NEWS
from Central Connecticut State University
Honored as a "Leadership Institution" by the Association of American Colleges & Universities

Media contact: Bart Fisher, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
(860) 832-1624; Fisherb@ccsu.edu 


Annual June B. Higgins Gender Conference to Focus on Politics

NEW BRITAIN – March 28, 2008 – “Sexing the Vote:  Gender, Sexuality and Politics” will be the focus of the 2008 two-day June Baker Higgins Gender Conference to be held at Central Connecticut State University, April 3-4.

The event, which is seen as particularly timely during the current, history-making presidential election cycle, is open to the public without charge; free parking is available in campus parking lots.  Writer, director and producer Maryann Breschard will be the event’s keynote speaker.  She is best known for her feature-length documentary, Running in High Heels, which will be screened at 5:15 p.m., April 3 at the Torp Theatre in Lawrence J. Davidson Hall.  The film “explores politics and female empowerment by putting the responsibility for women's lack of political power directly on women's shoulders.”  Ms. Breschard argues that women do not need to rise up but wake up and free themselves from stereotypes -- but not their femininity.  The critically acclaimed documentary was first shown in 2005 and continues to play on college campuses across the country.  

Ms. Breschard began her career at the Bottom Line nightclub in New York City where she learned about the music business for four years while earning a degree in Film and Television from the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University.  More recently she was an executive producer of more than art house DVDs including Akira Kurosawa's Ran, Costa Gavra’s Z, Russian Ark, Godard’s Breathless and John Woo’s the Killer as well as hundreds of American independent films.   Her work included interviews with filmmakers such as Wim Wenders, John Woo, Edward Yang, and Catherine Breillat.

Also to be discussed at the conference is:
The Woman’s Suffrage Movement in Song, Word, and Image.

The session will be chaired by Dr. Heather Munro Prescott and includes the following presenters:

Dr. Elizabeth Lorenzo (Department of Music, CCSU) “’Suffrage Circles’:  Musical Gesture and Embodiment in the Songs of the American Suffrage Movement”
Dr. Susan Gilmore (Department of English, CCSU) “Tears on the Trail: Campaign Sentiment from the Suffragettes to Hilary Clinton”
Dr. Leah G. Stambler, (Department of Education and Educational Psychology, WCSU) “Women of African Descent and Politics: Voices of African-American Suffragists, 1848-1920”
Another session, planned for the second day of the conference will examine:

Sisterhood and Social Movements.
            Dr. Jessica Greenebaum, associate professor of Sociology will chair the panel with the following participants:          
            Alexandra DeMonte, Loyola University, Chicago, “Picturing Sisterhood: The Representation of Feminism in Teen and
            Women’s Magazines, 1970-1976”
            Antonia Moran, Political Science, CCSU, “Gender in the 2008 Presidential Election”

Elizabeth Kaminski, Sociology, CCSU, and Stephanie Gilmore, Trinity College, “‘Use My Songs as Remedy’: Music as a Cultural Script against Domestic Violence”

The annual conference pays tribute to Dr. Higgins who spent more than three decades helping to shape the University’s scope, mission and aspirations.  She retired in 2002 as Dean of Arts & Sciences.  A professor of psychology and department chair, she also served as president of the Faculty Senate and of CCSU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP.)

The second day of the conference begins with an 8:30 a.m. continental breakfast and welcome at the CCSU Student Center.   There will be several panel discussions beginning just after 9 a.m. Ms. Breschard is scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m.