Reclaiming Time and Power

Dear students and colleagues:

It is March. We are nearly halfway through the semester!

Based on my conversations with many of you over the last several weeks, I understand these days tend to feel harder to lean into the light. It has been hard for me too but the recent increase in sunshine and daylight hours has increased my hope and joy. As the month brings us a new season, I hope you each will find ways to restore your inner peace, joy, and hope. With that said, to those who celebrate, Happy Mardi Gras! I also want to wish everyone a restful spring break and an empowering Women's History Month.

Because the month feels shorter due to the upcoming break, we chose to offer a few events towards the latter part of this celebratory month. For those unfamiliar, Women’s History Month celebrates the often-overlooked contributions of women in history, society and culture. Originally a one-day celebration proposed and enacted by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission in 1978, women’s groups and organizers were motivated to petition for a one-week celebration. The week of March 8 was selected to correspond with International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the impact women have had on culture, politics and society. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week. Seven years later, Congress designated March as “Women’s History Month.” Since then, each president has issued an annual proclamation.

What I have always found interesting about how Women’s History Month came to be is the timeline. The Seneca Falls Convention (the first women’s rights convention) took place in 1978, the first International Women’s Day took place in 1911, and in 1920 the 19th Amendment guaranteeing a woman’s rights to vote was ratified. Yet it took so many additional years to recognize a need to celebrate and honor women. The history of women is telling - women wait to be recognized, wait to be supported, and wait to be treated equally. Add in intersectionality, like race, gender expression, ability, age and/or class, etc., and the waiting increases.

This month, we hope to decrease the waiting time by centering “herstory.” “Herstory” is a term created in the 20th century to mean history that is written by women, centering the experience of women. The College of Fine Arts will celebrate Women’s Herstory Month with a focus: “Counter-narratives: Sharing Victoria’s Secret.” During the month, we will offer a variety of programs that center the stories of women that have been silenced. We do this with the intention to create equity in storytelling experiences, to shed light on the often-overlooked impact of women, and to increase awareness of how our daily language and actions maintain disequal systems for women. Following her extraordinary example, in alignment with Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif), this month and moving forward, women shall reclaim their time (and power).

Please find our upcoming events on the Community Events page.

Take good care of yourselves.

In community,

Valeria J. Martinez
Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
College of Fine Arts