MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College will host the 2017 Gensler Symposium on Feminism in a Global Arena from April 10-14. This year’s topic is “Sex and the State: Feminist Responses and Resistance.” and is focused on the Feminist response to the global rise in nationalist politics. The symposium aims to provide a historical overview and analysis of the connections between sex and the state.
The symposium begins Monday, April 10 with Kevin Moss’s lecture “Russia as the Savior of European Civilization: Gender and the Geopolitics of Traditional Values.” Moss, Professor of Russian and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College, explores how “traditional values” — he opposition to gender equality, LGBT rights, abortion and reproductive rights, and sex education — have become the national idea of Russia, deployed internally as a populist ideology to unify Russia, and externally as a kind of exceptionalist-messianic pose to present Russia as the savior of Europe (Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 4:30 p.m.).
On Wednesday, April 12, Middlebury College students will host a discussion on reproductive justice and why it matters for everyone (Crossroads Café, 7 p.m.).
Sue Minter, 2016 Democratic candidate for Vermont Governor, will share her analysis and personal perspective on being a “Woman in the Arena” on Thursday, April 13. Minter, one of just two female gubernatorial candidates in the country in 2016, will reflect on how “the year of the woman” became the year of Trump. Minter will share her personal experiences, along with her thoughts on barriers to women in politics — and why it has never been more important for women to step up and lead (Dana Auditorium, 7 p.m.).
A reception for environmental and Indigenous rights leader Winona LaDuke will be held in Hillcrest 103 at 5:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., hosted in conjunction with the Environmental Justice Symposium at Middlebury College, LaDuke will give a lecture entitled “Native Women & Extreme Extraction: Lessons from Standing Rock and Beyond.” In this talk, LaDuke will discuss the role of Indigenous women in battling the fossil fuel industry and in reclaiming control over our future (Dana Auditorium, 7 p.m.).
 
LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Indian Reservation. She founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1989 and served as its Executive Director for 25 years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Honor the Earth, where she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline Native environmental groups.
A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and Environmental issues, authoring six books, including: “The Militarization of Indian Country,” “Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming,” “All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life,” and “Last Standing Woman”.
Symposium sponsors include the Gensler Family Fund, the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Chellis House-Women’s Resource Center, the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Academic Enrichment Fund.
For more information, please contact Karin Hanta at [email protected], phone: 802 443-5937.