The Women’s Movement, Title IX, and Moxie!
The Women’s Movement, Title IX, and Moxie!
For the past couple of weeks, I have been learning about the CWC’s involvement in collaborative projects by meeting with representatives from organizations we work with regularly. Out of these collaborations, I have been spending the most time learning about the Moxie Project, which is a collaborative effort among the CWC, the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), the History Department, and the Provost’s Office.
Because the CWC works most closely with the SOHP on Moxie, I spend some time meeting with the SOHP Associate Director Rachel Seidman to learn about the project’s history. Dr. Seidman developed this project in her previous position at Duke University, and this is the pilot year for the expansion of the Moxie Project to UNC. The project aims to place UNC undergraduate students who are interested in activism with community organizations to develop their own sense of activism and community engagement. Right now the students are taking a class on the women’s movement in the South and oral history methodology. Later this month, they will begin their internships in women’s organizations in the Triangle, including Benevolence Farm, the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, Lillian’s List, the Pauli Murray Project, and NARAL. While interning, the students will also interview women activists for the Southern Oral History Program’s archives, and they will meet once a week for summer seminars.
To learn more about the first phase of the project, I have been attending some Moxie events, including this kick-off party! The party was held at the SOHP’s headquarters, the Love House on Franklin Street. I really enjoyed meeting the impressive Moxie interns as well as several of their site supervisors and individuals associated with the Moxie project.
http://csas.unc.edu/about-us/
Along with the party, Joey Fink, who is teaching the Moxie class, graciously allowed my supervisor and me to join her students last week for a session on the history and impact of Title IX. This was a great opportunity to understand how the class portion of the Moxie Project is preparing the students for their community internships and for conducting oral histories. Joey taught this class using oral histories on Title IX collected from women associated with UNC. This was great fun for me, since it let me reminisce on my undergraduate days as a history major. Check out one of the oral histories about Title IX here.
The topic of this session was also quite timely in light of recent sexual misconduct issues at UNC and the steps the university has taken to create a new Title IX coordinator position. For more on Title IX at UNC, check out the blog written by Interim Title IX Coordinator Christi Hurt, who is currently on leave from her position as the Director of the Women’s Center.
See how this rambling entry came full circle? More about Moxie and Title IX and what all that has to do with the CWC next week!
