Category — Friends of WOMS news

Tomorrow! 7pm Wednesday in MLK 550

Prof. Catherine Ramirez of UCSC American Studies will do a reading and discussion of her book, _The Woman in the Zoot Suit_!  This is exciting work in gender, ethnic, and American studies that explores the meaning of this historic conflict at home in the shadow of WWII.

Are you a Latina between 18 and 35 years of age?
Do you like reading popular fiction novels?
If you answered YES to these questions,
you may be eligible to participate in this book club research study.

The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of how Latina women connect with “chica lit,” a genre of women’s popular fiction aimed at Latina readers.  Participants will read 6 books from September 2009 to May 2010 and will meet 7 times to discuss each novel as a group.  All books will be read in English.  Book club meetings will last approximately 1 hour and will be held in the 5th floor conference room at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose.  Participants may not directly benefit from this research study, but it is hoped that they will enjoy the process of reading and discussing books as a group.  Participants will receive all of the books to keep and will receive a $25 book store gift card at the completion of this study.

More details below…. [Read more →]

The first of four panel discussions, “Community Based Organizing in the Movimiento, Then and Now,” will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Roosevelt Community Center near downtown San Jose. Admission is free.

Event #1: Wed. September 16, 2009: Community Based Organizing en el Movimiento, moderated by Maribel Martinez, SJSU Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, Program Director

Since 1969, community-based organizing has played a profound role in empowering San José’s diverse Latino community. Rallying around issues of quality education, police brutality, immigrant and labor rights, groups have employed militancy, culture and history as key organizing tools. Newer generations have also worked to strengthen the voices of mujeres and the LGBT community. Listen and share on the impact of the movimiento through the people that shaped it and continue its legacy. [Read more →]

Today, at 12:30 pm on Thursday, August 6, the United States Senate voted 68-31 to confirm President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.   Sotomayor is the first Latina justice, and just the third woman to serve.

Yeehaw!

Check out this new video by Chicago’s Young Women’s Action Team.

The Young Women’s Action Team in Chicago led a project against sexual harassment and violence on the CTA (trains and buses). This film was shot and edited by student producers from Free Spirit Media about YWAT’s public forum. Learn more about this amazing group of young women at http://www.youngwomensactionteam.org

You can also read “In Our Own Words: What the YWAT Is All About” in Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence Against Women (Seal Press, 2007) edited by Maria Ochoa and Barbara Ige.

Congratulations to all of SJSU’s gender and sexually diverse graduates from the Women’s Studies program faculty. The first-ever Rainbow Graduation will take place May 22, 2009 at 11:30 in the University Room, featuring a keynote address by Sociology Professor Susan Murray.

Here’s an exciting new website  based on the award-winning three-volume encyclopedia edited by historians Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2006).

This now virtual historical material (essays, photographs, etc.) may be accessed at: http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/latinashistory

MAIZ – Movimiento de Accion Inspirando Servicio
From MAIZ chair Adriana Garcia

It is the 40th year anniversary of the Chicano Movement more or less (1968-69ish).  MAIZ would like to invite you to a collective planning meeting to create programming in the fall (September-November) that will honor the 40th year anniversary of cultura, social change and the elders, their luchas and contributions during the Chicano Movement that have benefited San Jose, in particularly and society in general.

MAIZ would like to have a first planning meeting in Monday, June 1st 2009 at 630pm-745pm [Read more →]

Domestic Violence Information & Resources Workshop

Sponsored by the Office of Councilmember Nora Campos,
with The Domestic Violence Info and Resource Collaborative
and San Jose State University

Monday, April 27, 2009
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
San Jose City Hall Rotunda
200 East Santa Clara Street
San José, CA 95113
Join us….

• If you are a student at San Jose State University and believe everyone has a right to a healthy, safe relationship and peaceful community (and want to promote this)
• If you or a friend, family member, or coworker is in a relationship with a partner that makes you afraid, threatens you, physically hurts you (punch, pushes, grabs or hits you) or controls you.
• If you have been a victim of sexual assault (and need help)
• If you are interested in law, criminal justice, social work, psychology and other related fields and want to know first hand how the domestic violence system works.

Come and hear local experts from the courts, domestic violence agencies and law enforcement and visit with over 40 agencies who will share resources and answer questions about: navigating the court system in a domestic violence case, working with law enforcement, housing and shelter, mmigration /legal/tax services, LGBTQ resources, mental health and substance abuse counseling, emergency and social services.

From the Spartan Daily:

A living trust of $1 million was made to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center from two SJSU alumni, the first major gift to SJSU’s Division of Student Affairs under which the LGBT resource center operates.

“It’s a great investment to the future of the LGBT center, friends and allies of the university,” said Bonnie Sugiyama, the assistant director of the university’s LGBT Resource Center. “It is money we will use in the future.”

The gift from philanthropists Larry Arzie and David Stonesifer, both Los Gatos residents and businessmen, is a living trust, which means their estate will transfer $1 million to the center after they pass, Sugiyama said.
The center is currently located in Building BB in room 101, next to the Aquatic Center. [Read more →]