In connection with the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas at West Virginia University, the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies is bringing noted scholar and activist Charlotte Bunch to campus October 5-7.

The highlight of her visit will be a public Festival of Ideas lecture entitled “The Dance of Feminism and Human Rights Globally over 25 Years,” to be delivered at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday (Oct. 5) in Ming Hsieh Hall.

Bunch is widely considered a key figure in rights-based movements of the last 40 years. As a scholar, she has written extensively on the influence of feminism on human rights and the role of human rights in women’s movements. Bunch is currently the founding director and senior scholar at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University and a distinguished professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers. Her books in the field include “Passionate Politics: Feminist Theory in Action” and “Demanding Accountability: The Global Campaign and Vienna Tribunal for Women’s Human Rights.”

“We are delighted and honored to have such a preeminent feminist scholar and activist join us at WVU,” WGST Interim Director Cari Carpenter said. “Charlotte Bunch is someone who epitomizes what it means to be a dedicated citizen in this dynamic, rapidly changing world.”

In addition to the lecture, Bunch will also engage with students, faculty and staff as a scholar-in-residence.

She will have dinner with students from the WVU Honors College and ASPIRE, guest lecture in WGST 393 F: Global Migration and Human Rights, eat lunch with faculty and graduate students affiliated with the Center for WGST, and speak to the WVU Women’s Leadership Initiative at breakfast on Friday (Oct. 7).

Support for Bunch’s residency at WVU is provided by the Center for WGST and the Hamblen-Spencer Women’s and Gender Studies Fund. Additional support for her Festival of Ideas lecture comes from the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas Endowment.

The Festival of Ideas was created in 1995 by former University president David C. Hardesty Jr., inspired by events Hardesty organized as WVU’s student body president in the 1960s. Today, the lecture series spans the academic year and brings a diverse group of news makers, public figures and thought leaders— along with WVU’s own superstars— to campus to engage the community in important issues of the day.

-WVU-

ac/10/4/16

CONTACT: Cari Carpenter, Interim Director,
Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, West Virginia University
cari.carpenter@mail.wvu.edu

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