Southeastern celebrates Women's History Month with lecture series
Thursday, February 20, 2020
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Department of History and Political
Science will host its annual Women’s History Month lecture series in honor of Women’s
History Month.
The series will feature five lectures that are all free and open to the public.
The first lecture, “Louisiana’s Hidden History of Japanese Internment,” by Haley
Johnson and Sarah Simms is scheduled Thursday, March 5, at 2 p.m. in the Student Union
Theatre.
“Louisiana State University library faculty members Hayley Johnson and Sarah
Simms will discuss their creation of a curated digital archive of materials relating
to Japanese internment during World War II, including both Camp Livingston and Camp
Algiers, a project funded in part by a $30,000 National Endowment for the Humanities
Digital Projects for the Public Discovery Grant,” said Department Head of History
and Political Science Bill Robison.
Given by Southeastern Professor of Political Science Margaret Gonzalez-Perez
and titled “Women, Activism, and Empowerment,” the next lecture is scheduled Thursday,
March 12, at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.
“Margaret Gonzalez-Perez will discuss women’s progress toward equality and political
empowerment; challenges women still face in equal access to healthcare, education,
economic status and political representation; and how women seek to overcome these
obstacles via advances in business, technology and political activism,” said Robison.
The special guest lecture, “From Kudzu to Koizumi: Japanese in Louisiana,” by
Greg Robinson is scheduled Thursday, March 19, at 11 a.m. in the Student Union Theatre.
“Université du Québec À Montréal Professor of History Greg Robinson will explore
how connections between Japan and Louisiana—cotton trade, rice farming, valorization
of Japanese art and culture and treatment of Japanese residents as white—changed when
World War II cut off trade and brought internment camps for Japanese aliens and discrimination
against Japanese residents,” said Robison.
Louisiana State University Assistant Professor of History Stephen Andes will
deliver the lecture “The Mysterious Sofía: One Woman’s Mission to Save Catholicism
in Twentieth Century Mexico” on Tuesday, March 24, at 11 a.m. in the Student Union
Theatre.
“Stephen Andes will discuss his new book, ‘The Mysterious Sofía’, which uses
the remarkable story of devout Catholic laywoman Sofía del Valle to tell the history
of Catholicism’s global shift from north to south and the importance of women to Catholic
survival and social change in Mexico over the course of the twentieth century,” said
Robison.
The last lecture of the series, “A Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) Panel,”
given by Samantha Cavell, Perez and Craig Saucier and moderated by Joseph Ricci, is
scheduled on Monday, April 20, at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre.
“This is a panel discussion of Yom Hashoah, a day that memorializes and honors
the heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust,” said Robison. “The panelists will speak
on three facets of the Holocaust with a special focus on resistance to the Nazis.
Afterward graduate student Joseph Ricci will moderate a question and answer session
with questions provided by graduate students enrolled in the M.A. in History program,”
he said.
For more information about Southeastern’s Women's History Month lecture series,
contact Robison at 985-549-2109 or wrobison@southeastern.edu.
