AASU to Host Conference on The Gals In Town

Savannah, GA "The Gals in Town: Gendering Savannah's Past, Present and Future," Armstrong Atlantic State University's second annual Interdisciplinary Womenís Studies Conference, will be held on March 7. Local authors and academics will explore the lives and accomplishments of Mary Telfair, Flannery O'Connor, Juliette Gordon Low, Susie King Taylor, and other significant women in Savannah's past at various museum sites in downtown Savannah.

"This year's conference is designed to highlight the relevance of women's history in the lives of today's citizens," said Dr. Teresa Winterhalter, conference coordinator, director of Women's Studies, and associate professor of English at AASU. "The conference is the result of a collaborative effort among Armstrong's Heritage Tourism Program, the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau and our Women's Studies Program. Our invited speakers will explore how engaging gender as a category of analysis helps us to understand our past, and envision and shape our future."

AASU's Women's Studies Program offers an undergraduate minor and certificate, as well as a graduate certificate, in interdisciplinary concentrations that examine women's roles, achievements, and experiences, both historically and across cultures. The university also offers a graduate certificate program in Heritage Tourism that combines courses in regional history with sociological studies of tourist behaviors and expectations. Both programs worked in collaboration with the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau to offer this year's conference. The bureau supports the event as the second in a series of career development opportunities for tourism professionals.

Registration may be completed on-line, by mail, or on the day of the conference. For more information, contact Teresa Winterhalter at 912.921.5632 or visit www.as.armstrong.edu/women_studies.

Itinerary for conference on The Gals in Town :
FRIDAY, MARCH 7
10:00 to 10:30 A.M.
Registration
Massie School

10:30 to 11:45 A.M.
Graduate student paper panels
Massie School

Noon to 1:00 P.M.
Lunch, Welcome, and Keynote Address
Mulberrry Inn

Keynote Speaker
Patricia Fox, assistant professor, AASU
"Women in Mind: Educating the Women of Savannah, Past, Present, and Future"

1:30 P.M.
"Mary Telfair: A Woman with a Room of Her Own"
Charles Johnson, Jr., author of "Mary Telfair, the Life and Legacy of a Nineteenth Century Woman"
Telfair Museum of Art

2:30 P.M.
"Flannery O’Conner: In Her Own Words"
Beverly Fatherree, professor, Hines College
Flannery O’Conner House

3:30 P.M.
"Passion, Power, and Prestige: The Mother/Daughter Story of Kinzie Gordon and Juliette Gordon Low"
Tania Sammons, curator, Andrew Gordon Low House
Andrew Gordon Low House

4:30 P.M.
Savannah’s African American Clandestine Schools
Heather Glover, student, AASU
Beach Institute/ King Tisdale Cottage Foundation

7:00 P.M.
Performance art: Jennifer Johnson
Women’s folk music: Melanie Mirande
Sentient Bean

 

February 17, 2003