Volume 28, Number 2: October 2009
From the Chair | In Print | Panels & Presentations | Awards & Appointments | Miscellany | From the Editor
Gloria Steinem Speaks at ECU
by Sean Aube
On the
evening of Friday, November 6th, Gloria Steinem, spoke in front of a
packed audience in Wright Auditorium as part of the Voyages of
Discovery
lecture series. Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1934 to working
class
parents. She was educated at Smith College, an all women's school,
where she
developed many of her connections to the feminist movement. Steinem is
known
for her work as a political activist, specifically her efforts to
ratify the
Equal Rights Amendment. She has become one of the leading figures in
the second
wave of feminism due to her passionate public speaking and writing
career. She also co-founded Ms. Magazine where she worked as an
editor for 15 years. Steinem is
the author of several books including Outrageous
Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983) and Doing
Sixty and Seventy (2006).As Steinem was being introduced by the director of the Women's Studies program Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs, the audience was silent in anticipation of what was to come. When she approached the podium, she received a standing ovation from the audience. Many in attendance were ecstatic to be in the presence of someone who had shaped the world in a profound way. After the crowd quieted and returned to their seats, Steinem began her talk which focused on the need for renewed feminist activism to create a more equal society. She urged all in attendance to work for this equality on a local scale and wanted everyone to "leave here with one new idea, subversive tactic, or organizing idea." Steinem focused on exposing what she viewed to be as myths spread throughout our society. These myths, according to Steinem, are that feminism is no longer necessary to achieve equality, feminists hate men, and that the feminists are a minority within this country. Steinem spoke against conservative commentators for creating these myths and received raucous applause and laughter when she quipped, "You know
you’re
on the right
track
when Rush Limbaugh calls you a feminazi.Steinem also spoke passionately about the need to end domestic violence in the United States. According to Steinem, in the United States, there are two million injuries and three deaths per year caused by domestic violence. She also claimed that one out of four women in the United States will be a victim of domestic violence at some point in their life. Steinem did not blame individual men for this violence, but instead viewed these crimes as being caused by the superiority of men within the culture and the normalization of violence in order to maintain control over others. Steinem also spoke about her goal to legalize gay marriage and stated, "I want any two people to get married as long as they don't hit each other."
After Steinem's talk, there was a question and answer period in which several audience members expressed their praise for Steinem and spoke of their admiration for what she has accomplished through her activism. At the conclusion, the audience once again gave Steinem a standing ovation. As the audience streamed out of the auditorium, I looked at the excited faces of those in attendance, it became obvious that the feminist movement is not dead but remains as strong as ever. Steinem had inspired many in the audience to become active in the feminist movement and "be vehicles of social change."Call for Papers:
Seventh
Annual TALGS (TESOL/Applied Linguistics Graduate
Students) Conference
The TESOL and Linguistics students and faculty of the English Department are proud to present the Seventh Annual TALGS (TESOL/Applied Linguistics Graduate Students) Conference, to be held on Saturday, February 20, 2009, in the Bate Building. The conference aims to provide a serious yet relaxed forum for professional discourse on a variety of topics relevant to the study of language; to offer a comfortable, stimulating environment for graduate students, teachers, and researchers to share and discuss their work.
We welcome cross-disciplinary proposals with relevance to language use, language learning and/or teaching from a variety of fields, for example English, education, foreign languages, anthropology, discourse studies, communications, sociolinguistics, psychology, speech & hearing sciences, and sociology. Proposals reporting on action research (inside and outside the classroom), works in progress, submissions based on successful term projects, pilot research, as well as proposals for discussion sessions, workshops, and posters are welcomed. Presentations requiring computer facilities can be accommodated. Multiple proposals will be considered. For more information see proposal. The roposal submission deadline is Monday, November 30, 2009. Early Preregistration Deadline is January 18, 2010.
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Elaine E. Tarone, the Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and distinguished teaching professor in English as a Second Language at the University of Minnesota.
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