Cristine de la Luna, Violet Gorrell, Abigail Jimenez and Celeste Pegues – MSU Puksta Scholars raised funds to attend National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from November 10 -13, 2016. Cristine de la Luna, Violet Gorrell, Abigail Jimenez and Celeste Pegues will be presenting on various topics. Here are a few excepts about their presentations.
“My presentation for the NWSA conference focuses on the history and idea behind human trafficking, the tragedy on a national scale, the vicious cycle that’s nearly inescapable, and the reasons why it is a successful global crime of today. The industry developed during the creation of servants and slavery and has certainly not gone away even when we have claimed “equality, growth, and hope for humanity”. The victims of human trafficking cannot be categorized under one umbrella. Immigrants, runaways, men, women, and children – they all have a big target on their backs. What is worse, once they are trafficked, a good portion of individuals end up recruiting new victims. It is a cycle that will never end if all aspects of society choose to remain blinded. The ignorance of the public has cost precious lives, and it is time to rip the veil and expose the evils that are happening in the world.” – Violet Gorrell
“This paper aims to explore and interrogate the political import of the theory of intersectionality. As intimated by civil rights scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersections of racism and sexism must be recognized, and actively interrogated if women of color are to be empowered in their struggle against sexual abuse. My introduction will set the parameters for the exploration of intersectionality as having existed as a lived reality long before it became a term. In its entirety, this examination seeks to provide a reading of intersectionality as a profound invisibility, which exists in relation to the law.” – Cristine de la Luna
