another past melbourne flashmob!
Hey everyone, if you’re interested in the flashmob to help end the stigma surrounding abortion and reproductive choice, tomorrow’s the first practice session! Click here for the facebook event page.
There’ll be another session on Monday the 24th, and here’s the event page for that one!
The final flashmob will be happening on Sat September 30 in Fed Square, with everyone meeting at 10:15.
Get involved!
Hey everyone! Here’s an invite from Reproductive Choice Australia to all students at Melbourne Uni to get involved with a flashmob! We’ll be practicing the moves at uni and you can also practice at home to the video they’ve made. Here’s the details:
Reproductive Choice Australia is throwing a Flashmob, and we want YOU to come. Dance in Melbourne’s CBD in support of women and against abortion shame, silence and stigma! The Flashmob will take place on:
REGISTER NOW to be part of the fun. Dancing is uplifting and fun – the perfect antidote to shame. The Flashmob is a dance everyone can learn – check out our fun instructional video here!
The Melbourne Flashmob is open to EVERYONE! Men are warmly invited to attend and every effort will be made to ensure disability-access. Rehearsal parties will be after work at the University of Melbourne on 18 and 24 September, for those who want to attend (more info on the times and rooms to be posted soon). We’ll supply the Flashmob t-shirts, which you are free to keep!
I WANT TO STAND UP FOR WOMEN. REGISTER ME FOR THE “LET’S END THE STIGMA” FLASHMOB!
x Belle
Hello everyone, and hope you’re enjoying your uni break! The website has been on a bit of a hiatus as we’ve all slogged through exams & essays, then got the flu, then kinda gone into holiday mode a bit, but also still working away in the background organising our NOWSA collective. Only a week until we go away to Canberra… can’t wait!
In the meantime, we wanted to let you know about a big Semester 2 event that is in the works. We’d love any interested people to get involved – you don’t need any special experience or knowledge, just some enthusiasm and keenness to meet new people! Run in conjunction with the National Union of Students, it’s called Bluestocking Week:
Bluestocking is a campaign which celebrates women in higher education. The ‘week’ will run from the 6th-17th of August. This year’s Bluestocking Week will focus on the original bluestocking themes of celebrating women’s intellectualism; advancing feminism through education; and rebelling against social constructs that prescribe roles for women’ including those of class, race, sexuality and culture, that restrict women’s freedom of expression and thought – and we will add a modern (or postmodern) twist. Bluestocking Week is coordinated by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Women’s Action Committee (which has representatives from each State) and the National Union of Students Women’s Department. Events are being organised at national, divisional and university level. The project will be launched by Jane Garrett MP and Jeannie Rea, President of the NTEU at La Trobe University, Eagle Bar (event details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/196702417124126/)
In terms of what’s happening at Melbourne Uni, that’s where you come in! We’d love you to be part of the organising collective. Please drop us a line at womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au if you’d like to be a part of making the week happen, and getting your thoughts and ideas about women & higher education out there.
Happy uni break everyone!
- bel
So, this is something that comes up when you search wom*n going to Canberra. lol.
Hope everyone’s surviving assessment time!
Just a quick post to say the ANU students hosting NOWSA this year are working away hard and are super excited about the week! Stay tuned for more information about speakers and workshops.
So far we have around 10 confirmed unimelb wom*n going with a further 10 or so expressing interest (but reserving their final decision until after their uni work is done and they can think about something besides frickin goshdarn word limits for a second!) We should have the money situation worked out early next week so we can start letting you know about costs & reimbursements. Then can start figuring travel arrangements.
So if you’re interested in finding out more or potentially coming along, don’t be shy! There’ll be a fair few new faces and it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been involved with the department before. In fact, a NOWSA trip is how many wom*n students have got to know each other in previous years.
Email womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au if you haven’t already done so 
Every July, a conference for wom*n students is held at a different university each year. It’s called NOWSA which stands for Network of Women Students Australia. Last year it was in Sydney and Melbourne Uni sent a rad group along. For those who went, it was great fun to meet new people from our own university and from other ones, as well as meeting speakers and presenters and learning a lot. I know that for me personally, I made a lot of friends and I became much more involved with the Wom*n’s Dept & the student union. This year ANU (Canberra) is hosting and the dates are 9-13 July.
We are currently wanting to find out what you think about attending! We have some accommodation and funding set aside for interested unimelb students, so come along to WAC today at 1pm to find out more. There’s still details to be added by ANU, so some people are reserving their decision on attending until more is released. You can check out their website at http://nowsa2012.com (where I’ve copied the following ‘about’ info from):
About NOWSA
The Network of Women Students Australia was established in 1987, founded on ideals of creating a grassroots, autonomous network concerned with issues that impact women and women students. NOWSA provides a platform for women’s organising across universities and in the wider community through resource, skill and knowledge sharing both in conference and through web branches of the network. The network continues to shift, grow and change, but constantly places feminist agenda at the forefront. Women of all ages, sexuality, ability and experience have the opportunity to be involved.
The NOWSA conference runs for 5-days, giving voice to women students and allowing them to engage with personal, political, social, and cultural issues that are relevant to women. NOWSA is now an annual conference, held from year to year at different universities, and encourages networks to be developed with women from across Australia.
2012 marks the 25th anniversary of NOWSA’s establishment, in 1987 at the ‘Women on Campus’ conference held at ANU. Thus the theme for this years conference has been selected as ’25 Years On: Her Story, Her Future’. The conference will host speakers and workshops that surround this theme over the course of five days.
If you’re interested, email womyns@union.unimelb.edu.au!
Tomorrow’s FDG topic is femme identity and femininity. We want to talk about how we approach femininity in feminist and queer communities and in our own lives, and discuss issues of empowerment, autonomy, gender policing, internalised misogyny, and choice. We will be discussing whether feminine expressions can be reclaimed in a space of self-love and power and what it means to identify as femme.
As usual, all welcome, and it doesn’t matter how much you already know or don’t know about this subject!
1-2pm in Mary Cooke rooms (level 2 union house – next to Rowden White library & George Patton gallery)
Links:
In each session we discuss different issues, looking at films, articles and other media, or just general life stuff. You don’t have to be an expert, or a woman to get involved – just enthusiastic! Feminism is not an isolated discipline, either, so expect to explore race, class and many other issues! Discussion group is organised by the awesome Dani: (check out her blog!).
In WAC this week we had some great new topic contributions:
We have big ideas and a big year planned in 2012. All of our events will be free or subsidised for students at the University of Melbourne.
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