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