Though Herstory Month falls in March, when Bowdoin has a two-week break, Bowdoin's Sexuality, Women, and Gender Center (SWAG) still manages to pack in a lot of women-focused events.
This month, Herstory kicks off before March, on Feb. 29, with a Women in Healthcare Panel, featuring five alumnae: Betsy Johnson, former president and CEO of MaineHealth Accountable Care Organization; physician assistant Melissa Walters ’86; physician-scientist Kathleen Fairfield ’89; Harvard medical student Aliya Feroe ’17; and Scott Gregerson ’18, a health care associate at Planned Parenthood.
Later that evening, on Feb. 29 at 8:00 p.m. in Ladd House, the Women's Cabaret will put on a show. The cabaret is a student group that performs classic songs with questionable or sexist lyrics as a way to reclaim them.
On March 2, two Bowdoin administrators—Rachel Reinke, of SWAG, and Katie Byrnes, of the Baldwin Center—will lead a lunchtime discussion for faculty and staff about women, gender, and politics. Attendees will meet at 11:45 a.m. at Daggett Lounge in Thorne Hall.
Herstory Month continues on March 3, at 7:00 p.m., with a celebration of Muslim women—Muslimahs—at 30 College Street.
After spring vacation, the programming picks up again with an evening with transgender activist CeCe McDonald, who will speak with Theo Greene, assistant professor of sociology, about trans rights as human rights. In 2011, McDonald survived a transphobic attack, yet was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for that attack. She is the subject of the documentary FREE CeCe and is one of the founders of the Black Excellence Collective and Black Excellence Tour, which fosters conversations around mass incarceration, sexuality, and violence.
The following day, March 25, will feature three events. The first, at 11:30 a.m. at 24 College Street, is a discussion on the book Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, moderated by Associate Professor of Africana Studies Judith Casselberry. Hansberry (1930–1965) was a playwright and writer whose A Raisin in the Sun was performed on Broadway, marking a first for an African American woman.
The second event, at 4:30 p.m in the same location as the book talk, is a workshop with community activist Alivia Moore ’09 about the "Rematriation of Gender: A Pathway to Indigenous Liberation."
Later in the evening, the student group Bowdoin Reproductive Justice Coalition will host a forum of reproductive rights in Lancaster Lounge with Maine candidates for US Senate.
The final event of the month will be a women's luncheon and discussion for students, "From Every Day to Election Day," on March 27.
