Women’s History Month 2022 at UIC
Women's History Month 2022 at UIC Heading link
Women’s History Month 2022 at UIC
We begin Women’s History Month by acknowledging a few wins—the U.S. women’s soccer team winning their fight for pay equity, the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first African American woman to receive this honor.
WHM is a moment to explore how women create change through their intellect, art, activism, and commitment to equity and justice. This year, our WHM programs are bookended by two events that explore the barriers and breakthroughs experienced by women in fields of medicine and allied health disciplines. Why? About half of all UIC undergraduates are women of color; a similar proportion is interested in medicine and health-related careers. There are several colleges devoted to medicine and the health sciences, and we want to foster more intentional opportunities for dialogue about equity and inclusion between WLRC and the various disciplines. We hope that our programs will provide insight into what it means to work as women scholars and practitioners in medicine in the 21st century, and the spaces where bold leadership and cutting-edge knowledge come together to create a more equitable present and future for all women in these fields.
On Wednesday, March 2, at noon, we kick off WHM with Dr. Heather Weinrich, who will present her research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women scholars at UIC.
We are participating in the Wellness Center‘s Take Care of Our Flames campaign to promote mental health and wellbeing in our respective communities. As part of our contribution to the campaign, we are excited to lead a reading/discussion of Elaine Welteroth’s memoir More Than Enough, on Tuesday, March 8. The event is limited to UIC women-identified students of color.
On March 9, we will host a discussion of the film LFG which documents the movement for pay equity led by U.S. women soccer players and their fans, and which led to a decisive win recently.
On March 18, we are excited to collaborate with the Underrepresented Minority Faculty Mentoring Program of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Engagement to host a teaching workshop for women and gender non-conforming faculty who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. The workshop will be led by Dr. Chavella Pittman. Postdoctoral fellows heading to tenure-track positions as well those who are pre-tenure are welcome to register. Limited seats available!
On Tuesday, March 29 at 2:30 PM, Dr. Chiquita Collins-Fisher will talk about women’s and anti-racist leadership in medicine. Please save the date!
These are only a few of the programs celebrating Women’s History Month at the center and on the campus. We hope to see you at as many of them as you are able! If there are programs that you want to see, please tell us: wlrc@uic.edu.
WLRC Masking Policy
Because WLRC is a hybrid space—we are a classroom, offices, and student center—we will follow the most protective strategy that allows us take the best care of our staff and visitors. That means that masks will be mandatory at WLRC until they are recommended in classrooms. We welcome you to visit with us on Mondays to Fridays, 10am to 3pm.
Ukraine
For the past few days, many of us have been preoccupied with Russia’s most recent attacks against Ukraine and found ways to stand in solidarity with Ukrainian people. Using a critical lens to understand the Russia-Ukraine conflict is challenging when we don’t have the right tools at our disposal. UIC’s Department of History is offering a forum to help us through.
We watch Putin’s assertion of empire through an “old-school” attempt to reassemble the Soviet Union from the verandah of U.S. empire, which has declared war on many countries, and in similar ways, in order to extend its own reach and power.
On display are major blind spots which shape who we see, with whom we empathize, and whose presence warrants explanation. North Americans often assume that Europe—and Ukraine—are White racially homogeneous places, devoid of Black people and other racialized groups who show up by crossing borders without invitation. But as historian Olive Otele’s book, African Europeans: An Untold Story, reminds us, European-ness has never been only available to White people. Nor are all White people in Europe seen as equals. Race is a social construct and looks different within and across European countries. Historian of Ukraine and country expert Kimberly S. Julian Varnon also informs us that Ukraine is a multiethnic country with a large Roma as well a growing Afro-Ukrainian community, and has long been seen as “not European enough” by other Western European countries. To many, Ukraine is at the bottom of Europe’s racial hierarchy.
Ignoring all this complexity for simplified narratives, the U.S. mainstream media has been telling the story of the invasion by invoking Eurocentric ideas of “civilization.” Europe—and countries like Ukraine—is described as an unnatural and unlikely place for wars to take place, compared to the “third world” countries that seem inordinately attracted to and only recognizable to the West through violence.
The reportage around the displacement also offers a nuanced picture of citizenship in Ukraine. On one hand, Black Ukrainians are already part of the body politic. On the other hand, the border-crossing policies allowed white Ukrainian women and children to cross the Ukrainian-Polish-Romanian borders but prevented Black and Brown students from Caribbean and African countries from doing the same thing. Old and new schisms around citizenship and belonging are being revealed in this time of crisis. Black experts on Ukraine, like freelance journalist Terrell Jermaine Starr (an alum of UIUC), have been invaluable in this moment, similar to the transnational effort of Patricia Daley, Tokunbo Koiko and Korrine Sky, three women who raised more than fifty thousand pounds to help more than 500 Black students leave Ukraine.
As the war carries on, we will learn more about the gendered arrangements created by war, resistance, and displacement. Already, the spectacular display of technology piloted by Russian and Ukrainian militaries, women and children being sent off as refugees, the invaded men—including Roma men and neo-Nazi men—staying (by choice or force) to fight for country, and women arming themselves, tell us something about the forms that patriotism still takes in the 21st century. Meanwhile, rightwing groups are either celebrating Putin’s aggression as he becomes an icon of White nationalist masculinity—the strong take-no-prisoners man—or arming themselves to fight alongside Ukrainian military against Russia. The war may also alter patterns in trafficking of women and girls from Ukraine for the worst. The problem is a longstanding one—Ukraine is one of the main source, transit, and destination countries for trafficking in the world. The situation is directly tied to poverty and is exacerbated in post-conflict moments.
To learn more about Ukraine, you can check out the double-header on Wednesday, March 2:
- UIC History department’s forum at noon
- African American Cultural Center’s Black Table Talks at 1pm.
You can support international non-governmental organizations that work in Ukraine, or explore Chicago-based ideas about how to help.
Take care of yourselves and each other,
Natalie Bennett