Contemporary Issues in Feminist Research: Fall 2019

Women’s and Gender Studies presents for Fall 2019 Contemporary Issues in Feminist Research: featuring faculty and staff presenting research in their disciplines from a feminist perspective.

Embodiment, Empowerment, and Community: Feminist Pedagogy for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Tuesday, Oct. 8
Noon to 12:50, 207 Monroe Hall

This research explores the use of Feminist Pedagogy as a tool to emphasize embodied learning and the empowerment of learners to create and sustain inclusive learning communities. Inclusive Praxis, or the process of creating and sustaining inclusive learning spaces through the intentional practice of embodiment/empowerment/ community-building, and the active recognition and rejection of exclusion, is introduced. The framework is applied to a specific example from the presenter’s research on Mindfulness curriculum used in K-12 schools. The study offers possibilities for students, teachers, school leaders, and policymakers by re-framing inclusion as an active process and identifying entry points for disrupting dominant discourses of exclusion in learning environments.

Between Worlds: A Personal Journey of Self-Reflection While on the “Path of Conocimiento

Tuesday, Oct. 15
Noon to 12:50, 207 Monroe Hall

Grounded in Chicana Feminism, this research project aims to catalyze systemic social change through an autoethnographic documentary film that critically interrogates identity and oppressive experiences. Gloria Anzaldúa’s framework: Path of Conocimiento grounds participants’ experiences into practice. The film serves as a pedagogical instrument to inform and inspire communities subjugated by systems of oppression and provides readers/viewers/attendees from privileged communities an opportunity to re-connect with the disenfranchised by bridging differences through the lens of Feminist Research. This form of activism will create an opportunity for healing, transformation, and positive social change by building bridges over physical and psychological walls.

Current Issues in Gender and Leisure

Tuesday, Oct. 29
Noon to 12:50, 207 Monroe Hall

The Recreation and Leisure Studies Program at Eastern Washington University creates opportunities to participate in leisure activities for everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, ability, education, or background. Gender matters for facilitating recreation, leisure, and sports programs across the lifespan; however, gaps exist in how gender influences, shapes, and constrains recreation, leisure, and sports experiences.

The ways gender is understood and manifested in leisure reflects a set of conscious and unconscious expectations and actions. Such systems devaluing women are constantly being constructed, resisted, negotiated and reconstructed.

Concerns about recreation programming for girls and women have existed since the beginning of organized recreation. Examples can be seen in op-eds regarding the outdoor recreation industry (Langlois, 2018), sport (Barr, 2018), and travel (Baran, 2016). However, this discrimination is not unique to adult women. Girls may experience disparities in program offerings compared to boys including inadequate facilities, program offerings for boys but not girls, and underfunded opportunities.

This research presentation will outline current issues in gender and leisure, specifically focusing on discrimination women face in the outdoor recreation industry, sport, and travel.

All of our events are wheelchair accessible and fragrance-free. Contact Lisa Logan at 509.359.2898 or llogan83@ewu.edu three business days in advance to make accommodation arrangements.