Women's History Month Events at Rockland Community College

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: March 7, 2013
CONTACT: Maralin Roffino
845 -574-4244
mroffino@sunyrockland.edu

Women’s History Month Events at Rockland Community College
all events free and open to the public

SUFFERN, NY – Everyone is welcome to attend the following events in celebration of Women’s History Month at Rockland Community College.

Thursday, March 21, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Lecture/Film: Sadia Shepard
Faculty Dining Room

Join us for a film and lecture by the author of The Girl from Foreign. Sadia Shepard is an American author and filmmaker with a Muslim-Pakistani mother and Christian-American father. A third religion was added to her identity when, as a teenager, she discovered that her grandmother was originally from the Indian Jewish community, the Bene Israel. In response to her grandmother's dying wish, Sadia embarked on a journey to India to research and reconnect with her ancestral Jewish Indian roots. The result is her documentary film, In Search of The Bene Israel, and memoir, The Girl from Foreign. Our event will feature Sadia Shepard showing and discussing her film (38 min.) and book, as well as a book signing.

Thursday, April 4, 12:30 - 1:30 pm
Lecture: Victor Frankenstein’s Trouble with Women
Technology Center, Room 8180 (Ellipse)

Readers of Mary Shelley’s tale, Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (published in 1818), are often perplexed by her depiction of women as domestic angels, when clearly she and her own mother, the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, hardly fit that trope. Professor of English, Nancy Hazelton, will discuss how women are portrayed in the era of the Gothic novel, centering on Shelley’s protagonist Victor Frankenstein, and his fraught relationships with women. Professor of Art, Emily Harvey, will look at how the artist of that time portrayed women, including the painting that directly inspired Shelley’s tale – Fuseli’s painting, The Nightmare. The Romantic artists’ imagery of women - as Venus, virgin or vamp; as symbols of love, sin, sex and desire; or truth beauty and wisdom, illustrate the ways women were seen or imagined by visual artists during the period.

For more information about the events, please contact Women’s History Month Co-Chairs, Dr. Kristie Morris, Instructor of Psychology, at 845-574-4434, kmorris@sunyrockland.edu or Dr. Christina Stern, Instructor of History, at 845-574-4438, cstern@sunyrockland.edu. 
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