GenderYOUTH Network

IUSB: Blurr zine calls for submissions

Call for submissions... on gender.

Greetings!

Gender Project is well underway at Indiana University of South Bend. We are a new, student organized, gender advocacy group on campus associated with GenderPAC.

Last month we distributed our first issue of Blurr, a new zine with a focus on gender. It was a great success here at IUSB and soon we hope to be able to share the zine with a much larger audience by making the publication available online.

In the meantime, we are currently compiling works for the second issue. We hope to begin printing in just a few short weeks.

This zine is a focus on all aspects of gender and how it crosses lines of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and more.

A call for submissions... more info below.

With as much diversity as we have among our students and faculty here at IUSB (and the larger community), I know there is just as wide a range of creativity. I would like to use these creative voices in order to educate and advocate the versatility and complications of gender as they are portrayed and interpreted in our society.

We're looking for artists, poets, essayists, personal stories, etc. -anything that can be related to gender, be it positive or negative.

Can you help or do you know someone who would be interested? If you would like to send us a submission or if you have questions, please contact us via e-mail.

Karrie Blevins
Coordinator, The Gender Project
Indiana University at South Bend

For submissions:
E-mail: blurr@iusb.edu

For questions:
E-mail: kblevins@iusb.edu

For snail mail:

The Gender Project
Indiana University South Bend
1700 Mishawaka Ave
South Bend, IN 46634

X-posted to relevant online communities including the GenderYOUTH Network on Yahoo.

RSS feed available via Livejournal.

IUSB: The Gender Project

Hey all! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I know I am
especially enjoying the 14509345823049 degree heat. Yum. :/

Right. Well, back to business....

"The Gender Project" will be the name of our GenderYOUTH group here
at IUSB, at least to start off with. We're working on a couple
things before classes start in the Fall.

A website is being developed and we plan to have it up and running
by mid-August.

We're also hoping to get the G-Zine printed around the same time.

As mentioned in our last post, we are looking for submissions that
would be topic related - drawings, poems, OpEds, etc.

As for the website, we welcome suggestions for information,
materials, etc. to be included.

Looking forward to hearing from many of you before school starts.

X-posted

For equality & diversity,
Karee

Zine: IUSB chapter calls for submissions...

We are working on putting a zine together for the beginning of the Fall semester here at IU-South Bend. This first issue will be geared towards incoming freshmen students and student organizations getting back into the swing of things. This is a call for submissions (or suggestions)... So, if you have some artistic talent that you'd like to share... along the lines of gender, stereotypes, labels, etc., let us hear 'em! Interesting articles, poems, or other written works would be greatly appreciated too. (Plus, we can send you a copy once its ready to distribute.) *Feel free to pass this message along to any person(s) or group(s) you feel might be interested. Karee B. e-mail: karee23@hotmail.com

Cornell College (IA) Announces Gender-Blind Housing Project

Genderblind housing to have trial period in '05
Erik Jensen, Staff Writer, The Cornellian

The Women’s Resource Group (WRG) has been granted a one-year pilot program allowing gender-blind housing at Harlan House.  Men and transgendered students will be allowed to live in Harlan along with women who currently are housed at Harlan.

To be granted gender-blind housing, WRG had to go through an application process that included altering their charter to allow for gender-blind housing.  In addition, the group submitted a proposal detailing the change for approval by Director of Residence Life Matt Johnson.  The program will receive evaluation throughout the 2005-2006 academic year to determine if the program will be continued.

WRG member Jeanne Firth commented, “WRG decided to push for gender-blind housing status because WRG has… members who are not female and we wanted them to have the option of living in the house.  WRG’s ideals are very much in line with 3rd wave feminist thought, which is inclusive rather than exclusive and believes that all people should be welcomed to feminist thought and activism if they believe in equality, regardless or their gender, race, sexuality, etc.  Gender-blind status also provides a more comfortable option of housing for possible Cornell students who identify as transgendered.  WRG is thrilled at the approval of this housing option – it is a step towards equality and non-discrimination that the college community should be extremely proud of.”

Cornell College (IA) plans to expand their college's non-discrimination policy

GenderYOUTH members have big plans for a Bigotry Week and for a gender-bending awareness campaign.  They've organized a drag ball with success and have had great success with their Drop the Labels campaign.  Cornell College is also in the midst of a campaign to expand their college's non-discrimination policy to include gender identity and gender expression.  They have publicized an open letter to their campus community and have gained the support of many stakeholders.  They also organized a gender/class/race workshop for first year students at their school, which they learned to facilitate at the Youth Leadership Track at the 4th National Conference on Gender.

Gender-Neutral Living/Learning Community at from Maria Kitsinis at Bowling Green State University

We are trying to put together a proposal for a gender neutral living/learning community. This would be an on campus residence Hall where people of any and all genders could live. The community would have a few requirements such as:
Summer reading
Early arrival to school for an orientation educating the community taking courses that relate to gender and/or sexual orientation
Visiting with the other member of the community on a bi-weekly basis
Gender Activism
Bringing in speakers on gender
Working as a liaison to all the gender organizations/centers on campus
I have been doing some research on schools that have programs similar to this one (GLBT floors, queer dorms) but I need some more information. If anyone knows of any schools that have a similar program or ideas about what to put in this proposal, please let me know. Also I am going to need information on backlash that programs like this are hit with. This proposal is going to have to cover every situation as to not cause an uproar with administration. I think that if we can get a GOOD, SOLID proposal written then a gender neutral living/learning community will be well on its way.

Bowling Green State University Leave Your Gender at the Door Workshop

We all taped gender-bender note cards to our foreheads and each tried to guess who we were by asking other people in the room questions, i.e. RuPaul, drag king. Students were given gender assignments on a ¼ sheet of paper upon entering. These included: You are a man; You are perfectly androgynous but were born female; etc. They are asked to pick a colored sheet of paper that society or we would prescribe to ourselves in these roles. They are also asked to draw their own understanding of gender on that same sheet of paper (this does not have to correspond to the gender assignment). A gender glossary was also provided. Crayons were available. As a group, we discussed the colors picked and shared some of our drawings. As a group, we brainstormed words that are gendered, i.e. Mother, gun, f**k, mailman, etc. We then got into a circle and one person at a time in the center molded others into the gendered word.