Physicist, author and international sustainability leader Vandana Shiva will discuss “The Gendered Politics of Food” as keynote speaker at the Women and Spirituality Conference Saturday, Oct. 31.
The 28th annual conference, which opens Oct. 31 and continues Sunday, Nov. 1, will include more than 100 workshops and discussions exploring a variety of topics through discovery, interaction, ritual and celebration. As many as 1,000 people are expected to attend.
Shiva’s keynote talk, “Women and the Gendered Politics of Food,” will be from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom. The conference also will feature a free Saturday night drum circle in the CSU lower level.
The conference is intended to encourage dialogue among women and men from different spiritual and religious traditions. It is co-sponsored by the Minnesota State Mankato Women’s Studies Department, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Division of Institutional Diversity and Women’s Center.
Shiva, who in 2003 was described as an “environmental hero” by Time magazine, received the Alternative Nobel Prize and Earth Day International Award. She is an internationally recognized eco-feminist, physicist, author and sustainability movement leader; an expert on the “slow food” and biodiversity movements; and an outspoken critic of biotechnology and genetic engineering.
She founded Navdanya, a national Indian-based movement to protect resources and promote organic farming, and started an international college for sustainable living in Doon Valley, India. Her books include “The Violence of Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics,” “Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology,” and “Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.”
The conference is open to students, faculty, staff and the public, but participants must register by Oct. 24. General registration costs $60, but reduced rates are available for students or low-income attendees. Those who would like more information may go to http://sbs.mnsu.edu/women/conference or may email veldhc@mnsu.edu.
Those with a disability who need a reasonable accommodation may call (507) 389-2077 or 711 (MRS/TTY) at least two days before the conference.
Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive, doctoral university with 14,950 students and two satellite sites, is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, which comprises 32 institutions across the state.
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