Hello Leaders, Colleagues and Comrades in Activism!
My name is Kole and I work for HAVEN, Oakland County’s (MI) center for the treatment and prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault in the capacity of engaging men in ending gender violence. We are working in partnership with the National Organization for Men Against Sexism, to bring the 38th National Conference on Men and Masculinity to Detroit, Michigan on August 8th – 10th this summer. I’m writing you today to encourage participation as conference attendees and/or to notify you and/or your organization that we are accepting workshop proposals until May 31st , and we would really value having various anti-sexist groups and men’s organizations coming together in collaboration to be a part of the platform of conversations surrounding redefining manhood and ending men’s violence with shared tools for activism.
The conference will be a full 3 days, and will include the National Men’s Association Meeting. We will be hosting a couple of star-studded plenary panels, on exploring intersectionality and another on understanding feminism in the context of new media. Additionally, we’ll have a plenary sponsored by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence on the connection between HIV infections and intimate partner violence (IPV).
Forging Justice: Creating Safe, Equal and Accountable Communities (assembly required)
The theme of this conference is understanding gender-based violence as a social justice issue. We are committed to providing conference offerings that will address a broad range of issues pertaining to men and masculinity, and addressing men’s violence. The conference emphasis will be on social justice, so we are encouraging you and/or your organization to submit a workshop proposal, with attention paid to applying traditional social justice activisms to the work to end men’s violence against women. We are seeking workshops and presenters that address the interrelated factors that influence, foster and support gender-based violence, the development and implementation of effective programs and current research in gender-based violence. Workshops should take into consideration that audience members will have a broad range of knowledge and skills and should be designed to meet people where they are in their activism and advocacy.
Some potential topics:
Pro-feminist men and men’s issues, academic research, men and masculinity, social justice activism, self-care, feminism(s), community building, media literacy, anti-racist work, queer issues and scholarship, trauma informed care, GBV prevention, faith and social justice, intersecting identities, art for healing, films, poetry as a tool for change, cross-cultural masculinities, labor issues and feminism, other issues as they relate to social justice, feminism and violence against women.
If you are interested in submitting a workshop proposal, please do so on or before May 31st, 2013 at 5 p.m. If you are unable to submit electronically, please contact Cristy Cardinal at ccardinal@haven-oakland.org for a paper submission form. The Conference Planning Committee will consider these proposals and notify you if your proposal is accepted.
I personally hope to see/meet many of you there and look forward to the continued collaboration and spirited activism in solidarity.
Forging Justice: Workshop Proposal Link
Forging Justice: Registration and Information Link
Forging Justice: Facebook Page
UpRoot: digging up the roots of gender-based violence blog
redefine. (NOMAS metro Detroit chapter)
Sincerely,
HAVEN, Inc Prevention Education Team
Kristopher Kole Wyckhuys
Prevention Education Specialist
HAVEN | Oakland County
248.334.1284 ext. 352
kwyckhuys@haven-oakland.org
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