World-Class Feminist Panel Streamed Live into Christchchurch

For immediate release

18 February, 2015

World-Class Feminist Panel to Be Streamed Live into Christchurch

WORD Christchurch and UC College of Arts present ‘How To Be a Feminist’, a live broadcast from the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women festival on International Women’s Day, Sunday 8 March. FeaturingGermaine Greer, Roxane Gay, Anita Sarkeesian, Tara Moss, Clementine Ford and Celeste Liddle.

Beyoncé is one. So is Daniel Radcliffe. The New Zealand Minister of Women’s Affairs says she isn’t. With so many conflicting ideas about what a feminist looks like – or, more crucially, what a feminist does – anyone curious about the modern women’s movement can have a hard time separating the signal from the noise. Is ‘feminism’ a political agenda, a social identity, a set of behaviours, a lifestyle choice, a Twitter mob or a branding exercise? This vital, varied panel will flatten common stereotypes, and delve into what feminism really means – and can achieve – in 2015 and beyond.

The broadcast will be followed by a live panel with Dr Erin Harrington, Sionainn Byrnes, Dr Gina Colvinand Beck Eleven, with chair Rosemary Du Plessis, responding to the issues raised in the discussion and putting them into a local context.

“This will be a thought-provoking and interactive event provided by the wonders of modern technology,” says WORD Christchurch’s Literary Director Rachael King. “We are very excited about the possibilities opened up by collaborating with these two wonderful organisations, the University of Canterbury and the Sydney Opera House.”

Canterbury University’s Professor Paul Millar says, “We’re proud to co-host an event focusing on one of the most powerful movements for equal rights in human history. Fostering debate and discussion about movements and ideas that impact on all our lives is what the UC College of Arts is about.”

How to be a Feminist, Sunday 8 March, 12.45 - 3pm,
LAW108 Lecture Theatre, Business and Law building, Ilam Campus, University of Canterbury
Tickets $10 plus service fees from dashtickets.co.nz and more information at
wordchristchurch.co.nz

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Roxane Gay is the co-editor of PANK. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Time, the Los Angeles Times, and many others. She is also the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, and Hunger, forthcoming in 2016.

Clementine Ford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker based in Melbourne. She is a writer and contributor for Daily Life and writes on feminism, pop culture and social issues.

Celeste Liddle is a proud Arrernte woman, feminist, trade unionist and vegetarian. In 2012, Celeste started her blog Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist and since then has developed a career as a freelance opinion writer with her work being published in the Guardian, Daily Life and Tracker, amongst others. Celeste has also frequently provided guest commentary on such channels as ABC radio, NITV and the National Indigenous Radio Service.

Tara Moss is a novelist, journalist, blogger and TV presenter. Since 1999 she has written nine bestselling novels, published in 18 countries and 12 languages. Her first non-fiction book, The Fictional Woman, was published in May 2014. She is a long-term advocate for the rights of women and children and is UNICEF’s National Ambassador for Child Survival.

Anita Sarkeesian is a media critic, blogger and the creator of Feminist Frequency, a video web series that explores the representations of women in pop culture narratives. In particular, her work highlights issues surrounding the targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces. She once explained #Gamergate to Stephen Colbert.

Germaine Greer is a writer and academic and is best known for her work as a key figure in modern feminism. Her ideas about gender and sexuality have provoked controversy since the release of her 1970 book The Female Eunuch. Her other works include Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility, The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause, The Whole Woman, and Shakespeare’s Wife.

Rosemary Du Plessis is Adjunct Associate Professor in Sociology at University of Canterbury. She has defined herself as a feminist since the early 1970s and has been involved in a variety of community-based feminist activities. A member of the original Feminist Studies Collective at University of Canterbury and the co-editor of two volumes of feminist writing in Aotearoa New Zealand, she has taught courses on gender, social theory, embodiment and social research that are relevant to feminist political issues. She has a long-term interest in personal narrative and was research coordinator for the NCWNZ Christchurch Branch Women’s Voices project, a digital oral history initiative that records women’s experiences of the Christchurch earthquakes.

Dr Gina Colvin considers herself to be more of an indigenous womanist than a feminist but nonetheless has blogged at Feminist Mormon Housewives. She is an Executive Board Member of Ordain Women, a group of Mormon women seeking priesthood ordination. She has a radio show at Plains FM, she is a religion podcaster, and a religion blogger. In her spare time she is a lecturer at the University of Canterbury and the mother of six males she is raising to be womanists and feminists.

Sionainn Byrnes has been a student at the University of Canterbury for the past six years. She is currently in the process of her completing her Masters degree in English Literature. Sionainn is a founding member, and the current President, of UC FemSoc – an intersectional feminist society based at the University of Canterbury. She presents a monthly show on Plains FM as part of the ‘Women on the Waves’ collective, and is the editor of the feminist zine ‘What She Said’.

Beck Eleven is a feature writer and columnist for The Press newspaper where she has been eight years. Last year she wrote about feminism in New Zealand today.

Dr Erin Harrington is a lecturer in English at the University of Canterbury where she teaches cultural studies and critical theory. Her research focuses on the representation of women and sexuality in popular culture.

ENDS

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