, John P. Williams, Collin College, Department of History
- Women’s Suffrage and Pollock’s Covenant: A Faustian Bargain With Racism, or Sleeves Off the Vest?, David A. Collins,American Bar Foundation
6:15PM – 6:30PM Keynote with Governor Gretchen Whitmer of the State of Michigan
The Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP) conference is a multi-day virtual meeting November 18-21, 2020, that brings together academics and activists to explore the critical history of women’s suffrage and political power, and the future possibilities for expanding gender equity in political participation and representation in the United States and across the globe. This conference intends to have a particular focus on womxn of color and will conceptualize suffrage broadly as encompassing civic participation and political power within and outside of electoral politics, and will include a critical perspective on the role of white supremacy in the suffrage movement. There will also be a portion of the conference dedicated to women’s power in higher education, with a view to drawing links between the exclusion of diverse women’s voices in the academy, and women’s broader political power.
More information on the conference website.
Register on Eventbrite
Schedule At-A-Glance for Friday, November 20:
9:00AM – 10:30AM Discussion: Women Empowering Women: Engaging a Feminist Mentorship Model in the Academy
- Dessie Clark, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ADVANCE Program
- Kelly Millenbah, Michigan State University, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- Sidney Brandhorst, Michigan State University, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
10:45AM – 12:15PM Panel: Sexual Politics
- Aborting Rights for Politics,Natalia Niedmann Alvarez,University of Chicago Law School, JSD Program
- Voting Out Human Trafficking: How white supremacy was used to argue for women’s suffrage andagainst trafficking in England, Anna Forringer-Beal, University of Cambridge, Centre for Gender Studies
- “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” and I Struggle for My Reproductive and Marital Rights, Lina Qu, Michigan State University, Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
- All in the Family: The Effects of Familial Attitudes on Women’s Support for Pro-Women Policies, Lauren Hahn, University of Michigan, Department of Communication and MediaSara Morrell, University of Michigan, Department of Political Science
1:00PM – 2:30PM Panel: Jewish Women, Citizenship, Suffrage, and Sexuality
- “An Anti-Suffrage Club”: Jewish Women and Domestic Feminism in Progressive-Era San Francisco,Lori Harrison-Kahan, Boston College, Department of English
- “The information is only to mothers”: Gender, Class, Yiddish, and Reproductive Politics at the 46Amboy St. Clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn,Cassandra Euphrat Weston, University of Michigan, Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies
- Able to Enter: Gender and Disability in Cecilia Razovsky’s Immigration Advocacy, Hannah Greene, New York University, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
2:45PM – 4:15PM Panel: Asian Immigrant, Asian American Women, and the TransPacific Afterlives of World War II
- Proxy Marriages, Sake Marriages, and the End of the “Military Permission Machinery”: U.S. Law andthe Japanese Marriage Cases, 1950-1956, Scott Bullock, Michigan State University, Department of History
- A Model Minority and a Model Mother: U.S. Mother of the Year, Toy Len Goon (1952), Andrea Louie, Michigan State University, Department of Anthropology
- Japanese American Women Crossing Racial Boundaries and Resisting World War II Incarceration,Anna Pegler-Gordon, Michigan State University, James Madison College
- Gender, Disability, and Migration: A Strange Afterlife of the Asia-Pacific War outside the War’sArchives, Naoko Wake, Michigan State University Department of History & Lyman Briggs College
4:30PM – 6:00PM Roundtable: Ways to Lead a Political Life
Voting and running for elected office are just two ways to express political power. Join this virtualroundtable with the Michigan Women’s Commission to learn about the many additional wayswomen can lead a political life and influence important election, policy and lawmaking decisions.Commissioners will discuss how they’ve incorporated civic engagement into their own personal andprofessional lives, and the accomplishments that have resulted from their political participation.The Michigan Women’s Commission is a government body representing the interests of womenin state policymaking. Created by state statute in 1968, the 15-member Commission is taskedwith reviewing the status of women in Michigan and directing attention to critical problems.Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and serve 3-year terms.
6:15PM – 7:30PM Cocktails & Networking Discussions
The Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP) conference is a multi-day virtual meeting, November 18-21, 2020, that brings together academics and activists to explore the critical history of women’s suffrage and political power, and the future possibilities for expanding gender equity in political participation and representation in the United States and across the globe. This conference intends to have a particular focus on womxn of color and will conceptualize suffrage broadly as encompassing civic participation and political power within and outside of electoral politics, and will include a critical perspective on the role of white supremacy in the suffrage movement. There will also be a portion of the conference dedicated to women’s power in higher education, with a view to drawing links between the exclusion of diverse women’s voices in the academy, and women’s broader political power.
Register on Eventbrite
Schedule At-A-Glance for Saturday, November 21:
9:00AM – 10:30AM Panel: Political Organizing & Activism
- Holy Ruth, Mother of the Gays, Mx. Mann, University of Michigan, Department of History
- Sounds of Suffragism and Sensuality in Ethel Smyth’s Songs, Penrose M. Allphin, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Music and Dance
- NY City Teachers’ Rising: the Fight for Equal Pay, Tara M. McCarthy, Central Michigan University, Department of History
- Elective Citizens? The Radcliffe College Community’s Spectral Participation in World War I Activity,1914-1926 , Michael E McGuire, Mount Saint Mary College, Department of History
10:45AM – 12:15PM Panel: Future Directions of Work & Radicalism
- Consistent Radicalism: Lucy Parsons’ Anarchism, Marissa Knaak, Michigan State University, Department of History
- Making Visible a History of Epistemological Violence: Transcribing Primary Archival Sources onMinority Philosophy, William A. B. Parkhurst, University of South Florida, Department of Philosophy
- How Dark is my Future? Reading the Future of Black Girls Through Memory in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Ankita Sharma, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Department of English
- From Power to Empowerment: Irruptions In The Logic Of Power From The Leadership Of FranciaMárquez Mina In Colombia, Edwar Ortiz Valencia (he/him/his)
1:00PM – 2:30PM Discussion: Questioning, Challenging, or Embracing Womxn of Color Identity: Implications for Solidarity
Our research team consists of four undergraduate students, one doctoral student, one studentaffairs and social work practitioner, and a primary school teacher. We came together based on ourparticipation in a postsecondary space, called Loyola University Chicago Empowering Solidarity(LUCES). LUCES is a co-curricular space that initially served cisgender Womxn of Color and hasgrown to include Trans*, gender non-conforming, LGBTQIA+, and masculine of center individuals inexploring political subjectivities and solidarity.Through a collaborative autoethnography, we have sought to explore the relevance of WOC identityand related feminisms, especially the call for solidarity, in our own lives. For many of us, LUCESwas the first space where we tested out, encountered, struggled with, grew away from, returnedto, and continuously explore WOC and/or POC identities. WOC identity is located as a politicalidentity in the past (Western States Center, 2011; Alexander, 2005). However, many have questionedits relevance today (Janani, 2013; Widatalla, 2019), and others have expressed the challenge ofbuilding solidarity movements within WOC spaces that maintain privilege and oppression (Moraga &Anzaldúa, 1981; Smith, 2016). Some of the presenters have moved away from this identity altogether,and we seek to understand why to illuminate the fluid nature of political identities that, overtime, have become fixed (Western States Center, 2011).
The Gender, Women’s Suffrage, and Political Power: Past, Present, and Future (GWSPP) conference is a multi-day virtual meeting November 18-21, 2020, that brings together academics and activists to explore the critical history of women’s suffrage and political power, and the future possibilities for expanding gender equity in political participation and representation in the United States and across the globe. This conference intends to have a particular focus on womxn of color and will conceptualize suffrage broadly as encompassing civic participation and political power within and outside of electoral politics, and will include a critical perspective on the role of white supremacy in the suffrage movement. There will also be a portion of the conference dedicated to women’s power in higher education, with a view to drawing links between the exclusion of diverse women’s voices in the academy, and women’s broader political power.
More information on the conference website.
