Inside Iowa State
Sept. 20, 1996
Women's Week to feature activist Angela Davis
by Anne Dolan
Activist Angela Davis headlines Iowa State's 22nd annual
Women's Week, Oct. 7-12. The week includes a full slate of
lectures, panel discussions and other special events, all of
which are free and open to the public.
"Women Warriors: Redefining the Struggle" is the theme selected by the Women's Week planning committee.
"We define 'warrior' not as an aggressor, but as an activist," said Shavonta Dickerson, a senior biochemistry student and chair of the planning committee.
"The one issue that keeps coming back to us is how women are trying to change their world, whether it's a school, a community or their state, whether it's by little steps or dramatic changes. With the information and the opportunities they have, they choose what to do."
The week-long observance opens at noon Monday, Oct. 7, with remarks from President Martin Jischke on the steps of Beardshear, and concludes at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, with a performance in the Memorial Union Great Hall by Iowa State's Minority Theatre Workshop.
'Women, Race and Class'
Davis, a professor of human consciousness at the University
of California, Santa Cruz, will speak on "Women, Race and
Class" at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11, in the Memorial Union Great
Hall. Davis came to national attention in 1969 when she was
removed from her faculty position in philosophy at UCLA
because of her activism and membership in the Communist Party
USA. In 1970, she was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List in
connection with the murders of a judge and three prison
inmates in an attempt to free another prisoner. After her
capture, she was imprisoned for 16 months. In 1972, she was
acquitted by a jury.
She has written five books, including her autobiography (1974), If They Come in the Morning (1971) and Women, Race & Class (1982).
Medieval women mystics
Elizabeth Ann Dreyer, professor at Washington Theological
Union, Silver Spring, Md., will speak on medieval women
mystics at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 7, in the Memorial Union Sun
Room. Dreyer has written Earth Crammed with Heaven: A
Spirituality of Everyday Life (1994), Manifestations
of Grace (1990) and Passionate Women: Two Medieval
Mystics (1989).
Women's Week also will feature two panel discussions, the first on the women's health movement at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, in the Memorial Union Sun Room, and the second on women in nontraditional fields at noon, Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Memorial Union Gallery.
A complete schedule of Women's Week events will be in the Oct. 4 Inside calendar.
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