Davies Forum Workshop Reflection

I absolutely loved this workshop and I really wish I could have been there all day. It was so inspiring to be able to sit and talk with women who are working hard to incite change and have dedicated their lives to bettering their communities. I thought it was wonderful that these women's goals and focuses were so diverse even though they were all feminist scholars.

For the drawing exercise I was in a group with Lisa and Professor Wibben. It was fascinating how different all of our interpretations of violence and well-being were ranging from very abstract (Prof. Wibben) to extremely precise (Lisa). in our group we discussed the discomfort that doing art exercises brings us. We talked about struggling with the idea that what feminists do--thinking, feeling, talking, and in this case, making art--is not valued in American culture and how that impacts our own feelings about what we do and whether its worthwhile or silly. It was a fascinating and painful conversation, because I do often struggle, as do all feminists, with the way feminist work is perceived. 

After this exercise our guest speakers talked about their projects and methodologies, which was a wonderful learning experience. I loved the different ways that emotion plays into everyone's work, from wanted to bring a positive light to difficult subject matter to really harnessing the pain of truth. 

One of the biggest things I will take away from the experience is Swati Parashar's advice to value anger. I think that one of the biggest problems that feminism faces, especially in America, is complacency. We talked quite a bit about the importance and inherent nature of emotion in feminism, but I think that it was very good for me to be reminded that in this success-oriented, distanced culture, there needs to be room for emotion and anger and pain and all those human things that make us able to better ourselves and others. Rarely do people encourage us to be angry and harness the power of that anger, so I thank Dr. Parashar for making that statement.