St. Catherine’s Prof to Keynote Women’s Conference
Dr. Cynthia Norton, professor of biology and women’s studies at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, will provide the keynote address at the 9th Annual Red River Women’s Studies Conference set for Friday, Nov. 6, on the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus. The title of her talk is “Intersections of Science and Gender: Possibilities for Collaboration and Transformation.”
The conference, sponsored by MSUM’s Women’s Studies Program, focuses on gender studies, feminist studies, and interdisciplinary, international and cross-cultural issues. MSUM last hosted the conference in 2006.
“This conference brings together scholars from the Red River Valley region, and beyond, to present their research and scholarship,” says Laurie Blunsom, director of Women’s Studies at MSUM. “We’ve registered faculty and students from across Minnesota and North Dakota this year.”
Norton has been involved in curriculum development efforts at St. Catherine’s for many years. Her scholarly research includes study of the reproductive biology of hermaphroditic freshwater snails, and feminist critique of science, particularly gender roles during reproduction. She is currently Endowed Professor in the Sciences at St. Catherine’s.
More than twenty presentations are scheduled for the day. Blunsom says the underlying theme of the conference is women and science, and fits well with new initiatives at MSUM related to women and science courses available to students this spring.
The Red River Women’s Studies Conference is a regional conference hosted by a consortium of Women’s Studies program in the Red River Valley, including MSUM, NDSU and UND. The conference will take place in Comstock Memorial Union from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Students attend for free, and lunch is provided. Faculty members and community members pay $25. Registration runs from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., and is required to attend. For more information about the conference, including a schedule of presentations and topics, contact Dr. Laurie Blunsom at (218) 477-4070, or email her at blunsom@mnstate.edu.