NWSA Conference

As Lettie previously mentioned, Kate, Jill, Lettie and myself spent last weekend at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Atlanta. The whole conference was a great experience, particularly for me as it was my first NWSA conference. I loved seeing Angela Davis speak, and I got to attend so many wonderful sessions. Here is a brief rundown of some of the sessions I attended.

Ohio Women’s Centers’ Statement of Philosphy
The women’s centers in Ohio have actually created a joint mission statement which reads,
“Women’s centers reflect the unique needs of their institutions and communities, yet share a commitment to historically underserved individuals and groups. Additionally, women’s centers play a leadership role in understanding the changing workplace and preparing members of the University community to engage successfully with an increasingly complex world. Women’s centers are integral to transforming institutions into inclusive environments; through community-building, advocacy, education, support, and research, they encourage the full participation and success of women.”
This session was wonderful as it asked questions such as, “If women’s centers went away tomorrow, what would be lost?” and many others.

Project Red Flag Campaign
Project Red Flag is an initiative sponsored by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance which is directed at helping college students recognize relationship “red flags.” They discussed how they went about starting the program and what is done with it now.
For more information on the Project Red Flag Campaign please visit the website www.theredflagcampaign.org

How Can Women's Centers and Women's Studies be a Resource for Survivors of Human Trafficking
This was one of my favorite sessions. It covered what human trafficking actually is, how to determine if it is occurring and how to identify a victim of human trafficking. The next portion of the session discussed how to create a response plan for dealing with human trafficking on your campus.
For more information on human trafficking and respond to human trafficking visit the National Human Trafficking Resource Center’s website http:// nhtrc.polarisproject.org/

In the interest of keeping this readable I will break this down, look forward to hearing more about the different sessions that I attended the next time I blog!