RIT Conference Focuses on Media and Gender, Oct. 4–5

How has the global media and the Internet changed cultural communities, economies, the environment and individual lives? What has been the impact of mass communication media and technologies on gender?

These issues will be explored during a two-day conference at Rochester Institute of Technology on Oct. 4–5, Media Technology and Gender: Enduring and Emergent Issues, sponsored by Diane Hope, RIT’s William A. Kern Professor in Communications and editor of Women’s Studies Quarterly, a leading journal published by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York in cooperation with RIT.

"For the past 30 years communication media, its images, messages and economics has been the subject of feminist theories and actions," Hope says. "We will explore how feminists, media scholars and students from differing generations of experience think about technological change and the media."

All presentations, speakers, panels and film screenings will take place at RIT and are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Diane Hope at dshgpt@rit.edu or 475-6053, or log onto www.rit.edu/~kernwww.

Following is a list of events.

Thursday October 4, 2001

Session I: Film and video screenings: Ingle Auditorium, Student Alumni Union (SAU) noon–6:30 p.m. The exact time of each film screening is listed below:

Noon, Killing Us Softly III (2000) (Not closed captioned) Jean Kilbourne’s award-winning documentary about advertising and women's identity

12:34 p.m., Tough Guise: Men, Media and Masculinity (2000) (CC) Examines the relationship between images of popular culture and masculine identities, featuring Jackson Katz

1:56 p.m., December 31, 2001 (2000) (not CC) b.h. Yael’s film re-stages the end of the film 2001.

2:07 p.m., Grrlyshow (2000) (Not CC) A videotape by Kara Herold exploring "fringe feminism" in the girly-zine revolution

2:27 p.m., Off the Straight and Narrow (1999)( CC) A critical examination of the values and limits of lesbian, gay and bisexual images on television

3:30 p.m., Writing Desire (2000) Ursula Biemann’s video essay on the new dream screen of the Internet and how it impacts on the global circulation of women’s bodies

3:52 p.m., Beyond Killing Us Softly (2000) Highlights ways to fight and resist the "toxic messages" to girls and women that dominate the media

4:30 p.m., The Righteous Babes (1998) Explores female popular music recording stars in the 1990s and their influence on modern women

5:03 p.m., Game Over (2000) A dialogue about the complex issues of masculinity, race and violence in video games

5:53 p.m., Dreamworlds 2 (1996) Sut Jhally’s powerful and controversial exploration of sex and power in music videos

Keynote Speakers: 7:30–9 p.m., Ingle Auditorium, SAU, "Young Women, Feminism and Media" by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, feminists, journalists, and authors of MANIFESTA, the best-selling exploration of young feminism and the future

Friday October 5, 2001 Session III: 9–10:30 a.m., Student panel response and conversation with Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, SAU, Alumni Room

Session IV: Two panels of scholars: Media Technologies and Gender, SAU, Alumni Room

11–12:30 p.m., Women, Feminism and Media Technology, SAU, Alumni Room

"Wiring Women" by Lee Quinby, professor of humanities, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

"Digital feminism: Research-teaching activism" by Betty Bayer, associate professor of feminist social psychology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

"Retextualizing Gender" by b.h. Yael, an independent, Toronto-based Filmmaker, Ontario College of Art and Design

2-3:30 p.m., Media, Technology and Organizational Communication: Representations of Masculinity, SAU, Alumni Room

"Gendered Identities in an E-commerce Business Opportunity" by Walter John Carl, III, visiting assistant professor, department of communication, RIT

"Technologies of Attraction: The Performance of Masculine Identities in On-Line Personal Advertisements" by Michael Mazanec, visiting assistant professor, department of communication, RIT

"Images of Masculinity in Magazine Advertisements" by David Neumann, professor, department of communication, RIT