Pulitzer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi to present keynote address for Syracuse University symposium on feminist rhetoric, social justice

Tuesday, October 7, 2008, By News Staff

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi to present keynote address for Syracuse University symposium on feminist rhetoric, social justiceOctober 07, 2008Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi will present “Why Feminism Still Matters” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23, in Syracuse University’s Stolkin Auditorium, located in the Physics Building. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is the keynote address for the Fall 2008 Ray Smith Symposium “Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice,” Oct. 23 and 24, presented by The College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Council and the Writing Program.

Faludi will also speak at an Open Forum Session with SU students from 2-3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, in the Hall of Languages, Room 500. The session will be an informal discussion about her work.

“Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice” will continue on Friday, Oct. 24, from 8:30 a.m. -5 p.m. in SU’s Hall of Languages, Room 500. The symposium will bring together communities of feminist rhetoric scholars, public intellectuals and community activists to discuss the intersections of feminist rhetoric and feminist-history making with local and global issues of social justice. Registration information and a complete schedule of events are available at http://wrt.syr.edu/frsj/. Featured speakers and topics of discussion include:

  • University of Minnesota Professor Karlyn Kohrs Campbell presenting “Forgotten Forerunner: Frances Wright and the Struggle for Social Justice.” Kohrs Campbell is the author or editor of eight books, including the groundbreaking two-volume series of early feminist work “Men Cannot Speak for Her” (Greenwood Press, 1989).

  • Ohio State University Associate Professor Wendy Hesford presenting “Cosmopolitanism and the Geopolitics of Feminist Rhetorics.” Hesford is a scholar working in the emerging field of transnational feminist rhetorics and visual rhetorics.

  • University of Maryland Professor Shirley Wilson Logan presenting “Anna Julia Cooper on Women and Social Justice.” Wilson Logan’s most recent book, “Liberating Language: Sites of Rhetorical Education in Nineteenth-Century Black America” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008) was recently released in paperback.

  • Michigan State University Associate Professor Malea Powell presenting “Rhetorical Powwows: American Indian Women and the Production of Meaning in Native Communities. Powell’s research focuses on the rhetorics of survivance used by 19th– century American Indian intellectuals and the rhetoric of Native American women.

In addition to the featured speakers, the symposium will include community panels on “Feminist History Making” and “Feminist Peacemaking and Social Justice,” featuring representatives from the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, the Matilda Gage Foundation, the Peace Encampment Herstory Project, the Syracuse Peace Council, Mothers Against Gun Violence and Women Transcending Boundaries.

Faludi has chronicled-with astonishing clarity-the changing roles of men and women in society, becoming one of the most provocative voices on women’s rights. Her new book, “The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America” (Metropolitan Books, 2007), dissects the mindset of American society during the so-called “war on terror.” The narrative explores how the U.S. media and politicians responded to the terrorist attacks by calling for a return to a society where men are men and women are victims and how this thinking, rooted in our earliest mythologies, has made America a weaker and less secure place.

Faludi’s award-winning bestseller, “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women” (Three Rivers Press, 2006), was a monumental investigation into the backlash against feminism in the 1980s and the assault against career-minded women. An internationally renowned journalist, Faludi has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Nation and The New York Times, and is also the author of “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man” (William Morrow & Co., 1999). Her lectures challenge modern stereotypes and explore the way gender roles have changed and developed in the United States over the past few decades.

The Ray Smith Symposium Series was established in 1989 as the result of a bequest from the estate of SU alumnus Ray W. Smith ’21 to support symposia on topics in the humanities in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences. Funding for “Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice” is also provided by the Writing Program, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Geography, the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, the Department of English, and the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics in The College of Arts and Sciences; the University’s Humanities Center; the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; the College of Human Ecology; and Colgate University’s Upstate Institute, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, Program in Women’ s Studies and Division of University Studies.