My name is Mia Ferguson, and I am a student representative for the Feminist Action Project here on campus. The Feminist Action Project is a student group that organizes an annual activist conference for gender justice in today’s world. 

The title of our conference this year is, “Mapping Out the Crossroads, Beyond Mainstream Feminism”. At this year’s conference, we hope to cultivate an environment where feminism can be explored through intersectionality and explore concepts that transcend the dialogue found in everyday media, such as toxic masculinity, colorism and activist self-care. We are honored to announce our keynote speaker, Kim Katrin Millan, an award-winning, internationally acclaimed artist, educator and writer. I wanted to see if you would be interested in co-sponsoring the program with us. I realize that the Texas Parents Association has already distributed funds to UT student organizations for the year, but there are many ways to co-sponsor other than financially. Our organization would be incredibly grateful for any of them.

Feminist Action Project Conference: 

This year’s Feminist Action Project Conference will be held in the evening of Friday, April 8th and Saturday, April 9th in the Student Activity Center.

Ways you can help:

Sponsor our keynote: $1,500 (or any percentage of this fee)

Donate funding for breakfast and lunch: $1,000 (or any percentage of this fee)

Volunteer to take photos.

Volunteer to check people in at registration table, help set up/break down.

Spread the word! Tell your friends, students, faculty, and staff about the event. http://tinyurl.com/FeministAction2016 

Just let us know, and of course you will be recognized at the event, on the programs, and on the Facebook event. 

Learn more about our keynote: http://www.kimkatrinmilan.com/ 

Learn more about our organization: http://feministactionproject.blogspot.com/ 

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/618950668257803/ 

Thank you for considering our request to co-sponsor the 2016 Feminist Action Project Conference.  If you have any questions, please contact us by email at feministactionproject@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you.

“Dirty Secrets: The environmental impact of factory farming”

Thursday, March 31st, 7 p.m.

Joynes Reading Room (CRD 007)

(512) 471-5787

Will Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He specializes in dissident politics and culture, the policing of dissent, and civil liberties post-9/11. His work has appeared in the world’s top media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, National Geographic, WIRED, NPR, the History Channel, and Rolling Stone. His award-winnning book, Green Is The New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, exposes how non-violent animal rights and environmental protesters came to be classified by the FBI as “eco-terrorists.” This year he was selected as a TED Senior Fellow, and he recently was appointed the Marsh Visiting Professor in Journalism at the University of Michigan. The Joynes Reading Room has a limited number of free books by Will Potter which we will give away to interested honors students who inquire in person at the front desk, CRD 007. 

Inspired by the Rhodes Scholarship, Schwarzman Scholars is a highly selective international scholarship program designed to prepare future leaders for success in a world where China plays a key global role. The program will give the best and brightest young leaders from around the world the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through a fully-funded one-year Master’s Degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing – one of China’s most prestigious universities. Scholars chosen for this highly selective program will live in Beijing for a year of study and cultural immersion, attending lectures, traveling and developing a better understanding of China. Applications this cycle will open in April of 2016.

Schwarzman Scholars is pleased to host the following campus information session: 

Schwarzman Scholars Information Session at The University of Texas at Austin

Date: Wednesday, March 23^rd, 2016 

Location: College of Liberal Arts Building (CLA) 1.302B 

Session Time: 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

If you have students who are considering a Bridging Disciplines Programs (BDP) certificate, this is a reminder that the spring BDP application deadline is Thursday, March 10 at midnight. Please feel free to forward this message along to any of your students who might be interested. 

Some students have asked about an extended application deadline. There will be no extensions — March 10 is our final deadline for applications this semester.

Information on applying is available here. Students should attend a BDP information session before applying, if they have not already done so. Information sessions are offered every Tuesday from 11am-12pm and Wednesday from 3-4pm in FAC 4.

Should students have questions or encounter any technical difficulties with our online application, they may contact the BDP office at 512-232-7564 or email us at bdp@austin.utexas.edu. 

For students who are considering the BDP but are not sure yet about applying, please know that we accept applications twice a year — in the spring and in the fall. We will have another application deadline in mid–October.

Event: Volunteers Needed for MDA Summer Camp

Event deadline: April 25, 2016

Contact:

Jasmin Sheth

jasminsheth12@utexas.edu

Event summary:

     Texas MDA is looking for dedicated and service-minded volunteers to serve as camp counselors for kids with muscular dystrophy at MDA summer camps. This experience is life-changing as counselors build meaningful relationships and assist campers as they zip line, canoe, fish, and swim, amongst many other camp activities these kids look forward to all year. Counselors gain experience in healthcare, social work, and public health and will receive 165 service hours. Camp dates are June 4-11, 2016, and July 9-16, 2016. If you are interested in applying or would like more information, please email Jasmin Sheth at jasminsheth12@utexas.edu.

     If this is a great opportunity for the members of your student organization and would like to schedule a short presentation at one of your meetings, please email Jasmin Sheth.

 Every year, Orange Jackets host the Week of Women, a week long eventthrough which we aspire to highlight the accomplishments of women from not only our campus but also the larger community. This year, our theme for the week is “Empower from Within” and  we are excited to introduce W.I.L.L –  Women Inspiring Lifelong Leaders – a panel discussion and informal networking event focused on empowering freshman college students to embrace themselves, follow their passion, and serve their community during their next few years at the University. On the panel will be: Julie Casey, Rebecca Rosen, Lyn C. Wiltshire, Catherine Weaver, and Stephanie Gharakhanian.

See the attached pdf for more information: WILL Bio

Sayed Kashua, Monday, February 22, 7 p.m., Joynes Reading Room

Bestselling Israeli-Palestinian author, journalist, and TV show writer Sayed Kashua reflects about the use of humor in his works across genres. Kashua will speak about his weekly column in Israel’s newspaper Haaretz and his hit TV show Arab Labor, and about addressing serious political and social issues through the lens of humor. While supplies last, interested students may inquire in person at the front desk of the Joynes Reading Room to receive a free book by Kashua. 

Did you love Reacting? Have you wanted to take it but not had the chance? Join the LAH Reacting Club. Meetings will occur at 4 pm every other Wednesday. We will meet in  CLA 2.606, Normandy Scholars Room. We will play mini Reacting games and the setting will be pretty informal compared to Reacting classes (no papers, no grading, less structured). We’ll be holding the first meeting on February 17th so sign up below and come join us and have fun!  The first game we’ll play is the Mexican Revolution.  

Sign up here if you’d like to join.

Hi Everyone,

We have two book related events coming up:

LAH Book Drive: https://www.facebook.com/events/548042192038620/

Inside Book Projects LAH Volunteering: https://www.facebook.com/events/910584419048875/

We’re writing to extend a warm invitation to the spring events of The Americas Project (TAP).

Leonard Cassuto, Professor of American Literature at Fordham University, will visit as a special guest of TAP and give a lecture on Thursday, February 18 at 4:30 PM in CLA 1.302E. Cassuto is an expert on both crime fiction and academic culture. In addition to Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories (Columbia, 2008), Cassuto edited The Cambridge History of the American Novel (2011) and The Cambridge Companion to Baseball (2011). Last fall, he published The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It (Harvard, 2015). In it, he observes that “to pursue a professorship at the expense of all other options can hardly be called rational” and argues for a much more student-centered graduate education.

Rebecca Walkowitz, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department at Rutgers University and current President of the Modernist Studies Association, will join us for the TAP Distinguished Lecture Series on Friday, April 1 at 4:00 PM in CLA 1.302E. Walkowitz has published Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Beyond the Nation (2006) and, late last year, Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature, in which she argues, “Like born-digital literature, which is made on or for the computer, born-translated literature approaches translation as medium and origin rather than as afterthought.” Walkowitz’s visit is co-sponsored by the Program in Comparative Literature.

Finally, Matthew Taylor, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will give a second TAP Distinguished Lecture on April 22 at 4:30 PM in CLA 1.302E.  Taylor’s Universes without Us: Posthuman Cosmologies in American Literature (Minnesota, 2013) situates Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Adams, Charles Chesnutt, and Zora Neale Hurston in an alternative posthumanist tradition in which “both our separation from the universe and our identity with it are exposed as fantasies.” Taylor’s visit is co-sponsored by TILTS: Environmental Humanities.