Brace Center Welcomes New Codirectors
Neil Evans
In fall 2015, Flavia Vidal and Tasha Hawthorne will begin a six-year term as codirectors of the Brace Center for Gender Studies. “As veteran English instructors, Flavia and Tasha have consistently incorporated the themes of equity and inclusion in their curricula,” notes Linda Carter Griffith, incoming assistant head of school for equity and inclusion. “Both are scholars of gender and related studies and strongly believe in educating our students about gender and the intersectionality of identities.” Hawthorne and Vidal succeed history instructor Tracy Ainsworth, who has directed the center for the past two years and is embarking on a yearlong sabbatical in the fall. For Vidal (pictured above at left), who has served on the Brace Center’s advisory board and as a Brace Scholar advisor, feminism has always been a major part of her personal, academic, and professional identity. The only thing that has really changed over the
years, she says, “is that I have thrown caution to the wind in terms of putting gender, race, and class out there on the table for discussion. I no longer care about being subtle.” Hawthorne (above, right), who was presented with the F.C. Robertson Instructorship this past fall, says,
“Through Brace, as in the classroom, I can advocate for social justice even though our culture constantly bombards us with images that influence us to the contrary.” Still likely the only center of its kind at a secondary school today, the Brace Center is a valuable campus resource,
says Vidal, for “teaching the skills students need—like critical thinking, research, and writing—along with the critical concepts regarding gender, race, class, and sexual orientation needed to thrive in the 21st-century world.”
an advisor to MAKERS.com, a digital and storytelling platform for collecting and sharing women’s stories. A panel of current students and young alumni also offered perspectives. The conference concluded with a screening of The Mask You Live In, a film that follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity.
Assorted books, some written by conference presenters, highlight the many forms of gender-based harassment and violence.
—Corrie Martin
Conference on Gender-Based Harassment and Violence Held in April More than 100 secondary school educators, some from as far away as South Africa, convened on the Abbot campus for the Brace Center for Gender Studies conference on genderbased harassment and violence. The April 10 event was a forum for strategies and discussions on how to create schools where youth of all genders can thrive, feeling safe, valued, and supported in who they are. “The conference provided an incredible opportunity to come together as educators to identify the tools and resources we need to develop a comprehensive and systematic approach to combating gender-based harassment and
violence at the secondary school level. This issue has become a priority for colleges and universities, but it’s clear that the most important work in terms of education and prevention must start much earlier,” says Tracy Ainsworth, Brace Center director and history and social science instructor. Faculty and administrator workshops were led by experts such as Soraya Chemaly ’84, a feminist writer and activist; Dr. Aaminah Norris, director of education and research at The Representation Project; Rosalind Wiseman and Charlie Kuhn, experts on the role video games play in the social development of many children and adolescents; and Amy Richards,
Andover | Spring 2015
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