Patricia McFadden, Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of African American Studies in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, will speak on “Neoliberalism and Humanitarianism: Implications for African Social Movements,” on Wednesday, Sept. 22, at 4 p.m. in the Public Events Room (220 Eggers Hall.)
McFadden is a feminist, sociologist, activist and scholar who worked in the antiapartheid movement for more than 20 years. She has taught at universities since 1976 and is the former director of the Feminist Studies Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe. She was the gender program coordinator for the Southern Africa Regional Institute for Policy Studies (SARIPS) in Harare; is a member of Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era (DAWN); and served as editor and publisher of the Southern Africa Feminist Review from 1997-2002. From 1995-2000, she taught in the SU Abroad program in Zimbabwe. In 1999, McFadden was awarded the Hellman/Hammett Human Rights Award, an award that recognizes the courage of writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution.
From 2005-07, McFadden was an Endowed Cosby Chair in Women’s and Gender Studies at Spelman College. Her books include “Gender in Southern Africa: A Gendered Perspective” (Sapes Books, 1998), “Reflections on Gender Issues in Africa” (Sapes, 1999) and “Reconceptualizing the Family in a Changing Southern African Environment” (Africa Institute of South Africa, 2001).
The event, sponsored by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the Department of African American Studies, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Susann DeMocker-Shedd at sademock@syr.edu.
