February Sisters

On February 4, 1972, a group of women took over a building on campus and made some demands, including more women faculty and a women's studies program -- this event changed the face of KU and is the spark that led to our department.

For Tami Albin's website on the February Sisters events, 1-7 Feb 2012, click HERE!

For more information on February Sisters:

An Historical Summary

http://www.kuhistory.com/proto/story.asp?id=44

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of February Sisters, WGSS has planned a series of events for 1-7 February 2012, including a re-enactment, a student presentation of what life at KU would be like if February Sisters had not occurred, a panel discussion with some of the actual February Sisters themselves, and a major speaker, Angela Davis.

The 40th Anniversary Celebration is co-hosted by WGSS and Student Union Activies and co-sponsored by the Offices of the Chancellor and Provost, the Deans of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Schools of Law and Social Welfare, the Hall Center and Honors Program, the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, and the Departments of Political Science and Theatre.

We are also grateful for the following departments for their contributions: African and African-American Studies, American Studies, Film & Media Studies, History, Philosophy, and Sociology.

February 1 (W)
Opening of "Where We Were Then -- Where We Are Now: Women Artists at the Spencer Museum of Art," curated by Susan Earle. Spencer Museum of Art, Teaching Gallery, Spencer Museum of Art, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Student re-enactment of February Sisters Occupation Wescoe Hall, 9:00 am - 2 p.m.

February 2 (Th)

• "Women and Peace: the 22011 Nobel Peace Prize Trio of Laureates," a Roundtable sponsored by the Kansas African Studies Center on African Women Nobel Prize Winners. English Room - Kansas Union - 4:00-5:30 p.m.

February 4 (Sa)

• "February Sisters Speak Out: 40 Years after the Occupation" -- oral historians Sherrie Tucker and Tami Albin will interview on the Spencer Auditorium stage women who where inside and outside the occupied building during the 4 February 1972 occupation. Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium, 7:00-9:00 p.m. HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4Ude92kB7Yk" target=blank>partial video of the panel discussion

February 6 (M)

• Virgina Scharff, author of The Women Jefferson Loved, Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age, and Home lands: How Women Made the West. Hall Center Gender Seminar, 1:30 pm AND Hall Center public lecture, 7:30 pm.

February 7 (T)

• lecture by feminist scholar and activist Angela Davis. Budig 120, 5:00-6:00 p.m. (book-signing immediately after)
• partial video of Davis's talk
• complete audio of Davis's talk

Angela Davis

Angela Davis is an author, academic and public educator, philosopher, and activist whose life-long commitment to fighting for social justice includes her leadership in such struggles as economic, race, and gender equality, and prison abolition. She is the author of many books and articles, including staples of women’s studies curriculum, such as the foundational Women, Race, and Class (1981) and Women, Culture, and Politics (1989), and Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday (1998). Her leadership in the prison abolition movement includes her recent books, Abolition Democracy: Empire, Prisons, and Torture (2005) and Are Prisons Obsolete? (2011). For more information on this key figure in contemporary social justice struggles, and keynote speaker for the 40th anniversary of the February Sisters Occupation at University of Kansas, see the Library Guide on the events provided by Tami Albin, WGSS Bibliographer, KU Libraries.

Angela Davis in Budig 120, February 7, 2012, 5-6 pm

These events also kick-off a fund-drive for establishing student scholarships in WGSS. Please consider giving by clicking on "Giving".