A day of dialogue and discussion about feminism returns on April 30. The annual F-Word Conference will be put on for the seventh year running by the Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice Undergraduate Student Association and the Social Justice Institute.
This year’s theme is “Theory to Practice: Imagining Our Feminist Futures.” Students across disciplines and faculties will present their own original work that explores subjects such as intersectionality, resisting settler colonialism, transfeminism and more.
Students will present in panels of three. The conference also includes keynote speakers and workshops done by the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre. This year, one of the speakers will be a community activist from out of the country, whose name has yet to be announced by the committee.
“I think that the culture of UBC, in terms of feminism and social justice, can be quite cold and apathetic, and at times anti-social justice and anti-feminist,” said Alison Watts-Grant, a member of the F-word Conference organizing committee.
The conference provides a space for people to discuss and learn about social justice issues.
“When people talk about these issues in other spaces, like science classes and art classes, they might get shut down. I think it is vitally important to have an open space on campus for people to talk and think about different views and share their ideas others with each other,” said Watts-Grant.
The audience last year had 120 people in the UBC First Nations Longhouse — the committee is hoping for 175 in their new venue in the Nest this year.
“[The conference] is so much fun. It’s difficult to put together and extremely time consuming, but seeing everything come together the day of is the most amazing feeling,” said Watts-Grant.
The F-Word Conference will take place on April 30 at the Nest’s Great Hall at 8:45 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.