"Upcoming Gender Week Aims to Involve, Inform Students on Gender Issues"

Gender Week, the annual series of speakers and gender-related events, returns to UB for its second year on Monday, with a new focus on gender-related health issues.

Several prominent women will visit campus for the events, including Rep. Louise Slaughter, (D-N.Y.), and author Connie Porter.

The most visible force behind this year's event is Barbara Bono, associate professor of English. Bono is also director of UB's branch of the Gender Institute.

Bono said the organizers expect a strong turnout this year, partly because the number of events was reduced.

"I expect a better turnout from last year," she said. "We've cut the events down from 40 to 30 plus. Although we had pretty good publicity last year, this year we had more time to get the word out."

Mary Bisson, chair of the biology department, Patricia Shelly, a professional staff assistant, and Ameyo Awuku, a graduate student in the linguistics program, also worked to organize the week-long event.

Some of the week's most prominent events focus on the issue of health care.

On Tues., Sept. 23, Sandra Morgen of the University of Oregon will speak on the subject of "Women's Health Activism, 1969 to Today" in 144 Farber Hall.

An interactive drama on sexual harassment, organized by the Theatre for Change, will be staged at the Mainstage Theater at the Center for the Arts. The play, which will be held Wednesday at 7 p.m., will center on a student-teacher relationship that exceeds its boundaries.

Other events will spotlight successful women writers.

Connie Porter, author of the American Girls novels and a Buffalo native, will hold a reading and book signing at Slee Concert Hall from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Friday afternoon, Charity Vogel, an award-winning reporter from The Buffalo News and faculty advisor to The Spectrum, will lead a forum entitled "Gender Politics in Fiction and Journalism."

The forum will be held on Fri., Sept. 26 at 2 p.m. in 120 Clemens Hall.

All events are free and open to the public.

Though this year's event is still on the horizon, organizers have already laid plans for next year's Gender Week, scheduled for Sept. 20 to 24, 2004.

"The tentative theme will be 'Economic Literary and Economic Self Sufficiency,' including women owned businesses," Bono said.