Wednesday, Dec. 9
Maceli’s (1031 New Hampshire)
Doors at 7:30, presentations at 8:00
No spoilers. No midi-cholorians. Nerd Nite is calling to you. Just let it in.
Our Program for the Evening:
Expanding the Universe: Kitbashing as Three-Dimensional Fan Fiction by Matt Jacobson
‘You Don’t Know the Power of the Dark Side’: The Mysterious 24% of the Universe We Call Dark Matter by Alex Ford
‘I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing’: Science Fiction vs. Star Wars by Adam Mills
FULL DESCRIPTIONS
“Expanding the Universe: Kitbashing as Three-Dimensional Fan Fiction”
by Matt Jacobson
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (well, actually in Van Nuys, CA, in 1976), modelmakers from Industrial Light and Magic pushed the envelope of model design and construction to create the groundbreaking mechanical details of the worlds of STAR WARS. Their work set the standard for movie FX for years to come, and their designs became the basis for commercial plastic models, built by generations of STAR WARS fans. Today, some of those fans “bash” their own models into new designs that expand on the ideas presented in the Star Wars Universe. This presentation covers one fan’s creation of “kitbashed” designs, and how “kitbashing” can become a kind of storytelling in its own right.
Biography
When he’s not down in the Cavern of Awesomeness (a/k/a the model-building room in the basement), Matt Jacobson works as a professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas, teaching cinematography and film and media production. For the last sixteen years, he has worked as director Kevin Willmott’s cinematographer, filming projects like CSA: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN, and JAYHAWKERS. Previous to that, Matt worked in the film industry in Los Angeles, including working as an FX-unit technician on ED WOOD and MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE. He has three children, and two-and-a-half Corgis.
“‘You Don’t Know the Power of the Dark Side’: The Mysterious 24% of the Universe We Call Dark Matter” by Alex Ford
Description
Alex Ford will discuss how we first discovered something was amiss with our understanding of galaxy dynamics, the differences between modified gravity and dark matter, and finally what the current understanding of dark matter is.
Biography
Alex Ford is working on a phd in astrophysics from KU. His primary research focus is plasma production in the magnetosphere around spinning black holes and its implications to astrophysical jets, but he is excited to take a break from the brightest objects in the universe to talk about the darkest.
“‘I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing’: Science Fiction vs. Star Wars”
by Adam Mills
Description
It would seem uncontroversial to say that Star Wars is regarded as a high-water mark in the history of science fiction film and storytelling – and yet, since the initial release of A New Hope back in 1977, there has been significant argument not only over whether Star Wars is in fact science fiction, but also whether or not it “ruined” science fiction to some extent in the public imagination. This presentation hopes to profile the controversy within the fan community upon precisely these questions, and then go further to ask why these questions are so important in the first place. In other words: why does it matter whether or not we think of Star Wars as science fiction? Why does it matter that we call anything science fiction?
Biography
Adam Mills is a PhD student in Creative Writing at KU. He is also volunteer coordinator of AboutSF, the educational outreach branch of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. He has previously served as Fiction Editor for Beecher’s Magazine and Managing Editor for the webzine Weird Fiction Review. To this day, Mills credits The Empire Strikes Back for first stoking his affection for wild twist endings. You know, the one where Boba Fett takes his helmet off to reveal that he’s actually Lando Calrissian. Yeah, that one.
Doors open at 7:30 PM. Presentations begin at 8:00. $1 Cover.
May the Force be with You
Wednesday, Nov. 11
Maceli’s (1031 New Hampshire)
Doors at 7:30, presentations at 8:00
featuring:
Special aerial performances from The Last Carnival throughout the night!
https://www.facebook.com/circusschoolkansas/?fref=ts
That’s a Wrap: Unraveling the intrinsic code of aerial silks body wraps by Dagney Velazquez
Aerial silks, a relative newcomer to the circus world, combines acrobatics, dance, and daredevil courage into an art form that seems to defy gravity. Aerialists are held aloft using not only sheer strength but also by wrapping the fabric around their bodies intricately. These combinations of wraps have been passed along from one aerialist to another, and each unique wrap has been given a common, though not universal, name.
As an amateur aerialist who was initially thoroughly confused by the body wraps, I decided to use my math skills to create a code that could adequately detail and communicate the various wrap combinations. I will present the early stages of this work.
Dagney J. Velazquez is a math professor at Kansas City Kansas Community College where she regularly annoys her students with exclamations of joy over the beauty and mystery of mathematics. She holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, a Masters of Divinity, and is one class away from her Masters of Mathematics. During her downtime, she enjoys hiking, bicycling, aerial silks, acroyoga, and annoying her daughter with exclamations of joy over the beauty and mystery of mathematics.
The Speed of Weightlessness by Crystal Shepherd
Weightlifting and how body movements like pull ups and kettle bell swings use power and speed to lift objects, not just brute strength.
Crystal Shepherd is a coach and personal trainer, with over 13 years of experience in the industry. She has Master’s level education in the area of mental health counseling and enjoys the study of human behavior and movement.
She is engaged to her best friend, Zach Sherman, and together they have owned and operated a training facility. They have 4 kids, and 2 dogs, and a lot of laundry.
Wednesday, Oct. 14
Maceli’s (1031 New Hampshire)
Doors at 7:30, presentations at 8:00
featuring:
Scheherazade’s Clothes: Harem Fashion and Politics in Sudan by Marie Brown
A strict culture of seclusion and limited access to formal education have long given scholars the impression that for much of the twentieth century Sudanese women were politically uninformed and isolated in their homes. But what if we’ve been looking for women’s voices in the wrong places? Why are historians so obsessed with (male-dominated) written documents? When we abandon texts for textiles, we find Sudanese women to be eager storytellers: weaving together tales of local celebrities, global revolution, Broadway plays, and space exploration in their clothes.
Marie Brown is an Assistant Professor of Middle East History at KU. Her book, Khartoum at Night: The Politics and Pleasures of Fashion in Imperial Sudan, argues that northern Sudanese women’s experiences of imperialism were expressed on and through their bodies. Her work on fashion means that she has a reputation to uphold and must always appear smartly dressed at work, parties, the farmers’ market, and even on errands to Cottin’s Hardware. When not buried under books, archival notes, or old photographs, Marie can be found knitting…or kickboxing.
“Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability movies were once recorded on vinyl discs” by Sean Passmore
The CED movie format from the 1980s was movies recorded on large vinyl discs. This format lost badly to other, better and more popular formats such as VHS & Laserdiscs.
Sean Passmore claims Lawrence as his hometown, despite growing up on a farm in Western Kansas and living in New York City throughout most of the ’00s. Sean was formerly a late night radio personality, under a pseudonym, at 105.9 the Lazer throughout the mid ‘90s, and is currently a car salesperson, collector of obscure information, Downtown Lawrence enthusiast and is good at jokes sometimes.
Of poets and robots. Twitter bots as everyday literature. By Élika Ortega
Twitter, like other social media, have a reputation of being the dark, superfluous doom of culture. Though crucial activist uses of Twitter have been common in social movements like the various versions of Occupy around the world, the microblogging platform still has to be seen as a place where arts ocurr. In this talk, I will talk about of Twitter bots in order to propose them as a radically contemporary literary phenomena that floods our everyday use of the platform.
Don’t know what a Twitter bot is? This talk is for you!
élika ortega
Élika is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Kansas. Before coming to Lawrence, she spent almost a decade in Canada, and before that, she grew up in Mexico City. She is nerdy about literature, computers, and weird books, both old and new.
A self-declared dog person, when she’s not working in the mysterious and wondrous field of Digital Humanities (don’t forget to ask her what that is) she likes to bind books, ride bikes, and run. You can find her on Twitter as @elikaortega
Wednesday, Sept. 16
Maceli’s (1031 New Hampshire)
Doors at 7:30, presentations at 8:00
featuring:
How Convenience Affects Our Health: The Inconvenience of Convenience by Angie Schoenherr
It is no secret that convenience is a large part of our culture, but when does our pursuit for convenience no longer become so convenient? In this presentation, we will examine several points on how the pursuit of convenience influences our current health choices, examples of how we can approach convenience in a balanced manner, along with tips on how to gain a deeper understanding of your own relationship to health and convenience.
Angie Schoenherr received her certification as a Holistic Master Nutrition Therapist at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado. She currently works out of Southwind Health Collective and teaches nutrition classes at the Community Mercantile. Angie’s primary interest and motivation in being a nutritionist is based out of dissatisfaction with modern medicine and a desire to help others feel empowered to make their own health decisions. Aside from being a nutritionist, she spends her time playing music, painting, making up new dance
moves, taking naps, going to potlucks, and being an organizer for Girls Rock! Lawrence.
Living in a Missile Base: The Amazing Transformation of Cold War Infrastructure by Leigh Anne Fulkerson
In the two decades following World War II, the US spent billions of taxpayer dollars on defense. To compete with Russia in the race for space and as a nuclear deterrent, US missile systems were continually developed and improved. In this presentation you’ll learn more about these hardened, underground structures and see how some amazing people have transformed them from stark, abandoned places that once housed weapons of mass destruction into safe, comfortable and interesting housing for people.
As “Missile Base Specialists” Leigh Ann and Matthew Fulkerson first met, got married, and lived at an Atlas E missile base called Subterra Castle, which is located about 20 miles west of Topeka. From 2010 until last month, they worked with “20th Century Castles, LLC” the leaders in location, acquisition, and sales of missile bases nationwide. In 2013, they formed their own company, Plan B Consulting, LLC and purchased an Atlas F missile base in central Kansas. They are currently in the process of re-purposing it.
Looms and Computers: The Rollercoaster of Contemporary Weaving by Carla Tilghman
A brief exploration of the overlapping worlds of craft and technology, art and craft, gender and labor. All in 20 minutes. Contemporary digitally assisted looms developed from technology used in China 2000 years ago. In the west, these looms played a key role in the Industrial Revolution and simultaneously, in the development of the Modernist Textile movement. Many contemporary weavers now use digitally assisted looms to create woven products — which all stand on the ground on the ground of the gendered history of labor and the artworld. Really, all in 20 minutes.
Carla learned to spin and weave when she was 12 and has been fascinated with textiles in general and weaving in particular ever since. After a career as a paramedic (you never know where life will lead you), she earned my MFA in Studio Arts from Kent State University and am working on a PhD in American Studies from KU. No surprise, she is writing about …. you guessed it, weavers who use digital technology and looms. In her copious spare time, she chases after her child, hangs with her husband, plays with the cats and watches “Chicken TV” in her backyard. Oh, and she weaves like mad, because weaving is amazing.
Summer Shorts is back on July 15th, Thun-Nerd-Dome style! Summer Shorts is our annual event where we flip Nerd Nite on its head. Instead of three 15 minute presentations, you will get to enjoy fifteen 3 minute presentations! Topics range from roller derby to pie crusts, wilderness to Ren Faires, and GPS to weightlifting! Doors open for our crazy event at Maceli’s at 7:30 pm with presentations starting at 8 pm. $1 cover for a night of fun!
Presenters include:
Allison Puderbaugh: “Wilderness or Why Mule Packing is Important”
Sally Chang: “The Many Lives of the Jellies”
Rustin Dodd: “The Winter of Ernest: Hemingway’s forgotten time just down the road”
Jenny O’Brien: “A Mating Call for Carpoolers”
Crystal Shepherd: “The Incredible Snatch Revealed”
Kate Meyer: “The Lattice Pie Crust: Fussy or Functional?”
Dawn Buehler: “Kansas Tributaries: Water Maze”
Kim Bellemere: “The Tallgrass Prairie: More Than Just Grass?”
Mark Reaney: “All Things Sherlock”
Emily Fekete: “Huzzah! There’s More to Ren Faires than Beer and Boobs”
Maulik Nariya: “Where the fork am I? Working principles of GPS”
Lindsey Givens: “Yellow Fever Pitch: the Ugly, the Bad, and the Good”
Jenica Nelson: “Stronger in numbers: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s (and Kansas’) Environment”
Erin Schramm: “It Looks Cool but What the Hell is Happening? The Rules of Roller Derby”
Chris Ford: “Taking in the Good”
For our 40th Nerd Nite, we are going to explore the themes of music and comedy! In Nerd Nite 39: Three Nerds Walk into a Bar…, there will be presentations on hidden tracks, rock humor, and feminist stand-up. Join us on Wednesday, June 10th at Maceli’s at 8 pm. (Doors open at 7:30) $1 cover.
Adrian Jacobs: “A Funny Thing Happened at the End of the Album”
Exploring the stories, methods and madness behind some of the greatest hidden tracks of all time.
Adrian Jacobs is the Senior Communications and Operations specialist at LJWorld, Lawrence.com and KUsports.com and helps run the annual Best of Lawrence event. He’s on the board of the Social Media Club of Lawrence and is an alumni DJ with KJHK. A self-proclaimed musicologist, film buff, art history enthusiast, amateur videographer and recent High School Talent Show Judge, Adrian is also known to play guitar and “sing”
Iain Ellis: “A Hurried History of Subversive Rock Humor”
This presentation will throw a spotlight on the history of humor in rock music and its use as a weapon of anti-establishment rebellion. The performers who are the subjects are not merely musicians or comedians–they are artists whose works exude defiance and resistance, whether aimed at social structures, cultural mores, political systems, or the music industry itself. Subversive rock humorists serve as the conscience of our culture. They criticize pretensions, satirize hypocrisy, and pour scorn on power, corruption, and lies.
Born in Manchester and raised east of London, Iain Ellis now lives in LFK where he teaches classes on youth rebellion for the KU English Department. He mostly writes about humor and youth culture, writing over 50 articles for the online journalPopMatters and publishing 2 books on rock humor, Rebels Wit Attitude: Subversive Rock Humorists and Brit Wits: A History of British Rock Humor. When not writing or propping up the bar at the Replay, Iain performs and records with 3 local bands: KT/DG, The Leotards, and Heebie Jeebies.
Rachel Blackburn: “Surfing the Fourth-Wave of Feminism in Stand-Up Comedy”
Feminism has been lurking around comic corners for a long time, ever since Jane Austen penned her wit to paper and even before. So how then does our current wave of feminism play out on the stand-up comedy stage? Is feminist stand-up comedy just jokes made by women? For women? Involving vaginas and the wage gap? Or is there more to it? Take a look at the various layers of how fourth-wave feminist politics and social views are constructed through the new and exciting work of stand-up comics who self-identify all throughout that beautiful gender spectrum. We’ll look at the work of Free State Fest performer Tig Notaro, plus Hari Kondabolu and Adrienne Truscott among others, and the exchange between comedy and the fight for equality. Plus, you’ll learn the answer to the age-old question, “Can you write a feminist dick joke?”
Rachel Blackburn, M.F.A. (Virginia Commonwealth University) is currently a third-year Ph.D. student and instructor in KU’s Theatre Department. Her research explores the intersections of stand-up comedy, race, gender, transnational and performance studies. Her professional practice frequently involves directing and performing theatre, both abroad and domestically. This summer, she is teaching Public Speaking as Performance, directing a play reading, presenting her writing at a theatre conference to friendly Canadians, and performing in a New Play Development workshop in Montreal. When Rachel’s not imparting wisdom to her students or gleaning it from professors, she can be found playing her guitar, dancing to some sick beats (preferably by T-Pain), travelling the world, wishing she had a puppy, and laughing a lot with her friends along the way.
This month we’re exploring below the surface! Go underground with us to hear about fossilized animal burrows and how wastewater in Lawrence is treated and reclaimed. Then we’ll take a look inside your smartphone and be amazed that computers were once made of rocks.
Doors open at 7:30 at Maceli’s and presentations begin at 8. Cover is $1. Food served until 9-ish!
Presenters include:
Renée Whaley: “Let’s Drop a Deuce (Colon) the Future of Wastewater Treatment in Lawrence, Kansas”
Do you ever wonder what happens to water once it goes down the drain? Where do all the offerings to the porcelain princess go? What’s up with all this talk about the city building a second wastewater treatment plant? Wastewater treatment is the totally non-sexy, oft-forgotten sibling to water treatment, but as a community we’re poised to invest $70 million into building a new wastewater treatment plant and currently “sewer” adds the most to your utility bill. This presentation will (hopefully) demystify wastewater treatment, explain why the new plant will be super awesome, and inform you as to why your drains are not magical holes that lead to nothingness.
Renée is a graduate of the University of Kansas where she studied philosophy, and she currently works for the City of Lawrence Utilities Department which goes to show that there is life for humanities majors after school. She is a state certified water and wastewater operator, and in her free time she spoons with her cat, looks at stuff under a microscope and blogs about it (lfkulture.tumblr.com), and lifts like a bro, bro.
Nicole Dzenowski: “Holes in Dirt: What’s Really Going on Down There?”
It’s easy to think that nothing but worms and bugs make their living underground but the ground is practically alive under our feet with all sorts of animals, large and small. This presentation will introduce you to the many unexpected animals that burrow, modern and extinct, and how these burrows can be used by paleontologists to interpret ancient environments and ecosystems.
Nicole is a paleontology Ph.D. student in the geology department at KU. She is interested in all aspects of burrowing in extinct and modern vertebrates. While she thinks all vertebrates are cool, she knows that amphibians are the coolest. Deep down, you know this too. In the few sweet moments she gets outside of school she enjoys sleeping, watching the X-files, listening to Dave Matthews Band, and drinking fancy cocktails.
John Parton: “A Brief History of the Mechanical Computer or: What the F#ck is a Slide Rule?”
The presentation will cover the overall evolution of computational technology from counting pebbles to more sophisticated tools. The modern electronic computer is not a singular invention, but rather a long series of innovations, each improving on the previous work. This talk will give a glimpse at the sometimes obscured foundation of the devices that we use every day.
John is a computer programmer working here in Lawrence. He loves making his brain work on just about any topic he can get his hands on, but his real passions are mathematics and computer science.
Spring has sprung in LFK! Join us this month as we celebrate nature with Nerd Nite 37: Spring Greening! There will be presentations on cannabis, the creation of Yellowstone National Park, and a talk from the Kansas River Keeper. Doors will open at Maceli’s at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, April 15. Snacks and full bar available! $1 cover.
Presentations will include:
Barney Warf: “High Points: The Historical Geography of Cannabis”
This presentation offers an overview of the diffusion of cannabis among different cultures, ranging from prehistoric Asia to the colonial world system to the contemporary United States. It examines the various ways in which cannabis has been tied up with local cultures and global politics, noting that until very recently it was legal and often promoted by governments around the world.
Barney is a professor of geography at the University of Kansas. His research covers a broad array of economic, social and political topics, particularly telecommunications and the internet. His hobbies, if anyone cares, include martinis, travel, jazz, wine, and science fiction.
Dawn Buehler: “Kansas River: A National Water Trail”
This presentation will discuss the Kansas River as a National Water Trail and give you an overview of the Kansas Riverkeeper’s role to protect and preserve the Kansas River. We will take a look at the history of the river, the watershed, advocacy for the rehabilitation of the Kansas River environs including water quality and wildlife habitat, and the promotion of compatible public recreational uses of the Kansas River.
Dawn is the Kansas Riverkeeper , a non-governmental public advocate for the Kansas River who holds the community accountable for the health of the river. As a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, she is supported by Friends of the Kaw, a grassroots conservation group dedicated to protecting the Kansas River.
Chelsea Graham: “Geysers, Railroads, and the Creation of Nature”
Of all the flora and fauna protected in Yellowstone National Park, the most ubiquitous is steam. Steam in Yellowstone is evidence of the hundreds of hydrothermal features for which the park is most renowned and that in 1872 served as the primary justification for the park’s establishment. Since, hundreds of thousands of people flock every year from all over the world to visit the natural “Wonderland” found at Yellowstone. However, steam played a much more foundational role in the establishment of Yellowstone National Park by way of the steam engines of the Northern Pacific Railroad. This presentation explores the curious history of steam in relationship to Yellowstone National Park and questions the ways in which we articulate the purity and power of natural places.
Chelsea is a PhD Candidate specializing in Rhetoric at the University of Kansas where she is writing a dissertation about the relationship between rhetorics of steam and the effects of Industrial Modernity. When she’s not busy answering the question “what is rhetoric?,” she enjoys the outdoors, cooking, sports, and fantasizing about life after graduate school. She’s inclined to believe it’s probably not bad.
It is our first Nerd Nite at our new location! Join us at Maceli’s for Nerd Nite 36: Smarty Party! Our party themed event will feature presentations on noise induced hearing loss, St. Patrick’s Day, and craft beer from Free State’s head brewer! There will also be a SNACKS menu with items such as french fries, hummus and pita, vegetarian antipasto sliders, and BBQ pork sliders. Plus a full bar and MORE SPACE! That’s right, we no longer have to turn anyone away!
Join us on March 11th when doors open at 7:30 pm. Presentations will start at 8:00 pm. Still only $1 cover! Maceli’s is located at 1031 New Hampshire St.
Presentations include:
Aryn Kamerer: “Come on Feel the Noise: Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and You.”
Everyone knows that noise is bad for your ears, but just how much noise is too much noise? If you have ever asked yourself what exactly is going on behind your ear drum when you’re at Allen Fieldhouse or a St. Paddy’s Day party, look no further! Aryn will take you on a thrilling journey through the ear and discuss new research in noise-induced hearing loss that challenges the field’s previous ideas on why so many of us need hearing aids when we age.
Aryn received her BA in Speech-Language Pathology at KU and is currently pursuing a PhD in Audiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She spends most of her time in the Auditory Physiology Lab where her research focuses on creating new diagnostic techniques for identifying hearing loss, and the Electrical Hearing Lab where she is working on quantifying cognitive listening effort in people with cochlear implants. Although Aryn loves to preach about hearing protection, you can find her many a night in front of the stage at the Bottleneck, Jazzhaus, or Green Lady in KC.
Stephen Hassard: “St. Patrick’s Day: Time to fly the red, white, and blue.”
St. Patrick’s is a day of drinking green beer and shamrock shakes. But how much of St. Patrick’s day celebrations accurately reflects what we know about St Patrick? Considering the British and American influences on making St. Patrick’s day what it is today shouldn’t we be flying the red white and blue instead of the green, white and orange? The issue though is that in Ireland what flag you fly is ladened with religious and political connotations. In this talk we’ll discuss some of the different flags associated with St. Patrick and what those mean to different demographics of the Irish Population.
Stephen is an Irish-man who grew up in the colds of Canada (he says ‘eh’ far more often than ‘wee’ – unless there is beer involved or if the Irish consulate is jerking him around). When he isn’t eating potatoes Stephen works at Garmin as a UX Designer.
Geoff Deman: “Bud scars, Mutants, and Cannibals: the Wonderful, Horrible Life of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae.”
Geoff forsook his degree in Art History some 20 years ago and embarked upon an beer-fueled bender in fermentation sciences, in Seattle during its Craft Beer nascency. Geoff’s ongoing odyssey in brewing landed him at the Free State back in 2002 where his continuing education in beer has included multiple stints judging at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, scholarship with the Master Brewers Association of America, travels far and wide, and authoring the briefest of entries in the Oxford Companion to Beer. All that is well and good, but he finds ultimate satisfaction with a mash paddle in hand, tending to a brew and looking out to see smiling faces enjoying the beer he brews.
Information about our new venue, Maceli’s, here: http://www.macelis.com/
It’s our last Nerd Nite at Pachamama’s Alton Ballroom 🙁 On February 11, come celebrate Pachamama’s and Read Across Lawrence with presentations related to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Presentations will cover topics from Feminist interpretations of porn, to human trafficking, to privacy in a digital age. Doors will open for the event at 7:30 and presentations will start at 8:00. $1 cover.
Jon Peters: “Thy brother came with subtlety: Journalism and its New Privacy Problem”
In the digital world, almost everything you do leaves a trace. That’s a problem for journalists who need to protect confidential sources and information. This talk will explore how journalists are navigating a new set of privacy challenges.
Jonathan Peters, an attorney, is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Kansas, where he teaches media law. He is also a faculty affiliate at the KU Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.
Kate Gramlich: “Feminists Tackle Porn: From Handmaid’s Tale to Herself.com”
Radical feminists and staunch conservatives almost never see eye to eye… except when it comes to porn. In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, both the pre-Gileadean feminists and the controlling religious regime stood firmly against pornography’s harmful imagery. However, the issue is even further complicated in American society today by debates within feminism on whether porn is inherently oppressive or able to be a site for empowerment.
My goal of this talk is to give a brief overview of the conflicting narratives within feminist theory, introducing key players and arguments of both “anti-pornography” and “anti-censorship”/”pro-sex” feminisms. I will draw in quotes from The Handmaid’s Tale, this year’s Read Across Lawrence book, as well as incorporating more recent discussions on the topic. It is my hope for audience members to use this information as a framework for discussing porn and feminism, as Right vs. Wrong, but more as an open-ended conversation about a complex issue.
Kate is a member of the (fantastic) Readers’ Services staff at the Lawrence Public Library and a recent Kansas transplant. She studied communication and taught women’s studies at Southern IL University Carbondale and is now thrilled to be a part of the Lawrence community. Find her in the fiction loop at the library to chat about books, feminism, cats, glitter, etc.
Corinne Schwarz: “Human Trafficking in the Heartland”
Human trafficking is a phenomenon we don’t usually encounter outside of breaking news updates and “Law and Order: SVU” marathons. But the hidden population of vulnerable, exploited, and trafficked persons does exist in our Kansas communities. Additionally, some interesting Kansas politicians have been major players in state and national-level anti-trafficking policy. This talk will establish the climate of human trafficking and anti-trafficking advocacy across the state and show how trafficking exists outside of our sensationalized media narratives.
Corinne is a graduate student in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at KU. She is also a graduate research assistant with KU’s Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative (ASHTI), an interdisciplinary working group examining vulnerability, exploitation, and trafficking. Her own research looks at anti-human trafficking interventions and health services delivery in rural and underserved communities. When she’s not researching, she’s probably eating a burrito.
