Women’s History Month
WHM 2023 Heading link
Celebrate Women’s History Month 2023 with the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center!
VOICES: Aram Han Sifuentes Heading link

VOICES: Aram Han Sifuentes
Thursday, March 9, 2023
5-6:30pm CT
UIC Gallery 400, 400 S. Peoria St.
Artist and activist Aram Han Sifuentes’s work confronts social and racial injustices, interweaving fiber, social practice, performance, and pedagogy to consider themes of immigration, labor, and protest. Many of her projects, such as the ongoing Protest Banner Lending Library, aim to make art more accessible to the disenfranchised, especially immigrants of color. Since 2016, Sifuentes has brought communities together to sew protest banners, creating a creative outlet of resistance for those who cannot attend protests for their own safety.
Join Sifuentes for a lecture on their practice’s trajectory, exploring how they make political statements and engage communities through participatory art.
Presented in partnership with UIC Gallery 400 and Gender and Women’s Studies.
Artist-Activists Reimagining Justice: Ashley Dequilla and Sarah Whyte Heading link

Artist-Activists Reimagining Justice: Ashley Dequilla and Sarah Whyte
Friday, March 10, 2023
11:30am – 1pm CT
Zoom
How do women and gender non-conforming artists who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color decide to use their creative skills to bolster social justice movements? How does their work engage racial and economic justice to imagine new possibilities with and for their local communities and beyond? How do they bring this work into the academy and vice-versa?
During Women’s History Month, WLRC is hosting dialogues with artists, activists, and educators to explore these questions and inspire new ways to work collectively toward a better world.
Join us for a conversation with artists and UIC MFA students Ashley Dequilla and Sarah Whyte about how their work brings visibility to Asian American and transnational adoptee experiences and justice movements.
Women of Color Affinity Group: Celebrating Our History Heading link

Women of Color Affinity Group: Celebrating Our History
Monday, March 13, 2023
2-3:30pm CT
1700 SSB, 1200 W. Harrison St.
Are you a woman-identifying student of color looking to build connections and community at UIC? The Women’s Leadership and Resource Center invites you to join our new Affinity Group!
We’ll start this month’s gathering with a reflection about the women of color who have inspired us in our personal, academic, and professional lives. Then we’ll let the conversation flow wherever it takes us!
- Open to UIC undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who identify as women of color (including Black, Indigenous, Latina/e/x, Asian/Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern/Northern African, and mixed race women)
WLRC’s Affinity Groups provide students who share an identity or professional interest space to gather, discuss shared experiences, support each other through challenges, and affirm and celebrate their communities. Each group meets once a month and is facilitated by WLRC staff.
Sovereignty Is in the Body: Indigeneity and Reproductive Justice Heading link

Sovereignty Is in the Body: Indigeneity and Reproductive Justice
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
12-2pm CT
Zoom
What does reproductive justice look like for Indigenous women in the U.S.? Drawing on their experiences as Indigenous feminist activists, birth workers, and healthcare practitioners in the U.S., the panelists will discuss the connections between historic conditions and contemporary struggles for reproductive justice, as well as the strategies, successes, and challenges of organizing for reproductive justice in the post-Dobbs moment.
Speakers:
- Nicolle Gonzales, Midwifery Director/Founder of Changing Women Initiative
- M. Carmen Lane, Founder and Director, ATNSC: Center for Healing & Creative Leadership
- Rachael Lorenzo, Co-founder/Executive Director, Indigenous Women Rising
- Janelle Palacios, PhD, CNM, Nurse Midwife Scientist & Storyteller for Social Justice
Moderator: Cindy Tekobbe, Assistant Professor, Critical Feminist Science & Technology, UIC
Presented by the UIC Women’s Leadership and Resource Center and Indigenous Graduate Student Association. Co-sponsored by UIC Native American Support Program, Gender and Women’s Studies, and College of Nursing.
Women in STEM & Business Affinity Group: Honoring Women Trailblazers Heading link

Women in STEM & Business Affinity Group: Honoring Women Trailblazers
Thursday, March 16, 2023
2-3:30pm CT
1700 SSB, 1200 W. Harrison St.
Are you a woman-identifying student in Business or STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) looking to build connections and community at UIC? The Women’s Leadership and Resource Center invites you to join our new Affinity Group!
We’ll start this month’s gathering by recognizing the women STEM & business leaders who have paved the way for us. Then we’ll let the conversation flow wherever it takes us!
- Open to UIC undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who identify as women and are majoring or interested in STEM and business fields
WLRC’s Affinity Groups provide students who share an identity or professional interest space to gather, discuss shared experiences, support each other through challenges, and affirm and celebrate their communities. Each group meets once a month and is facilitated by WLRC staff.
Artist-Activists Reimagining Reproductive and Gender Justice Heading link

Artist-Activists Reimagining Reproductive and Gender Justice
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
12-2pm CT
1700 SSB, 1200 W. Harrison St.
How do women and gender non-conforming artists who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color decide to use their creative skills to bolster social justice movements? How does their work engage racial and economic justice to imagine new possibilities with and for their local communities and beyond? How do they bring this work into the academy and vice-versa?
During Women’s History Month, WLRC is hosting dialogues with artists, activists, and educators to explore these questions and inspire new ways to work collectively toward a better world.
Join us for a conversation with artists and community activists Ashley Dequilla, Queen Hibbler, and Onyx about how their work brings visibility to reproductive and gender justice movements. The discussion will be followed by a screenprinting party featuring a custom design by one of the participating artists. Please bring a t-shirt, tote bag, poster, or other item to have screenprinted (we will have some shirts and bags available for free on a first-come, first-served basis).
Pacific Islander Feminisms Heading link

Engaging Pacific Island Feminism and Indigenous Feminism
Thursday, March 30, 2023
4-5pm CT
Zoom
Join us for a special event with Dr. Stephanie Nohelani Teves, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Dr. Maile Arvin, Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, about Pacific Island Feminism, expanding on their co-written chapter, “Decolonizing API,” in Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics.
Presented in partnership with the UIC AANAPISI Initiative, Native American Support Program, Global Asian Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Center. This event is also part of the Deconstructing AAPI Series, which is dedicated to curating events that expose the identity-specific issues that are hidden when grouping the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.