Women’s and Gender Studies Collection Launches with Speaker Ijeoma Oluo
West Chester University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Collection will launch on Thursday,
October 24, with a keynote lecture by Ijeoma Oluo, author of the New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race; Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America; and Be a Revolution: How Everyday People are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World
— and How You Can, Too.
A book signing and student panel sessions are part of the free launch party, a public celebration of women’s and gender studies that takes place this Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Sykes Student Union Ballrooms.
Oluo was named to the 2021 TIME 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association.
The Women’s and Gender Studies Collection is an innovative, open educational resource that aims to publish and provide free and reliable information on race, gender, and sexuality via an online resource. It is the brainchild of Dr. Lisa Huebner, WCU professor of women’s and gender studies.
The collection is designed to serve students, faculty, and staff within the discipline of women’s and gender studies as well as educators, families, and the community, Huebner said. It features a wide range of formats including written, artistic, and audio/video materials that focus on the dissemination of free, trustworthy, and valid information about race, gender, and sexuality.
The launch program is hosted by WCU’s Women’s and Gender Studies department and the Center for Women and Gender Equity. It is supported by the University’s first Mellon Foundation grant. The Mellon Foundation awarded WCU a $100,000 grant as part of its Affirming Multivocal Humanities initiative, which has allocated more than $18 million to support humanities-based learning at public colleges and universities nationwide.
For more information, email wgscollection@gmail.com.
Visit the Women’s and Gender Studies department page.