The conference will include keynote speakers Jamia Wilson and Mily Treviño-Sauceda.
Texas Tech University's Women's & Gender Studies (WGS) will host the annual Conference on the Advancement of Women Thursday and Friday (April 25-26) in the Student Union Building (SUB). The conference was first held in 1984.
"We are looking forward to another year of celebrating women's and gender studies scholars' research and creativity," said Elizabeth Sharp, director of WGS and a professor in Human Development and Family Studies. "Every spring at Texas Tech, the WGS conference offers an inviting and restorative space, filled with critical discussions, innovative ideas and possibilities for collaboration."
The conference will kick off Thursday (April 25) with a free-art and spoken-word performance titled "Healing in the Arts," featuring Texas Tech students. The performance will begin at 6 p.m. in the Escondido Theatre.
Check-in for the conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday (April 26) and will include a continental breakfast served in the Matador Room. Concurrent panel sessions will begin at 9 a.m. and continue throughout the day until 5:30 p.m. on the upper level of the SUB. For a map of the SUB, click here.
More than 80 speakers will present their research, including researchers from Texas Tech, Angelo State University, Austin College, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Sarah Lawrence College, Texas A&M University – Commerce, the University of California – Irvine and the University of Texas.
At 10 a.m., Jamia Wilson will speak on the topic "How to Advance Social Justice Through Storytelling" in the Matador Room. Wilson is the executive director and publisher of Feminist Press at the City University of New York. She is a recipient of the TED Prize Storyteller recognition and has been published in several outlets, including New York Magazine.
Mily Treviño-Sauceda will speak at 1 p.m. in the Matador Room. Treviño-Sauceda is the executive director and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, a national organization for the advancement of farmworker women and women from farmworker families. Treviño-Sauceda also is a co-founder of the farmworker women's movement in California.
At 9:30 a.m. Saturday (April 27), the conference will conclude with a free workshop "The Power of the Collective," in the Red Raider Lounge in the SUB. It will feature Treviño-Sauceda and members of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, and is free and open to the public.
The conference is free to attend and participants can register online here. To attend the luncheon, registrants must complete the form and pay the luncheon fee. The luncheon fee is $25 for students and $35 for non-students.
Visitors without a Texas Tech parking sticker can find information for parking by entering through the 15th Street/University Avenue campus entrance.
