Contact: Sammy McDavid
More than two dozen events large and small are planned later this month as Mississippi State observes national Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
Public activities range from a 6 p.m. Sept. 24 opening program at Starkville's Trinity Presbyterian Church titled "What You Should Know" to a 6 p.m. "Take Back the Night" rally on the 29th on the university Drill Field.
MSU head football coach Jackie Sherrill and counselor education associate professor Merrily S. Dunn will speak at the concluding rally. During a candle-lighting remembrance of all violence-against-women victims, professional counselors will be available to talk with any person requesting assistance.
Between the Sunday and Thursday programs will be others addressing a range of topics, among them "Substance Abuse and Sexual Assault," "Date Rape Drugs," "For Men Only: If She is Raped," and "For Women Only: Self Defense Demonstrations for Women." Most of these presentations will take place in Colvard Union locations.
Christopher Kilmartin, an associate professor of psychology at Mary Washington College in Virginia, delivers the week's keynote address. Beginning at 7 p.m. on the 26th, his Colvard ballroom presentation titled "Crimes Against Nature" will examine "what it means to be a man in today's world."
Kilmartin, an experienced campus programmer on sexual assault issues, also will speak earlier that same day. In a 9:30 a.m. address in the union's small auditorium, his topic will be "Men 101: The Impact of Gender."
He is author of "The Masculine Self" (Macmillan, 2nd ed., 1999) and co-author, with fellow Mary Washington psychologist John Lynch, of "The Pain Behind the Mask: Origins, Consequences and Remedies for Masculine Depression" (Haworth, 1999).
For more information on MSU Sexual Assault Awareness Week, telephone (662) 325-2218.