ECU to host annual women’s studies conference

Published Mar 14, 2005 by
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Native American author and activist Winona LaDuke will give the keynote address at the 2005 Southeastern Women’s Studies Association conference in Greenville.

East Carolina University’s Women’s Studies Program will host the 28th annual conference, “Boudicca’s Legacy: Feminist Champions and the Future of Activism,” April 7-9 at the Greenville Hilton Inn and on the ECU campus. This year’s theme, inspired by the Celtic Queen Boudicca of Iceni who ousted the Roman Empire in 60 A.D., is committed to exploring activism and its themes, said Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs, ECU Women’s Studies co-director.

“Her story is a victory over oppression. There is a focus on activism in this program and the changing of society. We think about Boudicca’s spirit in all of this: we can fight among ourselves or unite and get things done,” she said. Dozens of students and faculty from ECU and from other universities will present papers that examine aspects of activism during the three-day event.

LaDuke is the program director of Honor the Earth and the Founding Director of White Earth Land Recovery Project. In both 1996 and 2000, LaDuke ran for vice president on the Green Party ticket with Ralph Nader. Her forthcoming book, Recovering the Sacred, will be released by South End Press in 2005. She will speak at 8 p.m. April 8 at the Greenville Hilton. Admission to LaDuke’s presentation is $10, and admission is included for full conference attendants.

Michelle Cliff, a Jamaican author and activist, will also speak as part of the conference on campus. Cliff is known for her efforts to create a body of “resistance literature” giving voice to once-silenced stories of the colonized. Her books include Abeng, No Telephone To Heaven, and Free Enterprise. She will speak for free on ECU campus, Science and Technology Building C209, at 7:30 p.m. The band, Someone’s Sister, will perform before the LaDuke and Cliff presentations.

Peter Romary, a Greenville attorney who had been honored for his work with domestic abuse survivors, will speak Saturday.

The SEWSA Conference rotates each year among its member universities, but Dudasik-Wiggs said ECU’s Women’s Studies Program requested to host the event in 2005 in honor of its upcoming 20-year anniversary this fall. It is funded by the Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. Conference fees are $35 for ECU students and $50 for the public.