Women's Month Includes Keynote by Norma Ramos
Norma Ramos, a public interest attorney, eco-feminist and co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, will deliver the keynote speech for Alma College’s annual Women’s Month observance.
Ramos speaks at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 23rd in the Dunning Memorial Chapel. Admission is free and open to the public; no ticket is required.
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, established in 1988, promotes women's rights by working internationally to combat sexual exploitation, says Jamie Smith, an assistant professor of history at Alma College who helped organize Ramos’ visit to campus.
Norma Ramos
“She is eager to see a world free of the commercial sexploitation of humans—a world free of forced labor,” says Smith. “We will speak on her experiences working for her organization and her insights on serious social issues.”
Ramos’ subject matter is both relevant and important for campus dialogue, says Smith.
“Most people trafficked are women and children,” Smith says. “And if you pay any attention to the news, you see sex trafficking is a huge problem right here in America. Not only is it a women’s issue — it’s a class issue, a race issue and, ultimately, a human issue.”
Ramos helped establish the CATW. Additionally, she has worked with the group Women Against Pornography and a subcommittee on pornography for the National Organization for Women. In 2009, she won the Humanist Heroine Award from the American Humanist Association and, most recently, she has fought to remove adult services from Craigslist.
The keynote address highlights a series of Women’s Month events at Alma College. The events, free and open to the public, are sponsored by the English Department, Women’s Studies and Women’s Issues Advisory Board.
March 15/The Clotheslines Project, a visual display that bears witness to the many forms of violence perpetrated against women and children, is presented from 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 15 in the Tyler-VanDusen Rotunda.
March 15/Tread Marks on My Heart, a domestic violence presentation by an Alma community member, takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 15 in Tyler-VanDusen, Jones Auditorium.
March 16/The annual Take Back the Night event features a march and discussion protesting rape and other violence against women. Take Back the Night begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 16 in McIntyre Mall.
March 23/Norma Ramos, co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, speaks on issues of human trafficking, prostitution and sexual exploitation at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 in the Dunning Memorial Chapel at Alma College.
March 24/Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, an award-winning writer and scholar who teaches at University of California-Santa Barbara, reads from her works at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24 in the Swanson Academic Center, Room 113. Lim has received the American Book Award twice, as well as several other literary awards, for her fiction, poetry and memoirs. Her research interests include Asian American and post-colonial cultural productions and ethnic and feminist writing.
March 25-26/Relay for Life, the annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, takes place from 9 p.m. March 25 to 7 a.m. March 26 in the Stone Recreation Center at Alma College. According to the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group, more than 40,000 women have died from breast cancer specifically and more than 200,000 have been diagnosed with the disease (2007).
Posted: Thu, March 10th, 2011 at 8:14AM
