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UGA Women’s Studies
Hosts WAGG Conference
The University of Georgia Institute of
Women's Studies will convene its fifth annual
Women and Girls in Georgia Conference
(WAGG) Saturday, Oct. 8. The theme of this
year's conference is "Women and the Economic
Crisis: Responding to Tough Times." Since
2007, the women's studies program has
brought together speakers, activists and
citizens—both from other state academic pro
grams and from various organizations informed
by feminist concerns—to encourage research
and discussion about the diverse group of
females who face the challenges of living in
Georgia and the United States today. Each
year, the WAGG Conference has focused upon
a social issue of importance to this group of
people whose needs or concerns are often
marginalized. The conference's goal this year,
as always, is to promote active engagement
with such issues by those who attend.
The conference is an all-day event at the
UGA Miller Learning Center, with a broad
selection of sessions for attendees to choose
from. Because of the event's structure,
with sessions offering simultaneous choices
between presentations of research papers,
panels and workshops, organizers recommend
participants download a program of the day's
schedule—available at www.uga.edu/iws/
WAGG—before attending.
The conference's keynote speaker will
be Kim Bobo, the author of Wage Theft in
America: Why Millions of Working Americans
Are Not Getting Paid and What You Can Do
About It. Bobo is also the executive director
and founder of Interfaith Worker Justice, a
Chicago nonprofit advocacy group, and has
been involved in community organizing since
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graduating from college with a B.A. in religion
and realizing that such a path could exist.
"I wanted to help people," Bobo says.
After 10 years with a Christian hunger-fighting
organization, Bread for the World, she became
an instructor at a community organizing train
ing institute in Chicago. A turning point for
her came in 1989, when she came in contact
with strikers who walked to support retired
or disabled coal miners—or their widows—
whose health benefits were terminated by the
Pittston Coal Company in Pennsylvania. Bobo
was startled to find that few, if any, religious
organizations had ties with labor groups. Bobo
began to organize influential religious figures
in Chicago into committees for social justice.
By 2005, the newly named Interfaith
Worker Justice organization had become a net
work spread across the United States. In addi
tion to workers' rights, Bobo also promotes
low-income housing initiatives and notes that
private-sector job creation is vital.
While her personal religious faith inspires
and informs her work in social and economic
justice—as it does her books, articles and
public speaking—there is no expressed doc
trinal agenda nor exclusion coming from
Interfaith Worker Justice. "We will never take
positions on such matters," Bobo says. "We
only take positions related to workers' rights.
It's practical. That's what we know."
Following her keynote address, Bobo will
join local activists in a roundtable discussion,
"Mobilizing for Economic Justice," on how
the economic crisis directly affects Georgia,
and the means to effect change. Participating
community activists include representatives
from of the Economic Justice Coalition, the
Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, UGA
Campus Kitchen, the Interfaith Hospitality
Network, Bread for Life and Project Safe.
Deb Chasteen
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