News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 2/24/03   SOUTHEASTERN TO CELEBRATE WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH       HAMMOND -- The Southeastern Louisiana University Women’s Coalition will celebrate March as Women’s History Month with a lively series of lectures, films, dance, art and drama, all honoring women.       The month-long campus celebration joins with similar observances throughout the nation under the umbrella of the National Women’s History Project’s theme, “Women Pioneering the Future.” ABC and ESPN broadcast journalist Robin Roberts, a 1983 Southeastern graduate, is among the 11 national Women’s History Month honorees. Roberts was a guest speaker at Southeastern’s first Women’s History Month celebration in 2001.       Special events will include original monologues by Southeastern creative writing students;  “Hereafter Known As . . . a Study in Losing and Gaining Definition” presented  by Sharp Edges dance troupe; a reading by Southeastern graduate Olympia Verson from her recent critically-acclaimed novel, “Eden”; and English professor Wade “Togaman” Heaton’s popular production “Clothing of Women in the Ancient World.”       Women’s History Month begins on March 10 with a lecture titled “Play by Play” by June Mumme, who will give an account of her journey to health. June Mumme, wife of Southeastern head football coach Hal Mumme, is a cancer survivor.        Also scheduled the first week are free lectures by two Southeastern faculty members. On March 11, Lucia Harrison, interim head of the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures, will speak on Marie de Agreda, a 17th century abbess who wrote “The Mystical City of God,” a life of the Virgin Mary ostensibly based on divine revelations. History professor Margaret Gonzales-Prez will lecture on women terrorists on March 13.       Southeastern’s Women’s History Month faculty lectures are all scheduled for 12:30 p.m.  on the third floor of Sims Memorial Library. Up-coming speakers include state Rep. Diane Winston, Monique Rhodes Monac, History and Political Science Department Head Bill Robison and department faculty members Christopher Leahy, Judith Fai-Podlipnik and Andrew Traver.        At noon on March 12 in the Student Union Theatre, students in English professor Jayetta Slawson’s creative writing class will present a series of original monologues, “Race, Identity, Woman – A Living Louisiana Ghost Story.”        The Women’s History Month film series, featuring works by women directors, will run on Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. in the Student Union Theatre, beginning with Penny Marshall’s "A League of Their Own" on March 11.         Produced by the Southeastern Women’s Coalition, Women’s History Month is sponsored by the departments of English and History and Political Science with support from the departments of Communication, Chemistry and Physics, Mathematics and the Center for Faculty Excellence.       For additional information about Women’s History Month, call 985-549-2330. Return to News Releases