Contact: Maridith Geuder
A four-day Mississippi State University conference opening Thursday [May 18] will explore women's contributions to culture, wisdom and oral traditions.
Titled "We are the Stories We Tell," the conference at the Ellen Bryant Center for Women's Studies is sponsored by the MSU Women's Studies Program. Both university and visiting scholars will make presentations on a range of topics, among them wisdom and life span, oral testimonies, literature, art, bodies, and representations of reality.
The Bryant Center is located in Rice Residence Hall. Registration is $35 for the general public; $20 for students.
Francoise Hamlin, a Yale University doctoral candidate in American studies, is among the presenters. Her program, which begins at 10:30 a.m. Friday [the 19th], focuses on a study she made of the civil rights era in Clarksdale.
At 8:30 a.m. Saturday [the 20th], Oya Durmus of the University of Mulga in Turkey will examine how women are viewed in the Turkish cinema, while Jo Nell Collier, a University of Oklahoma graduate student, will present views of women in West Africa.
Among other speakers are MSU psychology professor Carolyn Adams-Price, on creativity and wisdom among older women; Sheila Sullivan of communication, gender identities and the interactions between students and professors; and Kittye Robbins-Herring of foreign languages, mutilation and self-mutilation in fairy tales by women.
For more information or a full schedule of conference events, visit the women's studies web site at http://www.msstate.edu/dept/women/ or telephone (662) 325-1466.