WGS Events
Free and open to the public
Wednesday, February 8th, 4:00pm
Science North Bldg. 53-215
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How Science Constructs Women and Their Bodies -- Half a Century of IUD Development
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featuring Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UC Riverside,
CHIKAKO TAKESHITA -
Over its five decades of use, the intrauterine device (IUD) has been regarded both as 1) a means for women's reproductive autonomy and a convenient form of birth control on a par with the pill, AND 2) a coercive tool of state-imposed population control and threat to women's health. Is it possible for the IUD to be both empowering and oppressive at the same time? This talk explores how the IUD functions as a "politically versatile technology," adaptable to both feminist and nonfeminist reproductive politics, with a particular focus on the ways in which social interests and assumptions about race, class, and female sexuality guide scientific inquiries, technological development, imagined users, and what counts as an appropriate mechanism to manage women's fertility in the developing and developed world.
Chikako Takeshita joined the Women's Studies Department at UC Riverside in 2004. Her new book, "The Biopolitics of Contraceptive Development: Population, Women's Bodies, and the IUD," traces the development of the intrauterine device from the 1960s to the present. Her work demonstrates that various social interests, including the desire to restrict global population growth, the threat of medical malpractice litigations, attacks from parties opposed to abortion, and women's aspiration for better reproductive control have all played a significant role in directing scientific research on the device.
For more information, contact the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at 805-756-1525 or wgs@calpoly.edu.
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WGS NEWS
NEW WGS HONOR SOCIETY - IOTA IOTA IOTA
There's a new honor society at Cal Poly: The Women's & Gender Studies Honor Society -- Iota, Iota, Iota (Triota).
Membership for Triota is open to Minors in Women's & Gender Studies, as well as any student at Cal Poly who has demonstrated a strong interest in Women's & Gender Studies by
• completing at least 8 units of courses in Women’s & Gender Studies,
• completing a minimum of 20 documented hours of paid or unpaid service, work or training/education related to Women’s & Gender Studies on or off-campus,
• by pursuing, or planning to pursue, research (i.e., a senior project, a master’s project) that promotes a critical understanding of how genders and sexualities shape and are shaped by social, political, ethical, economic, legal, and/or cultural institutions in historical and/or contemporary contexts.
In addition, ALL members must currently have and continue to maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0.
The application form is available online at:http://tinyurl.com/6mtzyea
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGFtU1R3RlpvY05mTFVLTnRINnlWdWc6MQ
Triota can also be contacted at Triotacalpoly@gmail.com. For more information, please visit: http://slo.ihollaback.org/triota/.
PLEASE VISIT THE HOLLABACK WEBSITE ***
There's a new feminist project in our community: Hollaback! San Luis Obispo: slo.ihollaback.org.
Hollaback! is an international movement dedicated to ending street harassment using mobile technology. Main international site: http://www.ihollaback.org/
Our local Hollaback! site has been "live" since Dec 7, 2011 -- along with 10 other new Hollaback! sites.
Seven Cal Poly students will travel to Malta and Sicily in March 2012 for this year's International Computer Engineering Exchange (ICEX) program.
The students will collaborate with marine archeologists from the Aurora Special Purpose Trust and the University of Malta to investigate previously unexplored underwater archaeological sites using underwater robots. These sites include ancient cisterns (underground water storage systems) and marine caves. The students will be joined by three Cal Poly faculty members -- Associate Professor Chris Clark, currently on sabbatical leave at Princeton, Associate Professor Zoe" Wood of Computer Science, and Assistant Professor Jane Lehr of the departments of Ethnic Studies and Women's& Gender Studies -- along with 4 students from Princeton. The Cal Poly students are working on a number of projects including: 1) the use of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms that employ sonar data to construct 3D maps; 2) the creation of computer graphics applications to construct and visualize geometric models of the underwater data; and 3) a new website designed for teachers and
students that will explore the relationships between water and society, using Malta as a case study. The Cal Poly students are also actively introducing young people to the exciting fields of robotics and computer science via class visits to elementary schools in San Luis Obispo, CA (Pacheco Elementary) and Malta. Follow the students a the ICEX 2012 blog: http://icex2012-malta.blogspot.com/
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Thank you so much for your continued support!
Please consult this page throughout the academic year for more information about WGS events.
