23rd Annual Women’s Studies Conference – Through the Looking Glass: Feminism and Popular Culture

NEW PALTZ — The Women’s Studies Program at SUNY New Paltz will host its 23rd annual conference on Saturday, Oct. 28.

The conference entitled “Through the Looking Glass: Feminism and Popular Culture” will explore the complexity of popular culture’s relationship to female autonomy and power.

“While popular culture has often been the source of demeaning images of women, it has also responded to feminism impulses in the society around it – sometimes reflecting, sometimes distorting, sometimes co-opting women’s quest for equality and respect,” said Professor Amy Kesselman

“Our conference will be an exciting blend of academic papers, performances, an art exhibit and a keynote speaker who is a leading voice on the subject of feminism and popular culture,” said Denise Bauer, coordinator of women’s studies.

Elayne Rapping, a media critic and professor of women’s studies and cultural studies at SUNY Buffalo, will be the keynote speaker opening the conference. Rapping is the author of The Looking Glass World of Nonfiction Television, The Movie of the Week: Private Stories/Public Events, Media-tions: Forays into the Culture and Gender Wars, and The Culture of Recovery: Making Sense of the Self-Help Movement in Wormen’s Lives.

The daylong conference will include three sessions offering 20 workshops. Scholars from SUNY New Paltz and more than 20 other universities will present their research on topics related to the conference theme. Examples of wide range of workshops includes:

• Female Heroes on TV and Their Audiences: Xena, Warrior Princess and the X Files;
• Women in Rap and Hip Hop;
• Representation of Asian and Native American Women in Post-War Films;
• African American Women and Television;
• Women in Contemporary Hollywood Films;
• Death Mothers of Disney, or Do You Know What Your Daughter is Watching?

The conference will include performances by Obie award winner Carmelita Tropicana and writer, humorist and performer Laurie Weeks. Carmelita Tropicana, a Cuban-born artist and writer, published I Carmelita Tropicano, Performing Between Cultures in February and performs regularly in New York City and at campuses across the country. Weeks, who worked on the screenplay for the Academy Award-winning film “Boys Don’t Cry,” will perform with musician Karyn Kuhl. The conference will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The registration fee is $30 (more if you can, less if you can’t) and $5 for students (also more if you can, less if you can’t). Free childcare will be available for those who register and ask for the service before Oct. 13.

For registration information, contact SUNY New Paltz Conference Services at 257-3033.

American Sign Language interpreters will be available – contact the Women’s Studies office at (845) 257-2975 to arrange.