Local Lectures

Five College Women's Studies Research Center
Spring 2008 Events

FCWSRC events are free and open to the public. No preregistration is required. Regular talks are held on Mondays and Thursdays from 4:00-5:30pm. Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at the Center at 83 College Street on the Mount Holyoke campus.
For more information, see www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/fcwsrc or tele 413-538-2275.

Thursday, April 3 at 4pm
Gyoung Sun Jang
Research Associate, Clark University
De/Gendering Sex Trafficking: Discursive Strategies in Transnational Anti-sex Trafficking Movements
Jang’s study probes discourses of anti-sex trafficking movements deployed in the course of shaping inter-state trafficking conventions from 1904 to 2000. She examines the discourses of ‘child prostitution’ and ‘public health’ as repeating themes in the history of these movements. Jang also discusses these discourses in relation to the modernization projects of both imperial and post-colonial states. In contrast to the currently polarized analyses of sex trafficking and prostitution in feminist scholarship, this position provides a new way to historicize transnational campaigns with a different set of analytical questions and frameworks.

Monday, April 7 at 4pm
Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez
Ford Associate, University of Manchester
Transnational Migration, Affective Labor and Precariousness: On Domestic and Care Workers' Rights
A wide range of research indicates that domestic and care work in private households is now the largest employment sector for migrant women entering the European Union (Anderson and Phizacklea 1997). Although the relationship between paid domestic and care workers and their employers tends to be widely acknowledged in social science literature, this relationship has rarely been explored in detail on the interpersonal level of transcultural encounters between employers and employees in private households. How do EU migration policies constrain the social mobility of migrant women? How does paid domestic and care work structure interpersonal relationships between those who pay for and those employed to do this work in private households?

The Immigrant Vote

Nuevo Mundo: Getting Visible
We all should value our voting privileges like this Mexican immigrant family.
By Natalia Muñoz (The Valley Advocate)

I know an 18-year-old who is the daughter of an undocumented Mexican. She is the GOP’s nightmare.

But for her mother, with whom I spoke about the upcoming Feb. 5 primaries, she embodies a dream that steadied her through nine straight hours of walking the day she set out to cross the border with her own mother 25 years ago.

She was 18 years old that day. The Mexico City native crossed over into San Clemente, Calif., in an arduous walk that began on the Mexican side at 9 p.m. and ended at 5 a.m. on the U.S. side. Twice the small group she traveled with was caught by la migra, now known as ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and returned to the Mexican side. On the third try in as many days the group made it and since then, this woman who has no legal status to be in the U.S. has raised a family while working six-day weeks.

And next month, her American-born daughter will vote in the state primary that will propel the candidates that much closer to the White House.

Click here for full story.

Weakening VAWA

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed by the United States Congress to protect immigrant women in abusive relationships. These women are even more vulnerable since their status is held hostage by their partner. For example, imagine an immigrant woman married to a U.S. citizen, and having a child with her husband. In some cases the abusive husband will refuse to petition for his wife's residency and citizenship. This leaves the woman with very little power to contact authorities and look for help. It is especially heart-wrenching when the husband threatens the wife with deportation and keeping the child. In some cases I've seen, the man will hide his wife's foreign passport, which means that she couldn't leave the country if she tried. She and her child are held prisoner. VAWA is supposed to give the woman an option where, if she can prove her eligibility, she can leave her abusive husband and petition for her own residency and citizenship. It is an extremely important tool for those advocating for abused women and children.

Even though the act was passed in 1994, Immigration has been very slow in taking it on. Adding insult to injury, in the last couple of months, officials have been interpreting the law as applicable only for legal immigrants. According to immigration officials, undocumented women who apply for citizenship under VAWA must first leave the U.S. and return to their home country and obtain a VISA. If they lived "illegally" in the U.S. for a year or more, they have to and wait an additional 10 years before entering the country again.

Some lawmakers contend that this interpretation is completely opposite from the original intent of the law and they are demanding answers. Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Sen. Edward Kennedy have written a letter to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) insisting that this penalty (leaving the country and possibly waiting 10 years before returning) shouldn't apply to victims of domestic violence. Indeed, VAWA will lose most of its purpose otherwise.

Movie: American Harvest

The documentary, American Harvest, has been winning awards and praise everytime it is shown.

The closest current showing will be at the Chatham Farm Film Fest at the Crandell Theater in Chatham, NY at 1:00 pm on Sunday, January 13th. Representatives of WMCIWR will be attending. Please email wmciwr@gmail.com if you would like to join us.

America's Biggest Divide

With the 2008 presidential elections in full swing, candidates are busy trying to outdo each other in their anti-immigrant rhetoric. Robert Reich's article, "America's Biggest Divide," gives an eloquent and strong rebuttal.

Well, I have some news for these demagogues. If they think this country or this economy can succeed in coming decades without tens of millions of additional immigrants, they’re not thinking straight. The huge baby boom generation -- 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 -- will be retiring, and there aren’t nearly enough native-born Americans after them to keep this economy going, let alone keep money flowing into the boomers’ Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The graying of America means we need this new wave of immigrants.

Read the full article here.