The National Council for Research on Women's 2003 Annual Conference, "Borders, Babies and Bombs: a Gendered Reframing of Security," will be held at Mills College, Thursday, May 29 to Saturday, May 31, 2003. This is the first West Coast conference to examine the impact of human security on women and children. Mrs. Sadako Ogata, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, will unveil the Human Security Report, released by an international commission headed by Mrs. Ogata and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
This event is designed to shift the focus of security from the safety of territory and states to human security -- the safety of individuals, their freedom from fear and social, economic, and physical well-being especially the experiences and concerns of women and girls, families and communities.The Conference will address such questions as: What institutions can be held accountable for ensuring human security at local and global levels? How are private and public violence, as well as power inequities along lines of race, ethnicity, nation, gender, sexual orientation, and ability, institutionalized? How can we ensure that gendered components of human security and women's perspectives and voices are represented in policy debates and public discussion?
Approximately 300 participants, including world-renowned feminist scholars and activists are expected to attend the gathering presented by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) and Mills College's Women's Leadership Institute (WLI). Members of the public are invited to register** and attend the event to be held at Mills, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94613.
Highlights of the issues to be addressed include: the effects of militarization on economic, political and social lives; the economics of war and economic security; civil and human rights; cultures of violence; HIV/AIDS; attacks on reproductive rights; and immigration and citizenship.
Speakers include: Rabab Abdulhadi (New York University), Susan Bailey (Wellesley), Linda Burnham (Women of Color Resource Center), Charlotte Bunch (Rutgers University), Cynthia Enloe (Clark University), Krishanti Dharmaraj (Women's Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights), Marilyn Fowler (California Women's Agenda), Sandra Harding (UCLA), Sandra Morgan (University of Oregon), Barbara Nelson (UCLA), Sadako Ogata (former UN High Commissioner), Deborah Rhode (Stanford Law School), Saskia Sassen (University of Chicago), Eleanor Smeal (Feminist Majority Foundation), Viviene Taylor (Commission on Human Security) and Ann Tickner (University of Southern California).
**To register for the conference, contact Nellie Pearson [email protected] call (212) 785-7335, or visit www.ncrw.org. For further information call (510) 430-2019.
Conference ScheduleThursday, May 29Opening: Why a Human Security Framework, 2 p.m.Poetry reading: Elmaz Abinader, Professor of English, Mills College, and performance artistOpening Plenaries, 3 -- 6 p.m. Topics: Why a Human Security Framework? Issues, Questions, Next Steps; and Domestic and Global Implications of a Human Security Framework Reception, 6:30 p.m.Short Films, 8 p.m.
Friday, May 30Breakfast Meetings, 8 -- 9 a.m.Morning Plenary, 9:15 -- 10:45 a.m.
Topic: Militarization, the Economy of War, and Cultures of ViolenceConcurrent Small Group Discussions, 11 a.m. -- 12:30 p.m.Topics: Cross-cutting Economic Insecurities; War on Women, Sexuality, and Differences; Appropriating Women's Issues: States' uses of Feminism to Achieve Political Legitimacy; Girls and Education for Democracy and Global awareness; Global Leadership and Expanding Corporate Diversity; The State of Human Security Studies
Lunch with NCRW Human Security Fellows, 12:45 p.m.Concurrent Sessions, 2:15 -- 3:45 p.m.Topics: Challenges to Reproductive Rights and the Global HIV/AIDS Crisis; Making the Global Local: Grassroots Women Bring International Treaties to the U.S.; Shaping Women's Studies in the 21st Century; Expanding Militarization in East Asia; The Politics of Women and War in the Middle East and Central Asia
Closing Plenary, 4 -- 6 p.m.
Topic: Achieving Human Security, Building Coalitions, Demanding Accountability: A Call for ActionReception/Book Signings, 6 p.m.Roundtable, 6:30 -- 8 p.m.Topic: Challenges and Diversity of Race and Ethnicity in the Academy and U.S. Women's MovementsPublic Concert with Shailja Patel and Hea-Kyoung Ahn, 8 -- 10 p.m.
Saturday, May 31Working Groups, 9 -- 10:30 a.m.
Topic: New Strategies and Directions for NCRWPanel, 10:45 a.m. -- 12:45 p.m.Topic: Hitting Our Stride in the 21st Century: Challenges and New DirectionsConference Host Committee Members: Women of Color Resource Center, the Women's Foundation, Women's Institute for Leadership Development for Human Rights, Women's Funding Network, Beatrice M. Bain Research Group, UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University, Global Fund for Women, UCLA Center for the Study of Women, Moses and Associates, USC Center for Feminist Research, UCLA Women's Studies Program and School of Public Policy and Social Research.
Conference Planning Committee: Rabab Abdulhadi (NYU); Electa Arenal (Luso-Brazilian and Women's Studies, CUNY); Janet L. Holmgren (President, Mills College and chair-elect, NCRW); Sandra Morgan (Center for the Study of Women in Society, University of Oregon); Margo Okazawa-Rey (Director, Mills Women's Leadership Institute); Kathy Rodgers (NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund); and Eleanor Smeal (Feminist Majority Foundation).
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