#MeToo: One Year Later with Roxane Gay
01.18.2019| 1:00 - 4:00 PM | Booth Auditorium 175
This program will assess the impact of the#MeToo movement on law, business, and popular culture. One year after media reports about Harvey Weinstein led to his downfall, the Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice despite compelling testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Meanwhile, some of the men who were accused at the height of the movement have crept back into positions of power. Are businesses and the broader culture reverting to status quo practices as media attention on sexual harassment declines? How has #MeToo discourse treated women of color, male survivors, and queer survivors and perpetrators? Does the conversation about “redemption” unfairly privilege perpetrators?
PROGRAM:
1:00 PM – Keynote Speaker
ROXANE GAY
Welcome Remarks by:
Russell Robinson, Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center on Race, Sexuality & Culture
2:30 PM – PANEL PRESENTATION
Kathryn R. Abrams, Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law
Leah Benavides, Writer and Director
Aya Gruber, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Boulder
Lara Stemple, UCLA School of Law, Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies and International Student Programs; Director, Health and Human Rights Law Project
Keynote Bio:
Roxane Gay is an author and cultural critic whose writing is unmatched and widely revered. Her work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds-barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. With a deft eye on modern culture, she brilliantly critiques its ebb and flow with both wit and ferocity.
Words like “courage,” “humor,” and “smart” are frequently deployed when describing Roxane. Her collection of essays, Bad Feminist, is universally considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism. NPR named it one of the best books of the year and Salon declared the book “trailblazing.” Her powerful debut novel, An Untamed State, was long-listed for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. In 2017, Roxane released her highly anticipated memoir, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, as well as a collection of short stories titledDifficult Women.
Roxane Gay is a contributing op-ed writer for The New York Times, was the co-editor of PANK, and formerly was the non-fiction editor at The Rumpus. Her writing has also appeared in McSweeney’s, The Nation, and many other publications. She recently became the first black woman to ever write for Marvel, writing a comic series in the Black Panther universe called World of Wakanda. Roxane fronts a small army of avid fans on social media and when she finds the time, she dominates the occasional Scrabble tournament.
Event hosted by the Center on Race, Sexuality & Culture and Center for Race & Gender. Co-sponsored by the Division of Equity & Inclusion’s Campus Climate Speaker, Affirmation and Empowerment Series, and Berkeley Law.