College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Women and the environment

Two-day conference to feature Iowa State, outside speakers.
It was supposed to be this small, on-campus symposium with the goal of bringing faculty with similar research interests together.

At least that’s what a group headed by Whitney Sanford (pictured above), associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, and Karen Kessel, assistant professor of anthropology and women's studies, had originally planned.

While the initial goal remains in place, others have been added and now the small on-campus symposium has developed into a two-day conference.

"Environment: Personal as Political - Women, Food and Environmental Ethics" will be held Friday and Saturday, April 9-10, in the Memorial Union. The event will begin at noon on Friday (all events in the Great Hall) and be held throughout the day on Saturday (all events held in the Pioneer Room).

Now it takes Kessel half a day to go through and respond to the e-mails of the individuals interested in participating in the event with participants from throughout Iowa and as far as Chicago and Nebraska.

"It's fantastic that so many people are interested and so excited about the conference," she said. "I don't know how some people heard about the conference. I just started getting all these e-mails asking how they can attend.

"Our very small, very inexpensive on-campus event has all of a sudden developed into something really big and really special."

The two-day event will be highlighted by the conference's plenary address on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Victoria Davion, professor of philosophy at the University of Georgia and editor of the journal Ethics and the Environment, will speak on "Women and the Environment: Ecological Feminist Perspectives." Her areas of specialization include environmental ethics and feminist philosophy.

Additional sessions will feature discussions on a number of issues by Iowa State faculty members and other area experts. Some of the sessions include "Women's Work is Never Done: International Perspectives on Local Food Production and Consumption," "Heritage Foods and Seeds in a Changing World," "Talking the Talk: Ecofeminism and Bioregional Perspectives," "Who Eats Local Food?" roundtable, "Ask Us How We Grow Your Food," "Food in the City," and "Midwestern Cuisine: Home-grown Recipes for the Prairie."

The idea of a conference was developed by Kessel and Sanford as an effort to build upon a workshop held last semester on the greening the Iowa State campus and curriculum). A working group from Women's Studies that the pair is part of wanted to increase the awareness of feminist perspectives on environmental issues and the research conducted on campus in this area. Soon the group began collaborating with the Bioethics Program, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences International Programs, and the College of Agriculture.

The simple on-campus symposium was soon expanded when members of the initial working group suggested that off-campus groups, including the Iowa Farmers Union and the Women, Food and Agricultural Network, might be interested in participating.

"We hope to increase dialogue between Iowa State and those concerned with local food and environmental issues," Sanford said.

"I'm hoping that not only will the conference raise new awareness of what we do on campus in this area, but also look at the diversity of topics and research that is done in Women's Studies," Kessel said.

Registration should be turned into Kessel in the Department of Anthropology, 324 Curtiss Hall. Additional information can be obtained from Kessel at kkessel@iastate.edu or Sanford at wsanford@iastate.edu. There is no charge for the event.