Emma Rees to Discuss “Who Broke Feminism” at UT Ethics Speaker Series Feb. 19

Is feminism broken? And how might we mend it? On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Emma Rees, a professor of literature and gender studies at the University of Chester, will explore these questions and others at the next University of Tampa Ethics Speaker Series. Rees’ presentation, Who Broke Feminism? The Obligation of Privilege, begins at 6 p.m. in the Crescent Club on the ninth floor of the Vaughn Center and is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

According to Rees, the term “feminism” has an image problem at a time when the idea is needed more than ever. She poses the question: Why do people denounce the word while swearing by the very same phrases that so often follow the claim: “I’m not a feminist, but … ?”

Rees’s presentation will shatter some of the myths about feminism and answer the crucial question: “Why ‘feminism’ and not ‘equality’?” Reese will explore how women are systematically exploited and abused because they are women, discuss the ideas of “choice feminism” and “feminism lite,” and consider the feminist continuum, demonstrating how the “personal” is, in fact, decidedly “political.”

This is an at times humorous talk with a serious message. It’s about the virtues of feminist anger, of acknowledging economic and cultural privilege, and of thinking globally, acting locally and agitating politically.

Rees’ teaching focuses on gender and representation in literature and film from the early modern period to today. She is also the director of the University of Chester’s Institute of Gender Studies. She has published two books exploring gender and is working on a third, That is a Feminist Issue. Rees is a contributing writer to the Times Higher Education magazine and on the editorial boards of several journals, including Gender and Education and Assuming Gender. In 2016, she was appointed consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary, where she works to find new definitions for words related to the female body.

This event is sponsored by the Sykes College of Business’ Center for Ethics. Reservations are required as seating is limited. RSVP at www.ut.edu/centerforethics/speakerseries.

For more information, contact Deanna House, associate director of the Center for Ethics, at dhouse@ut.edu.