Hearsey Community Fellows Forums

The Brace Center for Gender Studies is sponsoring the following community forums to provide opportunities for students, faculty and staff to join together to discuss gender-related issues in our community. Please note the date, time and location of each presentation for they vary. The forums will be facilitated by Brace Center Hearsey Community Fellows. Student and/or faculty Fellows will open each forum with relevant information and background to set the context for a fruitful discussion. All members of the Phillips Academy community are warmly invited to attend. Dinner will be available through Commons and a special dessert will be provided.

2002-03 Hearsey Community Forums

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003—Kemper Auditorium
The Family Project: Videotaped Interviews About Family With Members
of the Phillips Academy Community
Judith Wombwell, instructor in theatre and dance
As part of an expanded Hearsey Community Fellows project, Judith Wombwell interviewed 25 members of the Phillips Academy community about the composition of their families and the complexities of modern day life. The result is a powerful representation of the striking diversity of family experiences and the challenges that individuals confront and engage. Viewers realize that our assumptions about others are often misguided, and that courage and heroism are character traits that many display in their everyday intimate interactions. This one hour and 40 minute video is followed by a question and answer period with Judith Wombwell and participants in the Family Project.

Tuesday, April 8, 2003—Rose Room in Commons
It’s a Blonde, Blonde World: A Discussion of Clueless and Legally Blonde
Woodney H. and Maressa Grieco, instructor in English
As a culture, we are fascinated by movies featuring young, blonde females using their femininity to their advantage and accomplishing goals that exceed the expectations of the audience. How are these girls portrayed in films that generate huge profits at the box office? What does our interest in these films say about our society as a whole? By analyzing two movies, Clueless and Legally Blonde, we address these and other related questions. In our forum, we show clips from the two films that we feel best exemplify the gender related issues addressed in these productions. We offer our interpretation of the clips as a jumping off point for a thoughtful discussion that focuses on gender in film and pop culture.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003—Rose Room in Commons
Claiming Pain
Adam E. and Jeffrey Domina, instructor in English
In a country that enshrines "the pursuit of happiness," what does it mean that so much of our culture focuses on the pursuit of pain? From songs of lost love to memoirs of faddish eating disorders, our culture encourages the consumption of other people’s experiences of pain. From the body-piercing parlor to the mosh pit, Americans eagerly indulge in rituals of physical suffering. Although this culture of pain often reflects traditional notions of gender, it may instead or even simultaneously serve to subvert those notions. In this forum, we examine the ways in which this claiming of pain complicates and perhaps undermines our understanding of gender and identity formation.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003—Rose Room in Commons
The ‘LAT’ in Af-Lat-Am: Minority Clubs and Identity Formation at P.A. and Beyond
Amanda V., Jorge Allen, iInstructor in Spanish and adviser to African-American and Latino students, and Margarita Curtis, instructor in Spanish and head of the Division of World Languages
What role do minority cultural clubs play in the process of identity formation of secondary school students? Do they foster communication and understanding across racial, ethnic and gender barriers within a community or do they, inversely, reinforce the lines of separation and cultural stereotyping? What has been the impact of grouping African Americans and Latinos/Latinas into one club and under one rubric at Phillips Academy? To what extent is Af-Lat-Am fulfilling the declared mission of its founders? Given the fact that Latinos/Latinas now constitute the largest minority in the U.S., should the original mission of the club be reconsidered? How do current Latino/Latina students view the club and its impact on their lives at P.A.?

While our primary focus is the role of Af-Lat-Am for Latinos/Latinas at P.A., both since its inception and at present, we will attempt to determine the extent to which our institution reflects national norms and trends. Interviews with alumni and with current students, as well as sociological studies and memoirs will provide the framework for the exploration of these questions and issues.

2001-02 Hearsey Community Forums

Tuesday, April 9, 2002—Rose Room, Commons
The "Sex Survey" at PA: Myth, Truth and Meaning
Facilitators: Rachel Sobelson, '02; Paul Cernota, Instructor, Chemistry
Participants discuss the survey findings related to sexual behavior that constituted one aspect of the study administered by the Community Health Team last spring. The survey suggests that the perception of sexual activity on campus far outweighs the reality. What are the sources for this discrepancy? Who benefits from this false perception? What are the underlying assumptions regarding sexuality itself that are reflected in these results? What other questions does the survey raise?