UMass Boston

The Consortium hosts hybrid events, bringing feminist scholars, activists, and practitioners to speak on campus and over Zoom. Find more information about our Fall 2024 Speaker Series below and access information, recordings, and/or transcripts of our past and upcoming events here.

How Water Defenders’ Resistance to Extractive Megaprojects Transformed Ecuador
Manuela Picq
Senior Lecturer, Political Science and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies, Amherst College

Thursday, September 19, 2024 – 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Ballroom C, Campus Center, UMass Boston & on Zoom

Ecuador gained global recognition in 2008 when it became the first country in the world to inscribe the rights of nature in its constitution, and then again in 2023, when a national referendum voted to leave oil underground in Amazonia’s Yasuni rainforest. Yet little is known about the water defenders behind the scenes, mostly indigenous women, who have been putting their bodies on the frontlines, pushing for consultation and consent through roadblocks and legal claims. This talk tells their stories of resistance, and how their struggle for consent transformed the state in irreversible ways.

Registration is now closed for this event.

Countering Reproductive Genocide in Gaza: Palestinian Women’s Testimonies 
Sarah Ihmoud
Assistant Professor, Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 – 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Conference Room 3545, Campus Center, UMass Boston & on Zoom

This talk centers Palestinian women’s testimonies collected by Birzeit University’s Institute for Women’s Studies to theorize a feminist analysis of genocide in Gaza. In particular, it analyzes multiple and intersecting forms of colonial gender violence and Palestinian women’s embodied life affirming practices of survival.

Register to attend in-person

Register to attend on Zoom

Sudan's Counterrevolutionary War
Nisrin Elamin
Assistant Professor, African Studies and Anthropology, University of Toronto

Monday, December 2, 2024 – 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Ballroom A, Campus Center, UMass Boston & Zoom

This talk will contextualize Sudan's current counterrevolutionary war and famine from a political economy perspective. In particular, it will center struggles over land and the role of women in leading popular resistance against the military state.

Register to attend in-person

Register to attend on Zoom