Robyn Bourgeois will speak about Aboriginal women and the politics of prostitution this Thursday at 4 p.m., in Arts building ART 115 at UBC’s Okanagan campus.
Robyn Bourgeois, an expert on violence against Aboriginal women and girls in Canada, will lead a discussion about Aboriginal women and the politics of prostitution this Thursday afternoon at UBC's Okanagan campus.
Currently teaching courses at both UBC's Okanagan campus and Okanagan College, Bourgeois is also completing a PhD at the University of Toronto, researching 30 years of Aboriginal women's activism against violence.
"I argue that because prostitution, as a concept and lived reality, functions to secure hierarchies of oppression that particularly target Aboriginal women and girls, it is a form of violence," says Bourgeois.
"For the majority of First Nation women in this country, prostitution is neither a choice nor a move toward empowerment, but instead is a form of ongoing colonial and patriarchal violence that threatens to eliminate us from the 'roll call of the living,'" she says.
Bourgeois will be joined by colleagues Laura Holland from the Aboriginal Women's Action Network (AWAN) and Bernie Williams and Gladys Radek from Walk4justice. The discussion is from 4 to 5:30 p.m., Mar. 31 in the Arts building ART 115 at UBC's Okanagan campus.
The event is free and open to the public. Donations to AWAN and Walk4Justice are gratefully accepted.
This event is sponsored by Unit 6 (Economics, History, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology) of the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences.
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