The Program in Gender and Women's Studies and the Dalhousie Student Union are sponsoring a public forum -Backhouse and Beyond: Rape Culture and the Future of Dalhousie

 The Program in Gender and Women's Studies and the Dalhousie Student Union are sponsoring a public forum -Backhouse and Beyond: Rape Culture and the Future of Dalhousie-  to provide an opportunity for the Dal community to discuss the work that has been done -and that we hope to see be done-- to address rape culture and other forms of discrimination on campus, and particularly as directed by The Report of the External Task Force on the Faculty of Dentistry (The 'Backhouse Report'), which was released last June 2015, pursuant to an investigation into the Facebook postings ordeal that dominated national media last winter.

Our aim will be to collectively discuss and strategize on ways to animate the recommendations made in this report, in moving forward with the work of transforming the sexual and racial politics of campus culture.

The forum will be held:

Tuesday, Sept 22, 2015
1:00-4:00 PM
McInnes Room, Student Union Building (SUB)
6136 University Ave.
Halifax, Nova Scotia

There will be two sessions of speakers, each of whom will provide 5-7 minutes of remarks before opening the discussion to a Q&A.

The first session will run from 1:00-2:30 and focus on the central issues that are addressed in the  'Blackhouse' report (together with the reports that have been issued as part of the Dalhousie's response to the Dentistry Facebook ordeal: the "Belong" report on Dal's Strategic Initiative to advance Equity and Diversity, as well as the Report on the Restorative Justice Processes. These reports are available on Dal's main website.

Speakers for the first session include:


·      Moderator: Letitia Meynell (Department of Philosophy; Gender Studies)

·      Naiomi Metallic (Dalhousie Board of Governors)

·      Isaac Saney (Director, Transition Year Program)

·      Kym Sweeny (Sexual Assault Harassment Phone Line)

·      Kathleen Reid, (Dal Student Union, VP Student Life)

·       Margaret Denike (Coordinator, Program in Gender and Women's Studies)

The second session will run from 2:30-4:00 and focus on the recommendations, their prioritization, and potential implementation.

Speakers for this session include:


·      Moderator: Jacqueline Gahagan (Professor, Health Promotion Studies)

·      Katherine Frank (Assistant Vice President, Human Resources)

·      Anne-Marie Delorey, Advisor, Human Rights, Harassment and Equity Office

·      Michael Davies-Cole (South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre)

·   Jennifer Llewellyn, Professor, Faculty of Law, Restorative Justice Research Alliance

·      Kevin Hewitt, Chair of Senate, Associate Professor, Department of Physics

The event will be webcast live, the link to which will be at: http://dsu.ca/forumlive

The facebook event is here:
 https://www.facebook.com/events/1502958303355768/


Please distribute this information among your networks and spread the word. All are welcome to attend and participate and/or encouraged to watch the event online.