Norma Vasallo Barrueta, director of the women’s and gender studies program at the University of Havana, and an internationally respected professor of social psychology and researcher on gender issues and Cuban women and their families, will lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22 in Montana State University’s SUB Ballroom A.
Vasallo’s lecture, “Economic Changes in Cuba: Impacts for Cuban Women and their Families” is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Vasallo will also guest lecture at an MSU class and will speak with members of the community interested in advancing the status of women in Cuba and the U.S. and the globalization of women’s and gender studies.
Vasallo will be on the MSU campus April 20-23 as part of a national speaking tour throughout the U.S. She has been a central figure in the integration of multicultural gender studies perspectives into the curriculum of the University of Havana system. She has just released her new book, “Distant Echoes, Nearby Voices, Feminist Gazes.” Vasallo is also the director, Women in the 21st Century International Women’s Conferences that attract hundreds of women and men from around the world.
“As part of Montana’s focus on equal pay for equal work, Dr Vasallo’s public presentation is especially timely since Cuba’s Constitution has provisions for equal pay for equal work; gender, racial and sexual orientation non-discrimination; one year’s paid family leave as well as health care and education through university level as human rights guaranteed to all Cubans,” said Jan Strout, MSU adjunct professor who is part of the committee bringing Vasallo to MSU.
Doors for the event will open at 6:30 p.m. with sights and sounds of Cuba on display along with information tables by some of the co-sponsoring MSU departments and community organizations.
Vasallo’s lecture is sponsored by Associated Students of MSU, MSU’s Office of the President, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, Offices of International Programs and Diversity Awareness, Leadership Institute, Program in Women’s and Gender Studies and the Women’s Center. Additional community and national speaking tour sponsors are the Bozeman Business and Professional Women, Gallatin Valley Friends of Cuba, Montana Chapter of the National Organization for Women and the U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration.
For more information, contact Jan Strout, instructor, MSU CLS Seminar Programs, and co-chair of the U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration, at jan@reclaimthemedia.org and http://www.womenandcuba.org.
Jan Strout (206)251-0880, janstroutmsu@yahoo.com
