On Wednesday, March 28th and Thursday, March 29th, New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, the Roundtable of Institutions of People of Color and NYU’s Office for African American, Latino and Asian American Student Services will hold a two-day conference titled “Women of Color: The Forgotten Members of the City.” At the event, women’s activists, academics and policy analysts will participate in discussions on various issues that affect women of color in New York City, such as employment, welfare reform, children’s issues and crime. Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields will be the conference keynote speaker.
The Conference on Women of Color will be held on Wednesday, March 28th, from 6:30pm-8pm at 4 Washington Square North; and on Thursday, March 29th, from 9am-6pm at the Tishman Auditorium, 40 Washington Square South; and the Ben Snow Dining Hall, Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South.
Topics covered at the conference will include: · Changing Employment Opportunities for New York City’s Women of Color · Effects of Welfare Reform in New York City’s Women of Color Communities · Effects of Public Policy on Poor Children of Color · Women and Incarceration · “Lawyering,” Lobbying and Organizing for Change
Panelists will include: · Anannya Bhattacharjee, co-founder and former executive director of Sakhi for South Asian Women. She is the former executive director of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAV). She has also been involved over the years in initiating the organizing of South Asian household workers in the New York metropolitan area. In 1998, she was awarded the Activist-in-Residence fellowship from the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute at New York University. She is now a Revson Fellow at Columbia University and is currently working with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) on an initiative around violence against women and law enforcement.
· Rosa M. Gil, D.S.W., Health Policy Advisor to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Chairperson of the New York City Health and Hospital’s Corporation. Dr. Gil is a former assistant professor at Columbia University, School of Medicine; and associate professor at the School of Social Work. Dr. Gil has written numerous articles on health, behavioral health, ethnicity, child welfare and gender issues. She is the co-author of Maria Paradox, the first authoritative book on self-esteem and Hispanic women
· Esmeralda Simmons, co-founder of The Roundtable of Institutions of People of Color. She is a civil rights and human rights attorney. She specializes in cultural rights, education, voting rights, and racial discrimination cases. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Justice in Brooklyn, New York. The Center is a successful community based legal research and advocacy institution located at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.
The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service was founded in 1938 as the Graduate Division for Training in Public Service. Today, the Wagner School is the largest public service school in the country. Committed to the values of public service and enriched by the academic excellence of New York University, the Wagner School delivers a comprehensive, practical education for those seeking to serve the public sector. Hailing from all over the world, students arrive at the Wagner School with a desire to serve the public and leave with the skills and experience to bring about change. Combining coursework in management, finance and policy with cutting edge research and work experience, the Wagner education enables them to transform personal commitment into public leadership. New York University is a private university in the public service, and the Wagner School stands at the heart of this mission, linking the enormous resources of the University to the community, to New York City and by extension, to the cities of this country and around the world.
The conference is free of charge, registration by phone and at the door.