URI Women's Studies Program offers
a series of presentations
KINGSTON, R.I. -- January 26, 2001 -- The University of Rhode Island
Women's Studies Program is offering a Spring Colloquium, a series of presentations
by various URI scholars on their work about women's and men's lives. All
presentations will be held in the Great Room in Roosevelt Hall from 5 to
6:30 p.m. The following talks are free and open to the public:
Monday, February 5: Susana de los Heros, assistant professor of
language. "The Construction of Masculinity in Peruvian Spanish: The
Use of Gossip, Expletives, Phatic Language and Slang to Create a Masculine
Talk." de los Heros will examine the ways in which men construct diverse
masculine discourses and identities depending on the interlocutors, using
different styles, registers, and discourse strategies. She will also discuss
the results of her participant-observations in Lima and Cuzco.
Wednesday, February 28: Joelle Rollo-Koster, assistant professor
of history. "Prostitutes and Nuns: The Repenties of Late Medieval Avignon."
During the Middle Ages, men attempted to appropriate and control female
sexuality through various channels which women manipulated to their advantage.
Rollo-Koster will discuss the Repenties (repentant prostitutes) who exploited
their institutionalization to their benefit by successfully assimilating
spiritual models of feminine penance.
Thursday, March 22: Catherine M. Sama, assistant professor of
language. "Women Shaping Culture in 18th-Century Venice." Sama
will offer a slide presentation on the lives of portraitist Rosalba Carriera;
poet, playwright, and publisher Luisa Bergalli Gozzi; and intellectual Elisabetta
Caminer Turra-three 18th-century Venetian women who made substantial contributions
to Venetian and European cultural life.
Monday, April 9: Lynne Derbyshire, assistant professor of communication
studies. "Petitioning for Personhood." Derbyshire will examine
women's petitions for passage of married women's property legislation in
New York State in 1833-34. Drawing from ideas about constitutive rhetoric
and the performance of gender, she will explore how women position themselves
as they claim a right to petition; she will also discuss the importance
of the petition process in expanding women's political voice and the roles
women could play in the public sphere.
Light refreshments will be served.
For Information: Janet Hagen, 874-5150, Jan Sawyer, 874-2116
| 
