Syracuse University

Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Susan Faludi will present "Why
Feminism Still Matters" at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 23, in Syracuse University's
Stolkin Auditorium, located in the Physics Building. The lecture, which is free and
open to the public, is the keynote address for the Fall 2008 Ray Smith Symposium
"Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice," Oct. 23 and 24, presented by The College of
Arts and Sciences Humanities Council and the Writing Program.

Faludi will also speak at an Open Forum Session with SU students from 2-3 p.m. on
Thursday, Oct. 23, in the Hall of Languages, Room 500. The session will be an
informal discussion about her work.

"Feminist Rhetorics for Social Justice" will continue on Friday, Oct. 24, from 8:30
a.m. -5 p.m. in SU's Hall of Languages, Room 500. The symposium will bring
together communities of feminist rhetoric scholars, public intellectuals and
community activists to discuss the intersections of feminist rhetoric and feminist-
history making with local and global issues of social justice. Registration information
and a complete schedule of events are available at http://wrt.syr.edu/frsj/. Featured
speakers and topics of discussion include:

• University of Minnesota Professor Karlyn Kohrs Campbell presenting
  "Forgotten Forerunner: Frances Wright and the Struggle for Social Justice."
  Kohrs Campbell is the author or editor of eight books, including the
  groundbreaking two-volume series of early feminist work "Men Cannot
  Speak for Her" (Greenwood Press, 1989).
  

  
  

• Ohio State University Associate Professor Wendy Hesford presenting
  "Cosmopolitanism and the Geopolitics of Feminist Rhetorics." Hesford is a
  scholar working in the emerging field of transnational feminist rhetorics and
  visual rhetorics.
  

  
  

• University of Maryland Professor Shirley Wilson Logan presenting
  "Anna Julia Cooper on Women and Social Justice." Wilson Logan's most
  recent book, "Liberating Language: Sites of Rhetorical Education in
  Nineteenth-Century Black America" (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008)
  was recently released in paperback.
  

  
  

• Michigan State University Associate Professor Malea Powell presenting
  "Rhetorical Powwows: American Indian Women and the Production of
  Meaning in Native Communities. Powell's research focuses on the rhetorics of
  survivance used by 19th-- century American Indian intellectuals and the
  rhetoric of Native American women.
  

In addition to the featured speakers, the symposium will include community panels
on "Feminist History Making" and "Feminist Peacemaking and Social Justice,"
featuring representatives from the Women's Rights National Historical Park, the
Matilda Gage Foundation, the Peace Encampment Herstory Project, the Syracuse
Peace Council, Mothers Against Gun Violence and Women Transcending
Boundaries.

Faludi has chronicled-with astonishing clarity-the changing roles of men and
women in society, becoming one of the most provocative voices on women's rights.
Her new book, "The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9/11 America"
(Metropolitan Books, 2007), dissects the mindset of American society during the so-
called "war on terror." The narrative explores how the U.S. media and politicians
responded to the terrorist attacks by calling for a return to a society where men are
men and women are victims and how this thinking, rooted in our earliest
mythologies, has made America a weaker and less secure place.

Faludi's award-winning bestseller, "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against
American Women" (Three Rivers Press, 2006), was a monumental investigation into
the backlash against feminism in the 1980s and the assault against career-minded
women. An internationally renowned journalist, Faludi has written for The Wall
Street Journal, The Nation and The New York Times, and is also the author of
"Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man" (William Morrow & Co., 1999). Her
lectures challenge modern stereotypes and explore the way gender roles have
changed and developed in the United States over the past few decades.

The Ray Smith Symposium Series was established in 1989 as the result of a bequest
from the estate of SU alumnus Ray W. Smith '21 to support symposia on topics in
the humanities in SU's College of Arts and Sciences. Funding for "Feminist Rhetorics
for Social Justice" is also provided by the Writing Program, the Department of
Sociology, the Department of Geography, the Department of Women's and Gender
Studies, the Department of English, and the Department of Languages, Literatures,
and Linguistics in The College of Arts and Sciences; the University's Humanities
Center; the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in the College of
Visual and Performing Arts; the College of Human Ecology; and Colgate
University's Upstate Institute, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, Program in
Women' s Studies and Division of University Studies.