Campus Lockdown: Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex

DATE: Saturday, March 15, 2008
TIME: 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM
LOCATION: Michigan Union, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
For more information & to register online: http://www.woclockdown.org/

Campus Lockdown: Women of Color Negotiating the Academic Industrial Complex The Campus Lockdown Conference is organized by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Michigan. Its aim is to promote dialogue on the politics of women of color scholarship in a post-Proposal 2 (anti-Affirmative Action) environment. Women scholars of color from universities across the country will participate in critical discussions of a host of issues relating to politics, pedagogy, and campus climate for women devoted to pubic scholarship. The conference is intended as an organized community forum space and all attendees are encouraged to contribute to the day's ongoing conversations.

Statement of University of Michigan students and faculty in support of UM Native American Studies Director Andrea Smith's tenure case. | Action alert.

Speakers:
Piya Chatterjee, University of California, Riverside
Angela Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz (via teleconference)
Rosa Linda Fregoso, University of Southern California
Ruthie Gilmore, University of Southern California
Fred Moten, Duke University
Clarissa Rojas, San Francisco State University
Haunani-Kay Trask, University of Hawai'I

CO-SPONSORS: University of Michigan Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program, Center for the Education of Women, Department of History of Art, Department of Women’s Studies, Division of Student Affairs, Michigan Student Assembly, Museum Studies Program, Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, Students of Color of Rackham Native Caucus, William Monroe Trotter Multicultural Center, Women of Color in the Academy Project

Perfect Girls, Starving Bodies

“If I'm not thinking about my body or calories, I'm probably sleeping or dead,” confesses a 14-year-old in Courtney E. Martin’s new book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters. Sound familiar? We’ll I’m running out to get my copy, especially since I’d found Martin’s wisdom so in tune with my own fear and loathing of Dan Kindlon’s Alpha Girls a few month's back as reported on the Women's Professional Village.

Kindlon spent precious time backslapping and patronizing successful, aggressive young women without seeing that his tale reveals how this "new paradigm" of women's lib has de-natured and de-sensitized our young. He likes the monsters we have created while Martin recoils in horror.

Of Perfect Girls, Publisher’s Weekly reports, “Beneath the high-achieving 'perfect girl' surface, seven million American girls and women suffer from an eating disorder; 90% of high school–aged girls think they are overweight," and calls stories from the author’s over 100 interviews “heartbreaking.”

You can check out the Women’s Professional Village lambaste of Alpha Girls and then Martin’s book. But, don’t run to Amazon. To date, they’re the only major bookseller who refuses to stop selling dog fighting manuals in the wake of the Michael Vick outrage.

Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body
Free Press, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7432-8796-8)