WOMEN'S CENTER STANDING COMMITTEE
PRE CONFERENCE

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 11

The Women’s Centers Committee host a daylong session that offer important networking and professional development opportunities forwomen’s center administrators on Thursday, November 11.  The pre-conference include a registration fee in addition to the general conference registration. This fee includes morning coffee/pastries and lunch for those attending the pre-conference.


For more information about the NWSA 2010 Women’s Centers Committee Pre-conference, please contact Lysa Salsbury (lsalsbur@uidaho.edu) or Michelle Issadore (mii206@Lehigh.edu), Pre-conference Planning Committee co-chairs.

For more information on the NWSA Women’s Centers Committee, please visit our web pages or contact Rebecca Morrow (morbecca@isu.edu) or Candace Rosovsky (crosovsky@gmail.com), Women’s Centers Committee co-chairs.

NWSA Women’s Centers Pre-Conference

The Preconference uses the theme for this year’s NWSA conference, Difficult Dialogues II which builds on conversations that began in Atlanta at the 2009 conference.

We encouraged proposals that purposefully address and provide practical ideas and solutions to current challenges and needs faced by Women’s and Gender Centers and our work on campus, either within or beyond the context of these parameters.   

In keeping with the NWSA focus on intersectionality and the need to engage in unmasking the silences of race and class, gender and sexuality, we also emphasized the importance of keeping these issues at the forefront of our discussions. To this end, we particularly encouraged submissions for workshop sessions that utilized new frameworks and/or directions to both directly and indirectly address this topic.  We also encouraged workshops that expanded our understandings of women’s centers as intersecting with global feminisms.

Based on feedback from 2009 conference participants, other areas of interest to potential attendees included, but are not limited to:

Feminist Leadership Models

• How does gender play into leader effectiveness?
• How do we actively model principles of feminist leadership on our campuses (mentorship, work/life balance, allowing space for multiple voices to be heard)?
• How can Women’s Centers be active in helping to create more opportunities for women to empower themselves to develop their leadership potential?
• How do Women’s Centers staff and students working in coalition with campus multicultural and LGBTQ centers navigate the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender?

Campus Climate

• How can Women’s Centers respond effectively to issues of covert exclusion, marginalization and discrimination on our campuses?
  
• In what ways has your center helped to empower women and other marginalized groups in attaining a voice during critical confrontations and conversations?
  
• What tools have been used effectively at your institution to assess campus climate for women and LGBTQ individuals?

Best Practices

• What are some transformative practices in your work that actively challenge “outsider” marginalization and seek to build coalitions and collaborations?

Working with Women's Studies

• Women’s Centers are often regarded as the co-curricular arm of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Academy. In what ways are we models for the academy? How do we foster deeper and more productive relationships with Women’s and Gender Studies?
• How are Women’s Center staff involved in the classroom, via teaching, guest lecturing, and providing service learning opportunities, internships, research resources, and more?
• In what ways do we provide models or partnerships for Women’s Studies as campus agencies for “civic engagement”? 

Assessment

• How are we ensuring that underrepresented voices are heard through assessment?
• How are we navigating the difficult step of implementing our findings?
  

Working in Student Affairs

• How are we reaching out to Student Affairs colleagues and including them in our mission, via collaboration and partnership?
• What are some of the ways that Women’s Centers’ collaboration and partnership have effected changes within Student Affairs?
• How do we encourage other offices to infuse their work with social justice, with support and guidance along the way?
  
  

2010 ANNUAL CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 11- 14 DENVER COLORADO

REGISTRATION OPEN On-line registration is now available register early for best rates

ROOM SHARING FORUM Visit the forum board for roomsharing notices OPEN TO EVERYONE (NWSA membership NOT required)

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE The National Women’s Studies Association’s (NWSA) annual conference is the nation’s preeminent meeting dedicated to women’s and gender studies issues and research. More than 1,600+ educators, researchers, students and community/cultural activists are expected to attend the 2010 conference. The conference fosters dialogue and provides an opportunity for attendees to stay current on the latest trends and research in the field.