Wednesday, February 26, 2003

By: Stephanie L. Kirby, PR Intern

WILMINGTON, NC -- March is Women’s History Month, and the UNC Wilmington Women’s Resource Center is marking the occasion with a series of events planned around the theme “Women Change the World.”

Jenn Adams, campus outreach coordinator for Population Connection in Washington, D.C., will kick off the observance at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, in Cameron Hall Auditorium. In the lecture “Breaking the Chain: How Bush’s Attack on International Family Planning Hurts Us All,” Adams will discuss gender, population control and women’s empowerment from an international perspective.

Self-proclaimed “queer activist” Irshad Manji will present “Taking Opportunity from Oppression” at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 18, in Cameron Hall Auditorium. Manji is author of An Open Letter to Muslims Worldwide (2003) and Risking Utopia: On the Edge of a New Democracy (1997). She is also president of VERB, a Canadian TV channel developed to engage young people in issues of global diversity. In her talk, Manji will address ways that oppression can be used as a tool of individual and community empowerment rather than victimization.

Terrill Petri, founder of Women Vision International, will lecture on “Changing the World One Woman at a Time” at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, in Cameron Hall Auditorium. Women Vision International is a nonprofit organization that provides microloans and training for women in developing countries.

The UNCW student organization Women in Leadership will host the panel discussion “Women in Activism” at 7:30 p.m., Monday, March 31, in the Warwick Center, Center Stage Café. Featured panelist will be Dawn Peebles, cofounder of Objective: Collective, a nonprofit group based in Chapel Hill that promotes collective living. The UNCW English Department is sponsoring Peebles’ visit.

Women in Leadership will also sponsor a day of volunteerism at locations in the greater Wilmington community from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, March 22.

Women in Leadership is a mentoring program sponsored by the UNCW Center for Leadership Education and Service. The program matches female students with female mentors from among the UNCW faculty and staff and the Wilmington community. The group meets monthly for presentations by successful women in the community. Past programs have included a car repair workshop given by a female mechanic, a gender communications workshop and a presentation by local artist Gayle Tustin.



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For more information contact Dr. Ervin, director of UNCW’s Women’s Resource Center, at 910/962-3650 or e-mail ervine@uncwil.edu, or contact Abigail Riley, founder of Women in Leadership, at 910/962-3877 or e-mail her at ajr6722@uncwil.edu.