In collaboration with the UCSB site committee, MALCS seeks artwork for the Summer Institute’s promotional materials that reflects the values of MALCS and this year conference’s theme, “Todos somos Arizona: Confronting the Attack on Difference.”   MALCS invites self-identified Women of Color/Indigenous artists, and/or art collectives to submit an original design . The chosen work will be used for the Summer Institutes’ program cover, as well as additional promotional materials for the conference. Please submit all designs by Monday, May 21 to moc.liamgobfsctd-6b2bf5@bscu2102sclam.  Include your name, address, email, phone number, short bio (200 words max), title of design (if applicable), and artwork (must be at least 300 dpi).

DEADLINE TO APPLY: Monday, May 21, 2012 [Read more…] about Call for Artists: Design Institute Program Cover

The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project at the Washington College of Law at American University  will continue and expand the work that I have been doing for nearly 30 years.  Through our work at the Washington College of Law, NIWAP will engage a new generation of lawyers and advocates in work that benefits immigrant women, children, and immigrant survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, and other crimes.

NIWAP is a national provider of training, legal and social science research, policy development, and technical assistance to advocates, attorneys, pro bono law firms, law schools, universities, law enforcement, prosecutors, social service and health care providers, justice system personnel, and other professionals who work with immigrant women, children and crime victims. Our work will include support for those in the field and in government who work to improve laws, regulations, policies, and practices to enhance legal options and opportunities for immigrant women and children. [Read more…] about New Organization: National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
“Todos Somos Arizona”: Confronting the Attacks on Difference
University of California, Santa Barbara
July 18-21, 2012

 Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) invites submissions for its annual Summer Institute to be held this year at the University of California Santa Barbara. This year’s theme is “Todos Somos Arizona:” Confronting the Attacks on Difference. [Read more…] about MALCS Summer Institute CFP July 2012 – New Deadline of May 1st!

Call for Proposals: Extended Deadline, April 1

Rethinking Power & Resistance: Gender & Human Rights from Texas to the Transnational Americas

Re-imaginando el Poder y la Resistencia: Género y Derechos Humanos desde Texas hasta las Américas Transnacionales

5-6 octubre 2012 : Austin, Texas

Conference Date: 5-6 October 2012

Conference Location: Austin, Texas

Rethinking Power and Resistance: Gender and Human Rights from Texas to the Transnational Americas is a two-day conference in which scholars, activists, community organizers, and community members will gather to collaboratively work through some of the dominant themes and tensions within contemporary engagement of human rights language and strategies.

We are looking for work that discusses new movement strategies for gender justice that work at the intersections of citizenship status, ethnicity, gender identity, indigeneity, nationality, race, and sexuality.

We are particularly interested in work that engages and reimagines human rights language (addressing the usefulness of grassroots human rights strategies and/or the harm of neoliberal human rights appropriation) regarding the following issues: Incarceration/Immigration Detention, Forced Displacement and Gentrification, and Gender Violence.

This is a bilingual conference in Spanish and English.

From Egla Martinez:

We stepped onto the stage of the Teatro Nacional in Guatemala City as the credits rolled after the long anticipated Guatemala premiere of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (Spanish title: Granito de Arena).  The huge hall was filled to the rafters with 2500 people who rose to give a sustained standing ovation (see the video here), which only increased in volume as the people that appear in the film joined us on stage.  When Maya leader Antonio Caba Caba came up, the crowd erupted.  We are so humbled and gratified by this resounding embrace of Granito by the people of Guatemala.

And in an uncanny juncture with justice, the dictator in Granito, General Efraín Ríos Montt, appeared before a judge the same day as the premiere to petition for his case to be dismissed, and was denied– he will stand trial for genocide.  When we announced the judge’s decision at the premiere, it elicited another burst of applause – Guatemalans have been waiting 30 years for Ríos Montt to face justice.

Already since the March 1 premiere we’ve received dozens of requests to show the film in universities, Maya communities, civil society organizations and churches all over the country.  We are releasing Granito in Spanish and the Maya languages K’iche and Ixil as well.  Along with Granito, we have launched a project with Guatemalan civil society organizations to restore the collective memory of the years of armed conflict, called Granito: Every Memory Matters (Granito: Cada Memoria Cuenta).  The history of those terrible years is not taught in Guatemala, and the goal of this project is to make the historical memory available in a public archive, and raise public awareness so that that history never repeats itself.  If you have a memory of the Guatemalan conflict to share, or know of anyone who might, or just want to take a look and get involved, please visit the project – you can learn more about it by clicking here: granitomem.comPaco de Onís, Pamela Yates, Peter Kinoy, Bea Gallardo

You can purchase the DVD of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator by clicking here.WINNER OF THE CINEMA FOR PEACE AWARD FOR JUSTICE 2012

<iframe src=”Granito at Vimeo></iframe>

Welcome to Our New Students! Friends of Freedom University and allies of undocumented youth, Thanks to your continued generosity and support, we’ve welcomed visiting scholars to Athens, Skyped in Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz and author Achy Obejas, provided books for over 35 deserving and hard working students, and, most importantly, ensured that our students made it to class from all over Northeast Georgia. Today we are honored to announce that eight new dynamic students join our Freedom University cohort! They join us from all across metro-Atlanta and contribute not only their passion for education but their many organizing talents as well. They hail from the ranks of the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and Southerners on New Ground. We are excited to see what they’ll bring to the classroom, and also how they will motivate us toward our ultimate goals of defeating anti-immigrant and anti-student legislation and policy. Will you help us welcome our new students by donating $10 for their books, travel, and organizing expenses? If 80 of our allies pitch in just $10, we will meet our goal of $800 to cover our expenses through April. Freedom University Georgia students and volunteers must continue to lead the fight against bills like SB 458, which would ban undocumented students from all public Georgia campuses.  Our recent press conference on SB 458, and organizing around HB 59, drew students, educators, and allies from all over the state to the Capitol to voice their opposition. Now more than ever we realize how important FU is not only to students seeking education in spite of unjust tuition rates and the Board of Regents’ ban, but also to leading the way toward a more humane state. Will you support our students as they study and fight for their right to higher education?In Solidarity, Freedom University Faculty, Students, and Volunteers 2012-02-28 Elizabeth speaks at Press Conference Opposing SB 458 at Georgia Capitol