Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vision - We Must Disenthrall Ourselves


As always, my talk last night with EMU colleague, dear friend, fellow rabble rouser and West Virginia attorney Brenda Waugh was challenging, amusing, eye-opening, shocking... we spoke of this undeniable feeling, more than a feeling, actually - this undeniable tidal wave of realization around what we are doing in our vocation, how we are approaching our lives and our challenges. It feels we are keying in to a global conciousness. Something is bubbling up here. And I wonder what they will call this later when they look back at 2009 and saw that there was a movement emerging - a movement that rejected the boxes... that rejected the words and the lists and the sorting and the cages and the constricted way of thinking.

The NY Times Maira Kalman is part of that movement. She uses her gorgeous and playful illustrations to explore intuitively historic, cultural, economic, political from deep inside. From her perspective - the only way, really that these things CAN be examined, if we are to be honest with ourselves. Her latest work of genius taught me more about Abraham Lincoln than I probably learned in four years of high school:  

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/

Brenda is making art to examine conflict theory. At the end of her course, she'll have the class put the art together "like dominoes". It will be up to each person to decide what pieces match - which again, is such a metaphor for conflict. Conflict will always look different, dynamic, like works of art... what we must do is allow ourselves to be centered enough, intuitive enough, creative enough to grasp the enormity of what is in front of us and piece the solutions together. That is what the learnin' needs to be.

http://theoryofconflict.blogspot.com/2009/02/peaks-swamps-and-reflections.html

I realize that what I am doing here in Geneva... and what I've been up to for the past several years... is simply becoming more human - in the most primitive definition of that term. We have had our intuition and creativity beat out of us by those who wish to quantify, by those who need to see everyone as predictable, boxable, controllable. I spend my time in yoga, listening to my body, not pushing the river, but navigating. I read an article yesterday that said the only being on earth that does not know how to eat properly is an adult human. Even 5 year old children, when given full access to all different kinds of food will in very little time begin to eat only when hungry - and will eat the food that their body truly needs. How did we lose this basic instinct?? - We don't know what to eat, when or how much and it is killing us.

What else have we forgotten? To breathe, certainly.

We humans are in an emergency. The planet is committing genocide, we are a world of refugees. We have lost our web, we have lost the concept that we are all connected. Wall Streetoise and their numbers are exposed... these guys were all just riding on greed and a whim. The politicians keep talking even though they know their words are empty. But our mighty... mighty... mighty instincts are rising up. Everywhere - I see unlocking, people coming out into the fresh air, awakening. We are beginning to see that we need metaphor, myth, magic... we need these things because they are able to hold the multiple layers of meaning of this big, big world in ways that words and charts and boxes never can.

Maira Kalman says she is in love with Abraham Lincoln, she visited his museum and pondered how someone who had one year of school could have been such a genius, have had such insight. Intuition, vision, connection, power. A person who fought desperately for his home. And this person continues to capture our imaginaton.

Here is the quote she embroidered - which made me cry just now...

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty. As our case is new, so must we think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

A. Lincoln
1862

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Powerful Noise - Documentary About Three Women



CNN interview with Scott Thigpen - Producer.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Luisa Cremonese Chats Virtually with Howard Zehr About UNHCR Practicum



Luisa Cremonese, Sr. Coordinator for Community Development Community Development, Gender Equality and Children Section at UNHCR discusses expectations for my practicum for Spring 2009. I'm thrilled to be working with Luisa and my entire section. We have similar outlooks, goals and speak the same language around equality and diversity :).

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Vision - Det. Grace Hanadarko/the Process of Change/and a Fresh Take on Gender

I never thought I could think much less SAY that a tv series with a damn angel in it would be one of the most profound pieces of work I've witnessed in a long time - but here we go. Saving Grace stars Holly Hunter - who plays a top-notch Oklahoma City homicide detective leading a wild, audacious life. Her crazy, last chance angel named Earl is walking with her and her colleagues through some of the ghosts of their past and the joys and pain of their present. I can't write this in a way that seems cool. I wish I could. You just have to watch the thing. I watched the entire first season in two days last fall. Today I watched the entire second season. It IS that good.  

The first season Grace wrangles with the fact that she and others were molested by a beloved priest when they were young. The second season shows how all kinds of healing takes time, mistakes, time, lessons, work, backsliding, time, mistakes, steps forward, work, more work, more backsliding, humanity, more humanity, more mistakes, more time and more time. After my watching marathon today I came to a few realizations:

-Change is not an epiphany. It is a process. And the time and mistakes and messiness and backsliding and humanity and more time, time, time that it takes is totally hopeful. Because we need that time during our process of change to give ourselves space to forgive ourselves for being human, and forgive others for the same big offense as well. A TNT TV show is helping me define this. Believe me, I wish it was some noir film I came across in some eclectic cinema.

-The other realization is that this program is exactly what I've been referring to when I say that we need a new voice around gender equality. Hanadarko is undeniably acknowledged an amazing professional and beautifully complex character. The show's creator Nancy Miller  (Nancy Miller???? Why can't her damn name be cool?! How about Solange Montegeaus or something?) and Holly Hunter never miss a chance to depict Hanadarko and the other women on the show as powerful, wise, sexual, hilarious, loyal, strong, vulnerable, layered, textured, goofy, irreverent and HUMAN. It is so powerful, I cry at almost every episode. And here's the other beautiful thing - it is never at the expense of the men on the show. The male characters consistently become more interesting, multifaceted, vulnerable and define masculinity in brand new, deeper ways. How does this show do that? 

How can we all do that?

Monday, February 16, 2009

Vision/Connection - The Lighted Path

When I was feeling so pathetic cold in the rain the other night, I came across this cobblestone plaza lined with illuminated glass "stones" in the Old Town of Geneve. Very sweet.

Vision - Experimenting with Sights and Sounds for Women's Day Film

Reflection Video for Howard or "Hey Lady, Ever Hear of Editing?"

This is a reflection on how things are going here. (Actually they all are, but this is for my advisor, Howard Zehr) I do apologize; it rambles a bit - but isn't that what discernment is all about?? :)))

Power - It is Cold and Raining and There Are No More Buses...


... and I am ruining my coat by walking in the rain. These were the sad thoughts I was having as I schlumped home across the border to France last week after drinks with new friends.

I'd been feeling fairly lost and wondering what it IS exactly that I am doing here, across the pond, away from my friends and connections and everything that allows me to acknowledge that I am ME? Intuition drove my move here. Even though my goals has never been humanitarian aid on a huge scale. I have this calm part in my center that feels I am taking a right path. But it is undefined right now. It feels like fragmented bits of the entire world are swirling around me constantly... mostly whipping around my head.

The concept of power comes up again and again. My whole life I've been diving in, running like crazy, trying to wrangle, to catch, to immerse. These past few years, and especially now, I am attempting not doing that. I am trying hard (or as my mentor, Phyllis Ward used to say 'try softer') to receive the experience rather than make the experience happen or take the experience. This is hard. The receiving part takes faith. It takes trust. I just have to sit here and wait. Yeeesh. That's not anything I've been trained to do or that gives me quick ego boosts.



In my yoga class today my instructor Daniel said that our breath is power. Our breath. I've been feeling fairly small and not-so-very powerful. After spending most of the yoga class breathing I realized the breathing changed my perception just a little. I walked back to UNHCR still quiet and small, breathing... and receptive... maybe beginning in a tiny, tiny way to accept this quieter, smaller person as also being... me. And also quite powerful.

I had a really interesting dialogue with the Universe two summers ago. I was demanding that fear and weakness go away - I thought that was of course my reward for working so hard all of these years.

The Universe just shrugged her shoulders and said that I can wish all I want, but the Universe and all of its realities are just going to keep on doing what they do. My uncertainties and weakness are an integral part of me. Especially as a filmmaker. It is these qualities that keep me from settling in to a place where I would not be observant, where I could not be a witness, a weaver, a rummager, a researchist. These things are tools for me, they are paths that lead me to new insight.

If I have a reluctance, perhaps I am supposed to just be quiet. If I have a weakness, that is a moment to take notice; is there a better path? I have noticed that when I park my ego, when I listen, when I am quiet, receiving images and life - invariably there is reward.



Just before I left for Switzerland I came across some morning pages I wrote last summer. I was stunned to find one line which I pasted across the bottom of panels of my art project that was the foundation for my practicum proposal. The line said, "One day you wake up and you've stopped demanding of the Universe. Now, we begin the relationship." I don't even remember writing that. But now it seems that line could be the foundation of what I might be able to learn here. And a shift in my understanding of intuition, home, connection, vision... and power.

photographs of art by Andy Goldsworthy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Home/Vision/Connection - Community Media



This is the type of model in which I am very interested for the U.S. - especially the Shenandoah Valley. Hmmm.. just going to post this with the names, etc and will get back to it later...

This is from an event organized by Center for International Media Assistance:

The Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy
and Internews Network

Invite you to a luncheon presentation on

Community Media Sustainability:
The Business of Changing Lives

Thursday, February 26, 2009
12-2:00 p.m.
(Lunch served from 12:00-12:30p.m.)

1025 F Street, N.W., Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004

RSVP (acceptances only) with name and affiliation by Tuesday, February 24
to CIMA@ned.org
Years ago, the notion of a business model for community media would have brought responses ranging from dismay to ridicule. Community media’s origins in political struggle, its community ownership structure, and its mission—to give voice to the voiceless, to provide an alternative to mainstream media, to place control of media in the hands of ordinary people—seem to contradict the notions of both “business” and “model.” Today, however, community media is a valued and recognized part of the media landscape. International aid agencies are showing ever-greater interest in community media’s ability to inform and empower. Additionally, more and more governments are acknowledging the contribution of community media to education, public health, and economic development, and are creating policy and legal frameworks to enable its expansion.

This is not the only way in which the community media context is changing. The shift to digital communication technologies has brought about an explosion of new media activity and opportunities over the past decade, as well as greater competition for scarce resources, including advertising. Jean Fairbairn, project director, chief writer and editor of the Community Media Sustainability Guide, will explore some of the challenges and issues facing community media, drawing on research and experiences from around the world to provide different perspectives on sustainability and how to achieve it. Bill Siemering of Developing Radio Partners and Jeanne Bourgault of Internews Network will comment on the report and offer ideas about how community media can best approach the goal of financial sustainability.

About the author:

Jean Fairbairn, Internews’ project director and chief writer and editor, has over 20 years experience in the international development sector. Her areas of specialty include communications for development, local independent and community radio, building democracy and civil society, HIV/AIDS, and monitoring and evaluation. Fairbairn directed the Open Society Foundation for South Africa’s Media Support Program from 1996 to 2003, playing a leading role in developing South Africa’s vibrant community radio sector. She is currently general manager of the Freeplay Foundation, based in the United Kingdom, and has written and edited several texts on community radio.

About the panelists:

Jeanne Bourgault serves as Internews Network’s Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Programs, overseeing the operation of Internews’ 23 offices and programs worldwide. Bourgault joined Internews in 2001 as Vice President for Programs. Her expertise is in democracy promotion and media development. Prior to joining Internews, Bourgault served for six years with the U.S. Agency for International Development, including three years working on Latin America programs followed by three years as director of the Office of Democratic Initiatives at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Bourgault also worked in the former Yugoslavia, serving as a strategic advisor for media development programs in post-war Kosovo, as well as manager of community development projects in Serbia and Montenegro. Bourgault has consulted on international development program design and evaluation to the Open Society Institute, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Research Triangle Institute, and the United Nations Centre for Human Rights, among others.

Bill Siemering, an advisory board member for the guide, is president of Developing Radio Partners, a non-profit organization that supports local radio in developing countries. Developing Radio Partners grew out of Siemering’s experience since 1993, working with the Open Society Institute, where he worked in South Africa, Mozambique, and Mongolia, among other countries. Siemering wrote the original mission and goals for National Public Radio, became the first director of programming at NPR and, with the staff, developed All Things Considered. Later, as manager at WHYY-FM, Philadelphia, he helped bring Terry Gross and Fresh Air to a national audience.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Power - 10 Things Men Can Do to Prevent Gender-Based Violence




10 THINGS MEN CAN DO TO PREVENT GENDER VIOLENCE

-Approach gender violence as a MEN'S issue involving men of all ages and socioeconomic, racial and ethnic backgrounds.

-View men not only as perpetrators or possible offenders, but as empowered bystanders who can confront abusive peers.

-If a brother, friend, classmate, or teammate is abusing his female partner -- or is disrespectful or abusive to girls and women in general -- don't look the other way. If you feel comfortable doing so, try to talk to him about it. Urge him to seek help. Or if you don't know what to do, consult a friend, a parent, a professor, or a counselor. DON'T REMAIN SILENT.

-Have the courage to look inward. Question your own attitudes. Don't be defensive when something you do or say ends up hurting someone else. Try hard to understand how your own attitudes and actions might inadvertently perpetuate sexism and violence, and work toward changing them.

-If you suspect that a woman close to you is being abused or has been sexually assaulted, gently ask if you can help.

-If you are emotionally, psychologically, physically, or sexually abusive to women, or have been in the past, seek professional help NOW.

-Be an ally to women who are working to end all forms of gender violence. Support the work of campus-based women's centers. Attend "Take Back the Night" rallies and other public events. Raise money for community-based rape crisis centers and battered women's shelters. If you belong to a team or fraternity, or another student group, organize a fundraiser.

-Recognize and speak out against homophobia and gay-bashing. Discrimination and violence against lesbians and gays are wrong in and of themselves. This abuse also has direct links to sexism (eg. the sexual orientation of men who speak out against sexism is often questioned, a conscious or unconscious strategy intended to silence them. This is a key reason few men do so).

-Attend programs, take courses, watch films, and read articles and books about multicultural masculinities, gender inequality, and the root causes of gender violence. Educate yourself and others about how larger social forces affect the conflicts between individual men and women.

-Don't fund sexism. Refuse to purchase any magazine, rent any video, subscribe to any Web site, or buy any music that portrays girls or women in a sexually degrading or abusive manner. Protest sexism in the media.

-Mentor and teach young boys about how to be men in ways that don't involve degrading or abusing girls and women. Volunteer to work with gender violence prevention programs, including anti-sexist men's programs.

-Lead by example.

Copyright 1999, Jackson Katz. www.jacksonkatz.com
Reprint freely with credit.

Vision/Connection - More Feedback From Colleagues on IWD Video


This from UNHCR Colleague Caroline Aesheim:

Dear Paulette,

With regards to the film, this might be of interest to you (attatched);
- Pamplet from the Women's Commission on how men can empower women (practical advice and statistics)

http://womenscommission.org/pdf/masc_brief.pdf

With regards to some fast facts on SGBV, here are some numbers;
• At least 1 out of 3 women worldwide are estimated to have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused.
• A 1994 study of World Bank data showed that rape and domestic violence is rated to be higher risk factors for women between 15 and 44 than cancer, motor vehicles and malaria.
• It is estimated that around 20.000-50.000 women were raped during the war in Bosnia, 250.000-500.000 in Rwanda in 1994 and 50.000-64.000 in Sierra Leone.
• Further estimated say that an average number of 40 women were raped each day in South Kivu (DRC)
• More than 91.5 million African women and girls above 9 years of age are survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM)
• Another 3 million African girls are at risk of undergoing FGM every year.
• 28 countries in Africa have been found to practice FGM and the practice is almost universal in 7 of them (>85%)
• In Tanzania, more than 1,400 individual SGBV cases were reported to UNHCR in 2007, the majority being domestic violence and rape.
• In Nairobi, more than 450 individual SGBV cases were reported to UNHCR in 2007 by urban refugee women and girls.
• 94% of displaced households surveyed in Sierra Leone reported incidents of SGBV, including rape, torture and sexual slavery.

Let me know if there's anything else we can input to the film.

Best regards,
Caroline

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Power/Connection - Rosetta Stone Mohawk Language Software


If anyone is just DYING to get me a graduation gift... this would be the coolest one ever.

Rosetta Stone has created Mohawk language immersion software. As many of you know my family is Mohawk Indian. It is the first endangered language software. I am enjoying Rosetta Stone French - I think I must have this version. How amazing.

http://www.rosettastone.com/global/press/news-20060421-rs

The Mohawk language program will also be available for purchase through Kanien’kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa. For more information, e-mail kor@korkahnawake.org or call (450) 638-0880.

Vision - Mr. Porteno Responds to Anti- Violence Film First Draft.



HIHI
Primero, probably UNHCR has a library of footage from the field from which you can choose images of men and women doing things together.

Segundo, i find very effective an initial counter point, i don't know how to explain. The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zKfF40jeCA has some of it. You first flash through what you want to prevent, change, in this case, violence against women, with images, music, strips of fast video, and then you jump in a calmer more harmonious part, doing things together.

Tercero, the message, starts with me, you, us. Maybe the message is stronger if you put the Starts with ME. In english, writing "starts with US", reads like "starts with U.S.", it's a very unfortunate similarity. I understand it's a community action, that everybody needs to do it together, all. But i don't know what is best, me, you or us. Hos would that impact in the refugees' population? Maybe starts with me is very indidualistic western approach.

Cuarto, great sequence of activities!!!! I would change the one with a couple playing with their kids, to one of a man and a women parenting, doing all the chores of a household, a man talking to his daughter, a women to her son, etc.

Quinta, have you thought of doing some animations or simple drawings? it's easy to produce in terms of materials and space.

Et derniére, i can help looking for pictures up for you, as a complement to your production.

buona sera!

javier

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Vision/Power - First Thoughts on a Video for International Women's Day



So we are working up a video for International Women's Day in early March - and the video must be simple to shoot, simple to edit and convey a good... well... simple message.

-The theme? Men and women join together to stop violence against women. We've been talking a lot in the office about how change begins with us, in Geneva. It begins with me. It begins with you. It begins with US. This line, I think, could be the line that appears many times throughout the video. "It begins with us".

-Next, I am thinking of images and subtext. We'll have several scenes of men and women doing physical things together - dancing, biking, running - we could begin to convey the message that of course, we all have this energy. Perhaps stemming violence is partially about where we put that energy. And if we are doing powerful, energetic things TOGETHER - that is one place where a small change can begin.



I've had a few conversations with my wise colleagues and here is a working list of some of the physical things that would be interesting to film:

-A couple on bikes (Irene and BF?)
-A group of people dancing (does anyone know a local dance troupe?)
-Men and women doing yoga.
-A couple playing with their kids.
-A group of people messily painting a big canvas (Siobahn worked with a cooperative)
-A couple running down the stairs of a cathedral together holding hands.
-A group of friends noisily and messily making dinner together.
-Men and women jogging.



- The third element to the piece will be tips about how to stem violence against women in small ways. They come in the form of questions. Here is an example:

Luisa had a suggestion - if you are talking to a couple, do you focus mainly on the man?

Or a question to women - are you mentoring other women? Why or why not?

The questions make the piece non preachy - but effective to get those synapses firing.

-The last element will be how to translate this to refugees... to the field. Perhaps we will have the last person or group of people who say "It begins with US." do an echo repeating... then we show, with the echo still reverbing, shots of the field. Or many even just one of men and women obviously together, or even better, of children working together, standing smiling together.


I will be very happy to receive feedback on any of these elements. I will bother you all in the next few weeks - trying to secure locations and people to shoot this and asking you for short interviews.

Vision - Malian Chanteuse with Modern Grace


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100200274

A Review from NPR's Banning Eyre

Malian singer Rokia Traore has never been a traditionalist. The daughter of a diplomat, she grew up assimilating European and African cultures, and in her 10-year career, she's developed a sound that uses elements of Malian tradition in her own way. Traore's fourth album, Tchamantche, is just out, and it's her best and most daring work.

"Dounia," the opening track, tells the whole story. Traore always stood out as a West African female singer who also plays guitar. Here, she trades in her usual acoustic axe for a vintage Gretsch jazz guitar and matches its dark tones with a moody, whispering melody.

In "Dounia" — meaning "the world" — Traore touches on the themes of Mali's traditional praise singers, who belt out mighty proclamations about life's inevitable course. "No one can see, [even from the highest point of existence] what tomorrow will be," she sings. "Days that are honey sweet? Days that taste of gall? ... Hours of glory, hours of disappointment." But her mode is less assured than the griots, more delicate and mysterious. With this introspective mood established, Traore's ensemble joins in, led by a traditional lute.

Traore's meld of African and rock aesthetics is understated and as comfortable as it is cool. In this one song, her vocal style shifts from an opening whisper to bird-like cooing and ultimately a growling crescendo in which she laments the remoteness of the heroes who built the great societies of the past — as she puts it, "the story of an Africa we miss." It's the work of a mature artist who embraces the contradictions of her African ancestry and looks ahead with hope, but also a poet's wariness.

So begins Tchamantche, which means "balance." The world's less-developed societies have produced many singers who seek to balance musical style and cultural perspective, and to address the larger world. Few manage it with the grace and style of Rokia Traore.

Friday, February 6, 2009

A Moment of Sorrow



At UNHCR Headquarters in Geneva today, staff members gather to observe a minute of silence in the memory of one colleague and in hope for another. Pakistani UNHCR driver Syed Hashim lost his life in an attack in Quetta on Monday morning, February 2, 2009. John Solecki, UNHCR head of office in Quetta was abducted in the same incident.

Power/Connection - A Literature Review in Response to the Dark Knight Post


-Amy Sarch recommends:

The Hearts of Men
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Author Michael Kimmel, Leader in Men’s Studies (not your caveman version)


-Howard Zehr recommends:

Listening In
by Susan Douglas
Where the Girls Are by Susan Douglas

Stiffed and Terror Dreams by Susan Faludi


-Berenice Tostado:

http://www.cellinteractive.com/ucla/physcian_ed/stages – this is a website that explains the 6 steps critical to change.

Power - Women May Surpass Men in US Jobforce...


...mainly bc they earn less and have meager benefits packages, if any at all. The job cuts have slammed more men in manufacturing and construction. How will this effect gender roles?

I like this image that the NYTimes chose to show of a man and a woman making each other laugh in the midst of tough job stuff - instead of all grim looking images.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/business/06women.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Monday, February 2, 2009

Home/Vision/Power - Dr. Amy Sarch Schopick Responds to Dark Knight Post


Yay!! My friend and Director of Women's Studies at Shenandoah University, Dr. Amy Sarch Schopick responded to my Batman Dark Knight posting. The question was, how do we reach men when it seems that there is a great cultural incentive for men to be pathologically brooding, detached and well, stuck? Where do we begin to have the conversation? She is one person I know who is reaching the young men of Shenandoah University - so that's where we begin this dialogue.

Here is Amy's response:
I actually had one of those aha moments a few years ago teaching a history of gender in advertising course. I was doing background reading on 1950s, 1960s images of men in advertising (same time period that Playboy begins, Marlboro Man introduced) and I read Barbara Ehrenreich's The Hearts of Men (which I highly recommend). Ehrenreich talks about how conformity for men takes the form of breadwinner, grey flannel suit, loyal husband. And Playboy actually was revolutionary for men because it was about noncomformity really -- forget marriage, grey flannel suit, making money for the family -- do it for yourself. Actually making the some parallel arguments to women in the women's movement -- be an individual.

This was difficult for me to wrap my brain around at first because as a women's studies professor it's like I'm conditioned to just think sexist, but culture constrains men as well as women -- as another poster stated, socializing boys NOT to cry is as constraining as marketing pink kitchens to little girls.

I'm also doing train of thought here -- so when thinking about Playboy, Marlboro Man -- these actually are revolutionary images of men because prior to that (in advertising at least) all you had was the man in the grey flannel suit selling socks and dress shirts. And what I realized, that once I introduced students to this notion that hey, the social constraints keep women AND men from recognizing social constraints as culturally constructed that men were more willing to start listening.

So now, in a different class (intro to women's studies), we spend a lot of time on phrases like "boys will be boys" -- and what that means, and it's not always freedom, using that to explain a boy running amok in a supermarket is a disservice to that boy (that same 'boys will be boys' statement has been used by a dad to defend his son in raping -- although he didn't see it like that -- a series of women in high school -- spur posse case). Oh, another author to recomend is Michael Kimmel who is the leader in this 'men's studies' (in not your caveman version). So anyway, the brooding man -- definitely a genre that is linked to the same undercurrents that launched Playboy and created the marlboro man.

Connection/Vision/Home -Brenda Waugh's Theory of Conflict Blog


My friend, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding colleague, attorney, feminist and all-around-rabble-rouser Brenda Waugh (also known as Brenda Wow!) is at it again. Last semester she and I torched our qualitative analysis text book in search of a new path to participatory analysis and astounding things happened along the way.

Now Brenda has her sites on conflict theory and she's doing what she does best; deconstruct (or blow up!), reinvent, reconstruct, redefine and all with one of the most authentic voices I've witnessed. I won't say she does it fearlessly... but she certainly does not let fear get in her way. This is someone who challenges me constantly. Her curiosity and energy are boundless and I am better and better for knowing her.

This is her new blog about how she is approaching theory and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to run around in her brain, trying to figure out where it all comes from.
theoryofconflict.blogspot.com

Vision - Center for Social Media Tracks New Directions in Film


Last Spring, EMU colleague Nadia Bazzy and I gave a presentation on the new role of filmmakers in presenting their work and engaging the public. The talk is titled "Seeing Ourselves, Healing Our Lives; the Role of Television and Film in Trauma Healing".

This month A.U.'s Center for Social Media (one of my favorite advocacy groups ever) presents an article along the same lines. The group highlights case studies of three filmmakers "eager to bring their stories and issues to broad audiences, to spark conversation across boundaries of difference, mobilize communities around issues, and influence public policies. In the process, they have created networks—of funders, broadcasters, outreach specialists, festivals, and distribution channels—to sustain continuing documentary work."

www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blogs/future_of_public_media/social_issue_documentary_the_evolution_of_public_engagement/

Power - What Is Gender?


'Gender' refers to the socially constructed roles of and relations between men and women, while 'Sex' refers to biological characteristics which define humans as female or male. These biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive however, as there are individuals who possess both.

'Gender relations' are characterised by unequal power. 'Gender norms' assign specific entitlements and responsibiltiies to men and women - for example, women might be expected to take on caring or domestic duties and remain close to home, while men may be expected to be the main breadwinnner, working outside the home, with greater freedom to move around in public places.

Eldis (from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex) resources on gender issues including training, papers, etc.) We host a range of innovative and highly regarded knowledge services – including Eldis, id21, BRIDGE, Livelihoods Connect and the British Library for Development Studies.

http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/dossiers/trade-and-gender/what-is-gender