A Discussion on the Violence Against Women at the Border at Weselyan University

Dr. Démian Pritchard a visiting Assistant Professor of U.S. Latina/o Literatures will offer some information on the history of violence against women at / on the U.S.-Mexico border. She will focus the discussion of violence on the trials and tribulations suffered by latinas who physically cross the border, at the hands of coyotes and at the hands of the (all too often unpunished) officers of the U.S. Border Patrol. She will also look into the violence (physical and psychological) suffered by women working in the maquiladoras along the border, especially in cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. Many unsolved and debated questions will be explored, such as: What does it mean that the U.S.-Mexico border has produced such extreme violence against women, in so many ways and locations?  What can this violence, and our lack of response as a people and as a nation, teach us about the proliferation of willful blindness and/or ignorance?  What will we do with this knowledge?

Sponsored by FemNet and Campus Progress.  Lunch will be served.