From Thursday, March 13 to Friday, March 14, Grand Valley State University’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department hosted the Build Feminist Futures Symposium.
The event commemorated over 50 years of global feminist theory and progress. Speakers facilitated a variety of seminars discussing gender politics of the United Nations, intersectional feminism, reproductive rights, economic disparities and international women’s suffrage.
Thursday’s first keynote speaker was Jallicia Jolly, a writer, poet, reproductive justice organizer and professor of American studies and Black studies at Amherst College. Jolly gave a presentation titled “Black Feminist Futures: Care, Community and Transnational Reproductive Justice.” Later that afternoon, Jocelyn Olcott, a professor at Duke University, facilitated a talk on the 1975 International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City hosted by the United Nations. Olcott discussed the conference’s integral role in feminist advocacy worldwide.
On Friday, Carmen Diana Deere continued the conversation regarding the International Women’s Year Conference. She is a professor of Latin American Studies and Food & Resource Economics at the University of Florida, and is also a distinguished professor in Quito, Ecuador. Deere’s research has focused on gender in Latin American agriculture, women’s property rights and wealth inequality.
“You can’t look at women’s issues without considering class and dependency,” Deere said. “Feminism didn’t enter my consciousness at all until the 1970s. I never had a female professor, and was in a sorority where the norm was (to) get engaged by senior year. I was an odd duck to get my (master’s degree) and go to Latin America.”
Directly following Deere’s presentation, Heather Switzer spoke on “Girls in Development: Discovering Girls, Producing Girl Effects.” The seminar delved into ‘the girl child’ phenomenon and the vulnerabilities of violence, malnourishment and infanticide against young girls on a global scale.
“(Asking) Africa as a whole, and girls in particular, to create their own salvation under ongoing conditions of externally imposed austerity (is) like asking a caged mouse to scramble to freedom,” Switzer said. “No matter how active (a person is), (they are) still confined in a cage.”
Also on Friday morning, Durba Mitra discussed feminism in the Global South and the paradox surrounding the United Nations’ Year and Decade for Women. Mitra is an associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Harvard University, and brought attention to the integral nuances of the global feminist conversation.
During Friday’s afternoon sessions, Anna Gollub, the policy analyst of economic institutions within the Economic Empowerment section of UN Women, spoke on “Becoming UN Women.” To conclude the conference, a seminar titled “Feminism Remains Foreign: Ideals vs Practice for Gender Justice” was given by Kavita Ramdas, a senior strategic advisor at International Planned Parenthood. Ramdas is globally recognized for her advocacy in global gender equity, and from 2023-2024, was the activist in residence at the Global Fund for Women. The talk reflected on the various lessons Ramdas learned during her residence and why feminism, as an ideology and aspirational set of ideals and values, remains unintegrated in policies both at home and abroad.
The symposium wrapped up on a hopeful note, and reiterated how the women’s liberation movement has developed throughout history and around the globe.
