UNC Asheville will celebrate Women’s History Month throughout March with a variety of special events. Among the highlights will be a lecture series and the seventh annual “F-Word Film Festival,” featuring five feminist films. Events are free and open to the public.
 

** The UNC Asheville Women’s History Month keynote address on “The Gendering of Food Studies” will be given by noted scholar Margaret McFadden at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, in UNC Asheville’s Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall. McFadden, Appalachian State University professor of interdisciplinary studies, will discuss the questions of gender that are often overlooked in food studies, including the roles of men and women in food planting, harvesting, marketing and preparation. A prolific writer, McFadden has served for 10 years as editor of the National Women’s Studies Association Journal, a triennial scholarly journal which publishes interdisciplinary research in women’s studies in addition to editorials and reviews. McFadden has authored three books and dozens of articles on women’s studies topics and given over 80 presentations and papers throughout the world.

NOTE: Click here to listen to or download a podcast of Dr. McFadden's talk.

** A series of talks and presentations will be a focus of UNC Asheville’s Women’s History Month. Events are in Laurel Forum, Karpen Hall unless otherwise noted.

-- Three young women will tell personal stories concerning their battles with eating disorders in “Voices of Hope” at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27.

-- Nutritionist Sandra Buchanan and therapist Robin Harris will give a talk on “Food and Mood” at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28. They will discuss the impact food has on mood and ways to manage both.

-- CANCELLED: “Wasted,” a panel discussion on eating disorders, will begin at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 1. Participants include a nutritionist, therapist, psychiatrist, and a young woman in recovery and her mother.

-- Noted speaker and Pagan Priestess Byron Ballard (UNC Asheville class of ’79) will give a talk on “Everything She Touches: The Rise of Goddess Consciousness and its Mirror in Modern Political Systems” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 14. Byron will discuss the rise of feminist theology within the women’s liberation movement and the ways it unites people of diverse spiritual traditions and influences political systems throughout the world.

-- Elizabeth Snyder, UNC Asheville foreign languages department associate professor, will present “Build Back Better: Hurricane Katrina in Sociogender Context” at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20. The unique challenges facing minority women in New Orleans will be discussed.

-- UNC Asheville environmental studies major Roy Legaard will discuss “Dolphins and Morality” at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20. Legaard will analyze the status of dolphins as potential moral patients and agents, based on their strong cognitive abilities.

-- Local dancers will perform “Moving Women: An Afternoon of Dance,” at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Lipinsky Auditorium. Four separate pieces will explore extremes of beauty, violence towards women, homemaker stereotypes and women living as conjoined twins. “Moving Women” is directed by Kathy Meyers, UNC Asheville Health and Wellness Department adjunct instructor.

-- Brian Butler, UNC Asheville Philosophy Department chair, will present “Gender, Law and Justice” at 12:30 p.m. Monday, March 26. Butler will discuss the influential work of renowned legal mind Catharine MacKinnon, who helped shaped the American legal system to acknowledge gender discrimination, sexual harassment and the conflict between equal rights and free speech. Butler served as MacKinnon’s research assistant at the University of Chicago.

-- UNC Asheville senior history students Lili Lopez and Ashleigh Poteat will give talks on women’s roles in two international movements at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 27. Lopez will examine “Women Revolutionaries in El Salvador” and Poteat will discuss “Egyptian Women in the Muslim Brotherhood.”
 

"Nepal High Living" by Mickey Buckwalter

** “Women of the World, Our Global Sisters,” an exhibit of 25 images of women from around the world by Black Mountain photographer Mickey Buckwalter, will be on view March 1-30 at UNC Asheville’s Blowers Gallery. Buckwalter will give a gallery talk at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, in conjunction with Women’s History Month. Over the past 24 years, Buckwalter has traveled to more than 40 countries and all 50 states photographing women. Blowers Gallery, located on the main floor of UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library, is open during regular library hours. For hours of operation, call UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library at 828/251-6546.
 

** The seventh annual “F-Word Film Festival: A Celebration of Images by and about Women (But for All Audiences)” will feature five feminist documentaries at 7 p.m. March 15 and 16 in UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. Panel discussions with UNC Asheville faculty and students will follow the screenings both nights.

-- “The Beauty Academy of Kabul” and “I had an Abortion” will be screened on Thursday, March 15. “The Beauty Academy of Kabul” explores the relationship between Western hairstylists and the women they teach after opening a beauty school in post-Taliban Afghanistan. “I had an Abortion” features 10 women who describe their abortion experience, with stories spanning seven decades.

-- “I was a Teenage Feminist,” “Far from Home” and “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night” will be screened on Friday, March 16. “I was a Teenage Feminist” explores why young, progressive women feel uncomfortable identifying with feminism. “Far from Home” follows the life of Kandice, an African American teenager in Boston, as she is bussed from the city to predominately white suburbs to attend school. “Nalini by Day, Nancy by Night,” details the life of filmmaker Sonali Gulati, who investigates the phenomenon of outsourcing telephone support service jobs to India.

For more information about Women’s History Month events, call the UNC Asheville Women’s Studies Program at 828/251-6419 or go online at www.unca.edu/womensstudies.