UAB to celebrate International Women's Day

The institutional event will include a round table in which all former directors of the UAB Observatory for Equality will participate, with former rector who gave support to the founding of the observatory Lluís Ferrer as moderator.

On 5 March, at 11:30 a.m., the Sala d'Actes of the Rectorat building will play host to the event celebrating the 15th anniversary of the UAB Observatory for Equality and this year's institutional International Women's Day event. The event will be presided by UAB Rector Margarita Arboix; Vice Rector for Students and Employability Sara Moreno; and Observatory Director Maria Prats.

Moreno and Prats will present the observatory’s lines of work, followed by the traditional 8 March institutional celebration in which homage is paid to one of the UAB's leading figures for her trajectory and contributions. This year tribute will be paid to Laura Duarte Campderrós, Technical Director of the Observatory for Equality. Laura Duarte will be presented by Maribel Ponferrada, also technician at the observatory, and a short video on the tributee will be screened before Rector Arboix presents her with the award.

During the second part of the event, a round table made up of María Jesús Izquierdo, Carolina Gala, Montserrat Rifà and Joana Gallego, all of them former directors of the observatory, will serve to speak on the achievements made in these past 15 years. Professor Lluís Ferrer, who was the UAB rector when the observatory was founded, will be moderating the debate.

Currently, the Observatory for Equality is "mainly focused on the analysis of inequalities in higher education, and specifically on the study and diagnosis of sexism and inequalities for the disabled, from an intersectional perspective". It is in charge of raising awareness on the different forms of inequalities and discrimination among the university community and implementing equality policies. The observatory began its activities in 2005, which it centred on the area of inequalities between women and men. In 2008, it grew to act in favour of all collectives which could find themselves in unfavourable conditions due to their physical, economic, or social situation. Among other training, dissemination and research tasks, the observatory has drafted a series of equality and disability plans with the aim of establishing measures and actions to be taken to improve the situation of less favoured groups.

Talk on Eco Feminism at the UAB Theatre
In addition to the institutional event, other activities have been programmed on campus to celebrate 8 March. On 3 March, Yayo Herrero, Vice President of the FUHEM Foundation and former confederal coordinator of Ecologists in Action, will offer a conference on ecofeminism in relation to the current climate emergency entitled "L'ecofeminisme davant l'emergència climàtica". It will take place at the UAB Theatre at 1 p.m. The conference forms part of the activities programmed for this academic year that focus on the climate emergency.

Cyber Violence Against Women, Conference at the Faculty of Law
On 4 March, the Faculty of Law also organises an institutional event in celebration of International Women's Day. Focusing on the legal aspects of cyber violence, a seminar entitled "Ciberviolència contra les dones: anàlisi jurídic, estat de la qüestió i reptes pendents" will last from 9:30 a.m.to 1p.m. and bring together specialists from different academic and professional fields to debate on this topic. Laia Serra, criminal lawyer and expert in cyber violence perpetrated by men will offer a conference at 10 a.m., moderated by lecturer Noelia Igareda; and at 11 a.m. there will be round table on how legally to tackle cyber violence, entitled "Abordatge jurídic de les ciberviolències". Participants will be Joan Baucells, Laura Rodríguez, Andrea García, with Olga Paz acting as moderator.

Teaching Translation and Interpreting from a Gender Perspective
The Faculty of Translation and Interpreting will host on Friday 6 March a session entitled "Ensenyar a traduir i interpretar amb perspectiva de gènere", for teaching staff, PhD students and lecturers from other education spheres from the area of translation and language studies. From 9:30 a.m.to 2 p.m., university lecturers from all over Spain and Europe will share their teaching experiences when combining gender perspective and translation. There will also be two practical workshops in the afternoon, one on language and another on translation, at the Multimedia Hall B, directed by Lupe Romero, Director of SIFT, and Eleonora Federice from the University of Naples. Entrance is free, but registration is required.

One Minute Ideas and Proposals to Foster Equality
On Wednesday 4 March the Faculty of Communication Studies' students, administration and services and teaching staff will decorate the faculty with purple balloons and feminist quotes. On Friday 6 March classes will be interrupted for 5 minutes at 12 noon so that everyone can participate in the reading of the institutional manifest at the entrance hall of the faculty. In addition, a space at the COMTEC corner will be prepared for those interested in briefly explaining in one minute, approximately, a proposal or idea to foster equality between men and women both at the faculty and in general. The best proposals will be included in a video which will be shared online.

Remedios Zafra, Art and Cyber Feminism
On Monday 9 March, the session "Xarxes amb Gènere" at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Room 201, will take place from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. under the direction of Remedios Zafra, lecturer in Art, Gender Studies and Digital Culture at the University of Seville, tutor in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the UNED and guest lecturer in postgraduate programmes and seminars on culture, science and technology. Her work has received numerous prizes, the most recent being the Anagrama Essay Prize 2017 for El Entusiasmo and the International Literary Prize "Mujeres del Medio Rural y Pesquero"  in 2006 for her book "Lo mejor (no) es que te vayas”. Zafra will speak on feminism and networks in “La intimidad conectada. Feminismo y cultura en red” (10 to 11:30 a.m.) in a conference which will critically reflect upon three decades of art and cyber feminism, with emphasis on the interpretations made on the tranformations of intimacy in the new public-private sphere, the representation and feminist alliances in the online culture. Following the conference thre will be an experimentation session on creative and feminist strategies for material and symbolic interventions (12 to 2:30 p.m.). The sessions are organised by the Minor in Gender, coordinated by lecturer Begonya Saez Tajafuerce, in collabroation with the Bachelor's Degree in Socio-Cultural Gender Studies and the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, under the framework of the Menció Encarna Sanahuja Yll project. 

Open Doors and Specific Sessions at SAF
On Thursday 5 March, the SAF will open its doors on International Women's Day and invite all members of the UAB community to enjoy activities especially addressed to women with the aim of fostering physical activity. Some of the activities to be offered will be hypopressure workshops, initiation to cardio boxing, training sessions with free weights and pelvic floor exercises. Those who sign up for the open day will also be able to enjoy over 120 directed activities and everything the sports centre has to offer: 30,000m2 of indoor and outdoor space containing tennis and paddle tennis courts, football pitches, rock climbing, pools, etc. and other areas such as a wellness area and study halls. For more information on Women's Day 2020 please visit www.uab.cat/saf.