The thing that I found most significant in Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky’s lecture was the effect that the 1992 Congress had on changing the government’s sexist bias. That year, for the first time, there were close to 50 women in Congress, and their perspective brought to light a number of inequities that were eventually addresses. Before that time, the National Institute of Health had used only males as participants in medical tests to determine the “safe” cholesterol level and the effects o...

Although the two last pieces Rebecca read touched me personally because I have recently lost my father, the piece I'd like to talk about in terms of this class is "The Gift of Sweat." The reason I asked Rebecca at the end of the session whether she had planned to create a reference to the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is that I saw that reference in two ways. The obvious one is the sharing of the cinnamon rolls and coffee on Sundays--though the food is not bread a...

Professor Katherine Hayles’s lecture was interesting and entertaining on a number of levels for me. For example, my work on my website has taught me many ways in which the printed page and the hypertextuality of the web interact and influence each other. Also, being familiar with the 18th-century novel Tristram Shan dy, which has the “marbled” and black pages as well as diagrams, I was delighted to see how contemporary novelists have picked up on those themes and techniques and have update...

This lecture, like the one by Dr. Abrams, was optional for this semester's course, but I am interested in seeing what you have to say about either one, if you attended. Please add your response by using the link below to "add a comment." Ms. Hall took a personal approach to a community topic, explaining how her parents had been involved in what were then called "social and savings clubs" in the 1950s in Birmingham, and explaining how she herself was involved in the Art Students League, th...

I will reveal my bias by saying that I expected this presentation to be informational rather than inspirational or promotional. I should have read the poster a little closer, near the bottom, where the invitation was to "come hear Beatrice and Stephen speak out against modern day slavery." But of course these two people would be speaking out against slavery. Who would speak out for slavery? Beatrice Fernando's presentation was troubling in its subject matter and moving in its presen...

I am curious to see how many of you can make connections between the "predictable factors" that Professor McCallum mentioned and the factors that affect the children you tutor at Urban Kidz or that affect the women and men you serve at the shelters. Let me remind you of these factors: self esteem, hopelessness, expectations about adulthood, closeness to the mother, degree of parental monitoring, presence of family rules, peer influences, age, and gender I'm also curious to hear how many o...

Welcome to our class blog in which you will respond to the intellectual and cultural events required for our class. Immediately after each event I will post a comment of my own, and each of you will follow suit. The best method will be to follow the "what, how, why" approach. That is, what was most significant to you about the event, how did the speaker make it significant, and why did you in particular find it significant? The "how" part will require you to be specific about what you saw and...

Anyone needing to make up a journal entry for the term may use this space to do so. Please write about what you found most significant about the event you attended and why you found it significant. Be sure to focus your comments on something that relates to the central themes of this course: issues of gender, race, or class.

Given the information that Ms. Graham presented yesterday during the Provost Forum--for example, the fact that until recently Alabama Death Row inmates were living in cells with a heat index of 120 degrees during the summer months, or the fact that most Alabama inmates are living three to a cell that measures 8-by 10 feet, or the fact that many inmates are not getting timely medical treatment--what do you think needs to be done about the situation in our prisons and why? Answering the "why" ...

Anyone who has seen the DVD cover of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and who still defines the film as a documentary has ignored a clue as big as the state of Texas that Moore is working within a different but equally respectable genre: satire. The image on the DVD shows Moore and President Bush holding hands and smiling as they walk across the White House lawn. What better introduction to the fact that the film relies on the manipulation of images for its power? The image on the cover i...

Although I was interested to hear at the end of Dr. Dalto's report how the Alabama population differs from the population in the rest of the United States, I would like to emphasize a couple of things he said about gender stereotypes. First, he said that although men have more testosterone and women more estrogen, which might lead us to believe men to be more aggressive and insensitive and women to be more empathetic and nurturing, the biological hypothesis wasn't valid in his study. Second...

The thing in Professor Hubbs’ lecture today that struck me as being most related to our class readings was this: in embracing the concept of “loyalty,” white southerners in places like Greensboro created something admirable and created something terrible. Loyalty required an institutionalized inclusion and exclusion of individuals. In other words, if an individual agreed with the values set forward by the community, he or she was welcomed. But it an individual held different values—in part...

Welcome to our class blog in which you will respond to the intellectual and cultural events required for our class. Immediately after each event I will post a comment of my own, and each of you will follow suit. The best method will be to follow the "what, how, why" approach. That is, what was most significant to you about the event, how did the speaker make it significant, and why did you in particular find it significant? The "how" part will require you to be specific about what you saw...