Behrend Gender conference

from Sarah E. Whitney

Penn State Behrend, Erie PA, will be hosting its annual Gender Conference on April 8 & 9. This is a forum for educational exchange on issues of gender between students, staff, faculty and community members.

The conferences begins with a keynote address, "Not Victims, but Survivors: Confronting the Legacy of Sexual Violence in the Congo," by Dr. Lee Ann De Reus on Thursday April 8 at 7:30 PM in Smith Chapel.

De Reus is committed to keeping alive the stories of women trapped in genocidal violence. She co-founded the central PA chapter of the international organization Save Darfur. At Penn State, she inspires activism in her students by leading international service and study abroad trips to Tanzania and to the Dominican Republic. Her recognitions include the inaugural Penn State University Spirit of Internationalization Award (2008), and the national Carl Wilkens Fellowship (2009).

The Capstone Event will be a film screening of "Out in the Silence" and Q&A with filmmaker Joe Wilson, Friday, April 9, also at 7:30 PM in Penn State Behrend's Smith Chapel.

The newspaper announcement of filmmaker Joe Wilson's wedding to another man ignites a firestorm of controversy and a quest for change in the small Pennsylvania town of Oil City. Drawn back to his hometown by a plea for help from the mother of a gay teen being tormented at school, Wilson takes viewers on an exhilarating journey through love, hate, and understanding in rural America. He makes an unexpected friendship with an evangelical pastor, and he helps a lesbian couple renovate an historic downtown theatre that could catalyze the town's economic revitalization – if the community will accept them.

The greatest change occurs in Wilson himself as he realizes that creating lasting change in small towns takes the courage and ongoing commitment of local folks to speak out and live openly.