MIDDLEBURY — Some read Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016 as a sign that feminism is weaker than ever. Others say that feminism has turned out to be an extremely powerful political force, from moving millions of people around the world to participate in Women’s Marches last January to pushing the Democratic Party to include feminist issues in its platform. The women who started Black Lives Matter speak to police occupation from an intersectional feminist perspective and many of the strongest sources of opposition to Trumpism are explicitly feminist.
Two leading feminists, Katha Pollitt and Janell Hobson, will discuss the power of feminism in a dialogue sponsored by the President’s Office at Middlebury College, the college’s Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies and the Women’s Resource Center at Chellis House. The dialogue will take place in Wilson Hall, in the McCullough Student Center at Middlebury College on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 4:30 p.m.
Katha Pollitt is a leading feminist voice in the U.S. She writes the award-winning column “Subject to Debate” for The Nation magazine. Her latest book is “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights.” She is also the author of two books of poetry and several collections of essays. Her book “Learning to Drive” is now a motion picture.
Janell Hobson is an associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is the author of “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture” and “Body as Evidence: Mediating Race, Globalizing Gender.” She also writes and blogs for Ms. magazine and has authored several cover stories for the magazine, including “Beyonce’s Fierce Feminism.”
The event is free and open to the public. Contact Laurie Essig at [email protected] or 802-324-3875 for more information.