Panel: Menstruation is Having its Moment – How Can Scholars Engage?
Followed by a reception
Menstruation is receiving unprecedented attention in mainstream media, social enterprises, technical innovations, and in the halls of the United Nations. As diverse stakeholders are beginning to see the importance of menstrual health, we are launching a new Working Group on Menstrual Health & Gender Justice at the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University to join and guide efforts as this movement builds.
The panel will bring together experts on menstrual health – established and emerging scholars as well as practitioners. While research on menstruation is not new, the current momentum creates new opportunities. The following questions will guide the panel and inspire discussion:
• How can we capitalize on the sudden intense attention to menstruation?
• What opportunities follow from this shift? What are the risks?
• How can we enable evidence-based policy-making and avoid rushing decisions?
• How can we challenge common misconceptions?
• How can we move from moment to movement to ensure that any gains are sustainable and long-term?
- Facilitator: Inga Winkler, Director of the Working Group on Menstrual Health & Gender Justice, Lecturer in the Institute for the Study of Human Rights
- Nancy Reame, Research Scientist, Irving Institute for Clinical & Translational Research, Mary Dickey Lindsay Professor of Nursing (Emerita), Columbia University Medical Center
- Chris Bobel, Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston
- Norma Swenson, Founder, Our Bodies, Ourselves
- Trisha Maharaj, Graduate Student in Human Rights Studies
- Vanesa Paranjothy, Obama Foundation Scholar
