Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 3/4/98
      Contact:                           Carol Dotson   5

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS WEEK AT SLU
     HAMMOND, LA -- Southeastern Louisiana University's Women's Rights Week is
hosting several guest speakers on a variety of topics including art, archeology and feminism.
     Among the speakers scheduled are Sheila Tobias, author and researcher of "neglected
issues" in science and mathematics education; artist and educator, Sharon Jacques; author
Christine Vella; and Reca Jones, archaeologist and discoverer of the Watson Brake site in
northern Louisiana and Felicia Harry, director of the Louisiana Center for Women in
Government at Nicholls State University..
     Tobias will speak Wednesday March 18 at 10 am in the Teacher Education Center Kiva
on "Overcoming Math Anxiety: An Update" and again at 2 pm on "Faces of Feminism" at the
Vonnie Borden Theatre. She is the author of ten books including Succeed with Math: Every
Student's Guide to Conquering Math Anxiety,  Breaking the Science Barrier and Faces of
Feminism, An Activist's Reflections on the Women's Movement. Tobias is currently conducting
research and writing for the Research Corporation, a foundation for the advancement of science
in Tucson Arizona. Prior to that she worked for 12 years as an academic administrator at Cornell
and Wesleyan Universities, with particular responsibility for the social sciences and women's
programming.
     Sharon Jacques will give a lecture on women in the arts entitled: "The Good Terrorists:
An Open Dialogue and Examination of Gender Issues and Actions of Contemporary Artists,"
Wednesday March 18 at 4:45 pm. Jacques has served as middle school programs coordinator for
New York's Museum of Modern Art and designed, developed and implemented that museum's
first program for a middle school audience in 1985. That pilot project became a nationally
recognized model for defining and teaching visual literacy skills. She has been a consultant and 

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Women's Rights Week Speakers/ADD ONE

artist-lecturer at the Lincoln Center's Summer Art Institute and the New Museum of
Contemporary Art in New York, and curator of education for Baton Rouge's Louisiana Arts and
Science Center.                          
     Christine Vella, author of  Intimate Enemies: The Life of Baroness Pontalba will speak
on Tuesday March 17 at 1 pm in the Music Recital Hall. Vella taught history full time for twenty
year and is now adjunct professor of history at Tulane University in New Orleans.
     Reca Jones will speak on Monday March 16 at 1 pm in the Sims Memorial Library. Jones
began working with professional archaeologists in the early 1970's. Since then, she has assisted
contract, academic and state archaeologists in site survey and excavation, artifact analysis and
publication. She has served as a contact between professional archaeologists and landowners and
local collectors.  She obtained access to important archaeological sites for Harvard, University of
Arkansas, LSU, USL and Northeast Louisiana University. Her most important contribution to
archaeology is the site Watson Brake. She was the first to recognize the oval configuration of the
mounds and ridges and recorded the site in 1983. 
     Jones has served as president of the Northeast Louisiana Archaeological Society, on the
Executive Board of the Louisiana Archaeological Society and in 1988 was the first woman
elected to serve as president of the Louisiana Archaeological Society.
     Felicia Harry will discuss the Louisiana Center for Women in Government on Friday
March 20 at 10 am in the Sims Memorial Library.
     Several Southeastern faculty members will also give lectures on women in science, the
arts, nursing and in the Victorian age. 
     All of the lectures are free and open to the public. For more information call Cultural
Resource Management at 549-2193.

                                  -SLU-
                                    
                                    
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         www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp98.htm