"Girls' Culture & Girls' Studies: Surviving, Reviving, Celebrating Girlhood"

October 17 & 18, 2008

The 18th Annual Women's Studies Conference at Southern Connecticut State University explores girlhood. What does it mean to be a girl?  Who defines girlhood in an age when puberty and sexualization are happening at younger ages? How do girls assert their own identity in an increasingly medicated and consumerist culture which targets girls as a prime audience? Why are U.S. girls preoccupied with perfection? What challenges do girls across races, classes, religions, nations, and cultures face in an ever more globalized world? What is the relationship between girls and feminism? What effect can feminism have on constructions of boyhood and masculinity and how in turn can this affect girls? In the 18th annual SCSU Women's Studies conference, we will take a close look at girls' culture and girls' studies, among the most vibrant areas in women's studies.

Friday, October 17

 
Women & Girls' Fair Opens

2:00-3:30 p.m.
Welcome and Open Plenary (#1)
"Having Our Say: Girls Rapping, Dancing, Manifesting"

3:30-4:00 p.m.
 Beverage Breaks @ Women & Girls' Fair

4:00-7:00 p.m.
 Film Screenings

4:00-5:15 p.m.
Concurrent Session A

1. Girls & Imagination in Play: Guns, Dolls, and Dreams
• Lisa Fraustino, Eastern Connecticut State University, "Disney's Dream Girls:  Whose Dream Is It?"
• Caitlin Kelly, Author of Blown Away: American Women and Guns, "Girls and Guns"
• Courtney Lee Weida, Adelphi University, "Aesthetics and Subversive Imagination in Play: Girls' Dolls and Action Figures"

2. Girls' Work & Work for Girls: Service, Learning, Mentoring
• Cathy Gennert, University of Connecticut, Waterbury, "Exploration of the Present 'Cultural Abuse' of Girls in the U.S."
• Katja Kohnlein, Maedchenbidungsprojekt Muenchen & Katholische Stiftungsfachhochschule Muenchen, Germany, "Girls Work Germany"
• Amy Rustein-Riley, Lesley University, &
Alice Diamond, Lesley University, "Girls' Studies and Media Literacy: A Reflection on the Impact of a Service Learning Project"

3. The Institutionalization of Girls' Rights: Developing Strategies for Effective Change (workshop)
• Hourig Babikian, Working Group on Girls, UNICEF (facilitator)
• Fulya Vekiloglu, Baha'i International Community (facilitator)
• Beth Adamson, Working Group on Girls
• Rosemary Reynolds, Working Groups on Girls

4. Negotiating Authority and Voice in a Feminist Girls' School
• Alana Bell, Linden School, Canada, "Sharing Authority as a Feminist Administrator"
• Beth Alexander, Linden School, Canada, "What Does It Mean for Me to Be a Feminist Teacher?"
• Ruthie Cowper Szamosi, Linden School, Canada, "How Can Education Foster Feminism?"

5. "Out of Their Silences and Into Their Truths": A Leadership Development Program for High School Girls
• Lisa Hetfield, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (moderator)
• Mary K. Trigg, Institute for Women's Leadership, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Julie Salthouse, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Sasha Taner, Institute for Women's Leadership, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

6. Scholarship, Feminism, and Girlhood:  Intergenerational Discussions
• Grace Dellinger-Pate & Charlie Dellinger-Pate, Southern Connecticut State University, "Hannah Montana, 'Girlie Girls,' Third Grade, and Feminism: A Mother-Daughter Dialogue"
• Beth Hartog & Terri Bennett, Southern Connecticut State University, "What Do You Want to Be When You Grow up?"
• Julianna Calabrese & Ro Conforti, Southern Connecticut State University, "My Life as a Cartoon Character: One Tween's Experience in Disney's Virtual Playgrounds"

5:15-5:45 p.m.
Beverage Break @ Women and Girls' Fair

5:45-7:00 p.m.
Concurrent Session B
7. Girls and Incarceration: Girl Scouting Beyond Bars
• Kelly Chapman & Members of Girl Scouts, Connecticut Trails Council

8. Girls' Thought, Girls' Talk: Between the Everyday and the Beyond
• Gabriela De Jesus, Career High School, New Haven
• Kathleen Smith, Cooperative High School, New Haven
• Jasmine Wilbourne, Co-operative High School, New Haven
• Jazmine Hughes, Connecticut College & Hill House '08, New Haven
• Kate Lovejoy, Cooperative High School, New Haven

9. Placing Girls and Girls' Studies at the Center: Curriculum, Program, Institution
• Susan Overton, Brown University, "Old Girls/Young Women: Female-ness at a Women's College"
• Leandra Preston, University of Central Florida, "Putting Girls at the Academic Center: Developing a Center for Girls Studies and a B.A. Track in Girls Studies"
• Kath Rondinone, Southern Connecticut State University, "Debunking the Barbie Myth through Math Lessons"

10. Preventing Female Depression: Planting the Seeds in Girlhood (Roundtable)
• Caroline Rose, Life Coach, Kittery, Maine
• Kimberly Knowlton-Young, Licensed Certified Social Worker
• Nancy Horn, Psychologist, CT
• Kate Stephenson, Waterford Country School, CT (moderator/respondent)

11. Zines and Magazines: Girls Resisting and Mainstreaming
• Caroline Kaltefleiter, State University of New York-Cortland, "Riot Grrrls and Bois: Gender Contestation in (Trans) Zines and Performance Sites of Resistance"
• Amy Pattee, Simmons College, "A, B, or C? Teenage Girls' Magazine Quizzes"
• Kathleen Sweeney, The New School and Marymount Manhattan College, Author of Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age, "Warrior Girls"

7:00-9:00 p.m. Dinner through Performances

Saturday, October 18

8:45 a.m.
Women's & Girls' Fair Opens

8:45-10:00 a.m.
Breakfast Plenary (#2)
 "Status of Girl Cultures and Girls' Studies: Reports from the Growing Fields" 

10:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
 Film Screenings

10:15-11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Session C
12. Bridging the "Margin to Center": The Value of Mentoring Girls in a Feminist Community (workshop)
• Lisa Covington, San Diego State University

13. For Colored Girls, Track 1: "The ABC's of Colored Girls"
• Tania Carrasquillo, University of Iowa, &
Sintia Molina, St. Frances College, "Ni±a y Mujer: Memories of
Puerto Rican Girls"
• Yaisa Mann, University of Oklahoma, "The ABC's of Girlhood:  Attitude, Beauty, class, and the Outward Self Esteem of Black Girls in Popular Culture"

14. Girls and Leadership: Education That Transforms
• Christine Aulicino, Educational Consultant, "Educating Girls for Transformative Leadership"
• Dana Dabek-Milstein, Alice Paul Institute, "Girls and Leadership"
• Carol Petrucci, Shared Advantage, "The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders: A Look at the First Year of an All-Girl Public Middle Schools in Texas"

15. Girls Watching & Girls Performing: Girlhood through TV and Film
• Adriane Brown, The Ohio State University, "'It Goes There': Promiscuity, Queerness, and Sexual Agency in Degrassi: The Next Generation"
• Alyxandra Vesey, University of Texas, "Raw Power and Pork Swords:  The Gender Politics of Girlhood and Music Production and Fandom in Juno"
• Emilie Zaslow, Pace University, "Girl Watching: Reality TV Takes on Girlhood"

16. Researching through Resources on Girls and Girlhood
• Miriam Forman-Brunell, University of Missouri-Kansas City, "On-Line Teaching Resources in Children and Youth in History"
• Paul Holmer, Southern Connecticut State University, "Rory, a Girl of the Stacks:  Researching Girlhood through Two Centuries of Juvenile Literature"
• Maria Nesterova, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia, "Image of girl as the ideal of body in European fashionable costume"

17. Resisting the Sexualized Image in a Pornified Culture
• Estela Lopez, Stop Porn Culture, &
Jill Portugal, One Angry Girl Designs, "Porn Culture and Girls"
• Daniela Ragusa, Southern Connecticut State University, "Commodified Sexuality and Sexualized Commodities: Teaching Teens to Critique and Resist Seductive Images"

18. Re-Thinking the Status of Girls Globally
• Cathryn Magno, Southern Connecticut State University
• Judith Abrahami, Ort Braude College, Israel, "Parenting Girls: Feminist Parents and Their Daughters, a Case of Mixed Messages"

11:30-11:45 a.m.
 Beverage Break @ Women & Girls' Fair

11:45 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Concurrent Session D

19. For Colored Girls, Track 2: "Girls of Color: Performance Ethnography, Education, and Empowerment"
• Dana Edell, Co-Founder/ Executive Director, viBe Theater Experience & New York University
• Ruth Nicole Brown, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, & Founder/Director of SOLHOT
• Aimee Meredith Cox, Founder, BlackLight; Center for the Education of Women, University of Michigan & Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

20. Girl Cultures: Perspectives from Japan
• Yuka Kanno, University of California, Irvine, "The Genealogy of Japanese Girls' School Culture"
• Csaba Toth, Carlow University, "Playing at Being Girl: Gender, Music, and Urban Space in Tokyo"

21. Girls & the Empowerment of Art
• Melinda M. Bronson, Dancer/Educator, "Flamenco & Empowerment of Girls"
• Christine Goncharuk, "Rites of Passage: From Girlhood to Womanhood"
• Amanda Reaume, The Antigone Foundation & University of British Columbia,  Canada, "Dreams for Women: Girls Writing Back"
• Amy Sarch Schopick, Shenadoah University (Art Display)

22. Sex Education, Sexual Agency, and Planned Parenthood (roundtable)
• Carissa Teta and Peer Educators, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut

23. Working for Girls: A Conversation amongst Non-profit Employees for Girls' Organizations (roundtable)
• Allison Attenello, Girls Learn International, Inc. (moderator)
• Adwoa Aidoo, Global Action Manager, Girls Scouts of the USA
• Shelby Knox, Girls' Rights Activist
• Julie Salthouse, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey

1:15-2:30 p.m.
 Luncheon with Performance "The Rhythm, the Rhyme, and the Reason"
• Ruth N. Brown, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Chamara J. Kwakye, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Candy Taaffe, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

2:30-3:30 p.m.
 Round Table Plenary (#3):
"Girls Educating: Girl Power & Politics"

3:30-3:45 p.m.
 Beverage Break @ Women & Girls' Fair

3:45-5:30 p.m.
 Film Screenings

3:45-5:00 p.m.
Concurrent Session E
24. Break Silence, Break Glass (against Violence): The Breaking Glass Project (with Art Display)
• Amy Sarch Schopick, Shenandoah University
• Jessica Buchanan, Shenandoah University
 

25. Girls and Capitalism: Buying In or Opting Out
• Lilia Goldfarb, YWCA Montreal, Canada, "Buying into Sexy: Preteen Girls and Consumer Capitalism in the XXI Century"
• Jessica Taft, Sonoma State University, "Capitalism Doesn't Empower Me: Girl Activist and Global Citizenship"

26. Girls and Immigration: Experiences of Dominican Immigrant Girls
• Editor, Translator, and Contributors to Voices of the Diaspora: Stories and Testimony of Dominican Immigrant Women

27. Grrrls in the Library:  Documenting Third Wave Feminist Activism through Zines
• Kate Eichhorn, Eugene Lang College, The New School, "Feminist Discourses and Semi Public Spaces"
• Jenna Freedman, Barnard College, "Self-Publication with Punk Rock Ideals: Zines ≠ Vanity Press"
• Kelly Wooten, Duke University, "Third Wave Feminist Voices: Women's Zines in the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture"

28. Girls in Popular Culture, Corporate and Industry Ownership of Girls' Self-Image
• Mandy Mahaffey, University of Central Florida, "Gender Performativity, Sexual Orientation, Body, and the 'I Kiss Girls' Phenomenon in Music Videos: Empowering, Objectifying, or a Bit of Both?"
• Jeannina Perez, University of Central Florida, "Teaching Girls to Be Bratz"
• Sara M. Simons, Emerson College, "Girls in White Dresses: How Purity Balls Subjugate Girls' Sexual Agency"

29. Human Rights and Girls' Education: Girls Learn International
• Isabel Sheinman, Girls Learn International (moderator)
• Members of Girls Learn International high (GLI) school chapters and GLI Junior Board members

30. Re-examining Religious Symbolism, Fundamentalism & Female Sexuality in the Lives of Girls
• Rosalyn Amenta, Southern Connecticut State University, "Indigenous Rituals of Sacred Empowerment for Girls"
• Jeannine Heynes, University of Manchester, UK, "Exploring British Girls' Views on the Representation of Women and Gender in Religion"
• Kristen Lambert, University of Texas, Austin, "Virginal (Mis)Conceptions and Vagina Dentata:  Recuperating Monstrous Images of Girls' Sexuality and Rebuking Abstinence-Only Education in Saved! And Teeth"

5:00-6:45 p.m.
 Dinner with Plenary (#4):
"Educating Girls in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities"

7:00-8:15 p.m.
 Keynote with Deborah Prothrow-Stith

8:20-9:00 p.m.
 Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa Service Award Ceremony & Reception

Contact Information:

Email:  womenstudies@southernct.edu

PHONE: (203) 392-6133

ADDRESS:
Women's Studies Program
Engleman Hall B229
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street
New Haven, CT 06515