UNCA will celebrate Women's History Month throughout March with a variety of cultural programs. Among the highlights will be non-traditional textile art exhibition and addresses by historian Carole Levin of the University of Nebraska and sociologist Sharon Hays of the University of Virginia. Events are free and open to the public.

Carole Levin, the UNCA Carol Belk Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in 1994-95, will return to UNCA to give a talk on "Murder Not Then the Fruit of My Womb: Shakespeare's Joan, Foxe's Guernsey Martyr, and Women Pleading Pregnancy in Early Modern English History and Culture" for the Women's History Month Opening Celebrations at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2, in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. Levin, currently a history professor at the University of Nebraska, will examine the effectiveness of pleading pregnancy in early modern England to escape or postpone execution. A reception will follow.

Sharon Hays will visit UNCA to discuss "Welfare Reform and Family Values: Work and Motherhood Inside the Welfare Office" at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 24, in the Whitman Room of Ramsey Library. Hays, an associate professor of sociology and women and gender studies at the University of Virginia, will discuss the cultural message the 1996 welfare reform sends. Her analysis draws on the nearly 400 hours of research she has conducted in welfare offices and in the homes of welfare clients.

* Other special afternoon presentations will be:

-- Virginia Derryberry, UNCA assistant art professor, will give a talk on "Imaginary Landscapes" at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, in the Side Door, Highsmith Center. Derryberry will discuss the development of her work, her process for making art and the development of imagery. She will also show slides of her fantasy landscape scenarios.

-- Afaf Omer, UNCA assistant sociology professor, will give a talk on "Women Reshaping Human Rights" at 4 p.m. Friday, March 17, in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. Though women have long been active in the struggle for human rights, their accomplishments often remain unrecognized by history, political analysts and the media. In her talk, Omer will examine the reasons behind this oversight.

-- Tracy Rizzo, UNCA assistant history professor, will lead a discussion of "Misogyny at Its Deadliest: The Witch Trials of the Early Modern Period" at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, at the Side Door, Highsmith Center. Rizzo and her History 354 class will lead a discussion following screenings of "The Burning Times" and "Witchcraze" videos.

* The Brown Bag Lunch Series will meet at 12:15 p.m. in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall unless otherwise noted.

-- Gwen Ashburn, UNCA assistant literature professor, will discuss "Asheville's Remarkable Women" on Monday, March 13. She will examine significant local historical women and why they are hidden from our collective history.

-- A group of UNCA faculty present "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Academy" on Tuesday, March 14. This original play takes a humorous look at university life.

-- Sarah Judson, UNCA assistant history professor, will discuss "Deadbeat Dads, Deadbeat State and the Well-Meaning (But Racist) White Women of Atlanta" on Thursday, March 16, in the private dining room at UNCA's dining hall. Judson's talk will examine the white 1920s Georgia club women, who were galvanized into political action to prevent what they believed was the social and cultural deterioration of the family by fighting for a state system of child welfare.

-- Samuel Kaplan, UNCA assistant math professor, will examine "Women and Mathematics Education" on Monday, March 20, in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. Are women really bad at math? In a session geared towards both math students and instructors, Kaplan dispels math myths and offers strategies for attracting more women to the field.

-- "Three Medieval Indian Mystics" will be the topic of UNCA associate literature professor Cindy Ho's talk on Wednesday, March 22 in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. Ho will discuss three very different South Asian Hindu women who wrote their way out of the silence usually imposed on women of their castes.

-- Pamela Nickless, UNCA economics professor and Women's Studies Program director, will discuss "Scarlett's Sisters: Who Wore the Pants After the Civil War?" on Thursday, March 23. Nickless will examine women's control of property after the war.

-- Jan Harrow, UNCA literature lecturer, will discuss "Women in Sensible Shoes: Texuality and Sexuality in the Novels of Dorothy Allison and Annie Proulx" on Monday, March 27. Harrow will explore the textual codes which reveal lesbian sexual identity in the "maiden aunt" characters in Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina" and Proulx's "The Shipping News."

-- Catherine Mitchell, UNCA mass communications department chair, will examine "Sisterhood is Global... Or is it?" on Wednesday, March 29. She will discuss her meetings with women journalists in Moldova, Macedonia, India, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

-- UNCA's Management Department assistant professor Melinda Costello and associate professor Robert Yearout are joined by management student April Clark-Mays for a discussion of "Managing Change: Students' Perceptions of the Assimilation of Women at the Virginia Military Institute" on Friday, March 31. In 1998, Clark-Mays interviewed students and the administrators responsible for planning and administering the assimilation of women at VMI. Students' perceptions of the assimilation efforts will be discussed.

* Special evening programs include:

-- An opening reception for an exhibition of non-traditional art by 10 Asheville-based artists will be held 6-8 p.m. Friday, March 3, at Ramsey Library's Blowers Gallery. The show, "Image to Image: Woman to Woman--Inspired Textile Work," is the creation of L.I.N.T. (Ladies in New Textiles), a women's artist group formed in 1996. For the exhibition, each member of L.I.N.T. selected a woman artist as a source of inspiration for a new piece of textile art. The exhibition will run through March 31.

-- Singer songwriter Meghan Cary will perform at 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, in the Highsmith Center Lounge. Cary, who holds an M.F.A. in from Florida State University Asolo Conservatory, received Billboard Magazine's "Critics Choice" award for her debut CD "New Shoes."

Also at UNCA this month is the Western Carolina Women's Coalition Conference 2000 March 3-4. Eighteen seminars on a variety of topics will be presented, ending with a concert by Peggy Seeger Saturday evening. The cost of the conference is $35. For information, call 828/251-5986.

For more information, call Pamela Nickless, UNCA Women's Studies Program director, at 828/251-6122.