As St. Ambrose explores gender in all its complexities during this academic year, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is being read by first-year students in New Student Seminar classes and co-author Sheryl WuDunn will be on campus in October as a featured lecturer.
First Year Experience and the Ambrose Women for Social Justice (AWSJ) will host a lecture by WuDunn at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Galvin Fine Arts Center. The event will coincide with the AWSJ's annual conference, for which this year's theme will be Gender, Narrative and Justice-The Power of Story.
Half the Sky was co-written by Sheryl WuDunn and her husband, Nicholas Kristof. It is a book, FYE Director Sherri Erkel, PhD, said, "that takes us on a global journey of the oppression of women and what we can do to effect change. One of the central themes of the book is that women's rights are human rights. It makes the case that economic empowerment, access to education and healthcare, and the prevention of gender-based violence and sex trafficking helps everyone."
In its second year of complementing the annual Project Series, the First Book serves a dual purpose of adding a campus-wide component to the First Year Experience (FYE) program. It also helps introduce newcomers to the liberal arts grounding that is essential to a St. Ambrose education.
"It is the perfect time to invite students to be part of these campus conversations," said Erkel, PhD.
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