Contemporary Issues in Feminist Research: Winter 2020

The EWU Women’s & Gender Studies presents for Winter 2020 Contemporary Issues in Feminist Research, featuring faculty and staff presenting research in their disciplines from a feminist perspective.

Download the Winter 2020 Flyer

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: History, Federal Indian Law, and Structural Discrimination

Wednesday, Jan. 29

Noon to 12:50 p.m., 207 Monroe Hall

Thousands of Native women and girls have died and disappeared from tribal lands, rural communities, and cities in the last three decades without official explanation. We need to understand how social structures have worked to devalue the lives of indigenous women and girls.  Tribal people are impacted by structural discrimination and bias in schools and legal systems. Examples of historical trauma include grief and loss of loved ones due to war, boarding schools, foster homes, forced assimilation, and inadequate health care. Native Americans also have unique mobility patterns as they travel from rural tribal territories to urban centers. Safe travel for Native girls and women involves indicators of health and risk factors. These unique mobility patterns, combined with the complicated jurisdictional scheme of Indian Country, make it difficult to protect Native women. Tribal communities range from urban centers to the large land base reservations with rural, isolated, and unincorporated communities with closed areas and limited or non-existent law enforcement resources to address this need for greater protection.

Searching for Identity: When Students of Mexican Ancestry Study Abroad in Mexico

Tuesday, Mar. 3

Noon to 12:50 p.m., 207 Monroe Hall

Students experience learning and classroom environments differently depending on how they are impacted by the social, political, and historical contexts in which they are learning.

For example, Latinx students on university campuses may experience courses in such disciplines as Chicano Studies, History, and Spanish differently than those without Latinx ancestry, in part because there may be personal and family identity issues at stake.

What happens, then, when Latinx students carry out a study abroad in a country they may see as a place of origin?

We share our findings from Oaxaca, Mexico, following and exploring 13 students’ experiences of identity as well as the perspectives of their host parents, teachers, administrators, and tour guides. The findings implore us to take such issues into account in our study abroad programs.

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.