The Gender Studies Lecture Series has unveiled a slate of spring lecture topics that includes the media’s role in violence toward women, gay fatherhood and female leadership in the military.

The season’s events, which kick off this week, include:

  • “Negotiating Gay Fatherhood” by Dr. Ellen Lewin on Thursday in the McDermott Suite of the McDermott Library. Lewin is a professor of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, and anthropology at the University of Iowa.
  • Turning Point Rape Crisis Center of Collin County facilitating an interactive presentation on the role of media in gender violence on Feb. 17 in the McDermott Suite of the McDermott Library.
  • “Gender and the Military: Leadership and Taking the Road Less Traveled” by retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mary L. Saunders on March 2 in Galaxy Room C of the Student Union. Saunders is the executive director of the Leadership Institute at Texas Women’s University.

Events begin at 5:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

“The Gender Studies Lecture Series is multifaceted in the gift it offers to those who attend,” said Dr. Karen Prager, professor of psychology and head of the Gender Studies program in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. “It is academically and intellectually stimulating in that it brings scholars, writers and public figures from many disciplines to talk about their latest work, but it can also be a place for people to discuss intensely personal issues, as happened with our last lecture on postpartum depression.”

The Gender Studies Lecture Series, now in its 12th year of presenting issues of interest to women and men, is co-sponsored by the Galerstein Women’s Center and organizations across campus. For more information about the Gender Studies lecture series, visit the series page on the Women’s Center website.