EVENTS

The African Activist Association at UCLA presents the 6th Annual Graduate Student Colloquium on

“Women Agency in Africa: Role, Motivation and Voice”

Friday, May 20 – Saturday, May 21, 2011

Fowler Museum at UCLA

Free and open to the public

Friday, May 20 Keynote Address by Muadi Mukenge

Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Global Fund for Women

Topic: “Who Will Fund the Revolution: Women’s Funds and Social Justice in Africa”

Performances by Wilfried Souly, World Arts and Cultures, and Horoya Kan Group (‘The Sound of Freedom’)

Friday, May 20 Preliminary Schedule:

6:00pm: Reception and Refreshments

6:30pm: Wilfried Souly, World Arts and Cultures Performance

7:00pm: Keynote Address by Muadi Mukenge

7:30pm: Horoya Kan Group (“The Sound of Freedom”)

8:30pm: Closing

Saturday, May 21 – 10am at the Fowler Museum Lenart Auditorium -- Panel Discussions (subject to change)

Panel I -- Cinematic Representations of Women in Africa (10am-11:30am)

Moderator: Claudia Hoffmann, Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting Interdepartmental Program in African Studies and the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media

· Dana Turken (Film and Television, UCLA): "Storytelling and Silence: Identity Re-Construction in Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust"

· Nina Lavelanet (Film and Television, UCLA): “The Roses and gifts are like a machine-gun against your neck”: The Politics of Haitian Female Sexuality in Heading South (Vers le Sud)

· Elinam Dellor (Public Health, UCLA): "Modernity and Women's Sexuality in Nigerian Film"

· Jane'a Johnson (Film and Television, UCLA): "What If Mary Was An Illegal African Immigrant? The Children of Men as a Near-Future Nativity Story"

· Alexander Woodman (African-American Studies, UCLA): "Struggle of Perceptibility"

Panel II - Artistic Representations of Women Agency in Africa (11:45am-1:00pm)

Moderator: Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts, Professor, Worlds Arts & Cultures, UCLA

· Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts (Worlds Arts and Cultures, UCLA): "African Women at the Cutting Edge of Power and Resistance"

· Casey O'Neil (Applied Linguistics, UCLA): "Powerlessness of Women: A Study of Referential Expressions in the Music Industry"

· Charmaine Lang (African World Literature and Rhetoric, CSU Dominguez Hills): "Authentic Voice, Agency and Empowerments: Teaching the Works of Ama Ata Aiodoo"

· Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba (Art History, University of Port Harcourt): “Implications of Texts in Analyzing Material Culture: A Case of Olokun Shrine Sculptures”

Lunch: 1:00pm to 2:30pm on the Fowler Terrace – Lunch is provided free to conference attendees, East African cuisine

Panel III - Gender Representations of Women in Africa (2:30-3:45pm)

Moderator: Edith M. Omwami, Assistant Professor, School of Education, UCLA

· Barbara Goldberg (Founder, Wells Brings Hope): "Transforming the Lives of Women in West Africa"

· Clemence Pinaud (History, University of Sorbonne, Paris): "From Huts to the Front: Women's Roles in Southern Sudan's Civil War”

· Sarah Watkins (History, University of California, Santa Barbara): “The Triumph of the Wife: Sex, Gender and the State in Nineteenth Century Rwanda”

· Amanda Silver-Westrick (Geography, UCLA): “Gender Roles and Inequalities Regarding Domestic Water Acquisition in Guede”

Co-Sponsors:

UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center (UCLA)

Fowler Museum at UCLA

UCLA International Institute

UCLA Graduate Students Association

UCLA Campus Programs Committee (CPC)

USA for Africa

African Education Project (UCLA)

African Activist Association:

Co-Chair: Deborah Dauda

Co-Chair: Adaeze Nnamani

Treasurer: Anne Mueller

Secretary: Farah Abdi

Public Relations: Ridwa Abdi

Planning Committee: Cynthia Ugwuibe, Brian Smithson, Lafayette Gaston

Free and open to the public; pay-by-space and all-day parking ($10) available in lot 4

(enter UCLA at Westwood Plaza and Sunset Blvd., off Sunset).

For more information, email africanactivists@gmail.com or call 310-825-3686 or visit www.international.ucla.edu/africa

AAA 6th Annual Colloquium: Call for Papers!

The African Activists Association of UCLA Presents our

6^th annual colloquium

Women Agency in Africa:

Role, Motivation, and Voice

Africa is a continent with rich culture and filled with natural resources. However, women of this continent for a long time have faced severe challenges that have affected their well being, health, and effective participation in the continent. Such challenges include infant mortality at childbirth, female genital mutilation, gender violence, gender discrimination in the business world as well as the political arena, etc. The aim of this conference is to shed more light on women agency in Africa and their roles in mitigating the issues facing women, men and children in Africa. The conference seeks to bring together scholars and students who specialize in a variety of fields (e.g. economics, political science, history, women studies, public health, world arts and cultures, language, etc.), and members of the community who are interested in the issues women face and women roles in mitigating issues that are not only peculiar to women in Africa, but to all of Africa. We welcome submissions from a variety of disciplines and fields including but not limited to:

*Public Health Religion/Philosophy*

*History Arts*

*Education Political Science*

*Economics Agricultural Science*

*Psychology Linguistics*

*Geography*


Abstracts and papers must be submitted in English. Individual presentations may not exceed 15 minutes. Please submit abstract of 250-500 words by email to:

africanactivists@gmail.com

Submit it no later than April 1, 2011.
The body of the email should contain the title of the presentation, your name, institutional affiliation, address, email address, and phone number. The abstract should be sent as a Microsoft Word attachment. Participants will be notified of acceptance via email. Everyone is welcome to submit and we look forward to hearing from you-The African Activists Association at UCLA.

*QUESTIONS? Contact the African Activist Association (AAA) at:

africanactivists@gmail.com

About the African Activist Association (AAA) at UCLA:
AAA was started over 35 years ago by activist graduate students at UCLA and is one of the oldest Africanist students activist organizations in the US. Currently, the mission of AAA is to provide a forum through which Africanists across disciplines can collaborate to increase awareness of issues concerning Africa. AAA aims to encourage positive and productive discourse about Africa both within the UCLA community and beyond.