Quick Summary
- Janet Mock’s ‘Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More’
- Programming next week includes law school professor’s Oct. 4 talk, ‘Trans Rights and Fights in the Time of Trump’
- Lectures and films, book club meetings and other discussions will be held from Davis to Sacramento
- Featured author will be on campus Feb. 5 for free forum and evening talk at the Mondavi Center
A law professor’s talk next week on “Trans Rights and Fights in the Time of Trump” is among the first programs in the 2017-18 Campus Community Book Project.
Lectures, films, an exhibition, and book club meetings and other discussions are planned through February in connection with Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, by Janet Mock.
Some of the events will be off-campus, including a “Gender, Youth and Activism” roundtable at Davis High School next week, in keeping with the book project’s mission to engage the wider community beyond students, staff and faculty.
Most events are free and open to the public.
Published in 2014, Redefining Realness relays Mock’s personal experiences growing up multiracial and transgender, offering her perspective on the challenges she faced and how she achieved acceptance and self-realization. She’ll be at ٺƵ on Feb. 5 for a free forum and an evening talk at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
2017-18 Book Project Explores Identity
In announcing the book selection, Dateline ٺƵ quoted Janet Mock as writing: “I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence and community.” Click this box to read the Dateline story. Redefining Realness is available at ٺƵ Stores for the discounted price of $10.50.
The book project encourages people to not only read the book, but also participate in the many programs that have been scheduled (with more to come), from Davis to Sacramento, and, most important, discuss the book among themselves. That was the impetus for the book project in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to get people talking about a book that many of us are reading at the same time, and to acknowledge that not all of our opinions will be the same, and yet we can still be respectful of one another.
Now in its 16th year, the invites nominations annually on different themes. Mock’s book emerged as the selection from among nominations on the theme of “the intersection of racial and LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) identities.”
Roundtable, lecture, WRRC Creative Circle
- “Gender, Youth and Activism” roundtable — Presented by the Genders and Sexualities Alliances (GSAs) of Davis and moderated by Glenda Drew, professor, Department of Design; and Rocket Drew, Davis High School student. 4-6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2, West Conference Room, Davis High School Library, 315 W. 14th St.
- “Trans Rights and Fights in the Time of Trump” — Brian Soucek, acting professor and Martin Luther King Jr. Hall Research Scholar, addressing the legal landscape surrounding trans issues: so-called bathroom bills, lawsuits brought by trans students across the country, the Department of Education's rescinded guidance on trans students at federally-funded schools, and the pending ban on trans servicemen and women. Noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, DeCarli Room, (second floor).
- Women’s Resources and Research Center Creative Circle — This circle inspired by the Campus Community Book Project. 3:15-5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, WRRC’s .
Major! is the first of several films to be screened in the 2017-18 Campus Community Book Project. The calendar also lists Afuera, Kumu Hina, Real Boy, Pariah and Tangerine.
The will present an exhibit, “Advancing Health Education, Advocacy and Social Well-Being in Queer Populations,” Oct. 1-31, in celebration of ٺƵ Health LGBTQ+ History Month.
Book clubs
The Interprofessional Book Club at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing will devote four meetings to Redefining Realness, noon to 1 p.m. Fridays, Oct. 6, Nov. 17, Dec. 1 and Jan. 19, in 1204 .
Other book club events are being held on the Davis campus:
Beyond the Book Club, a student organization, will discuss Redefining Realness at a meeting scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, Garrison Room, (second floor).
The Women’s Resources and Research Center will launch its new book club with two discussions of Redefining Realness, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Jan. 10 and 24, in the Joy Fergoda Library at the WRRC in .
Author’s visit to campus
Here are Mock’s scheduled events on campus on Monday, Feb. 5:
The Forum @ MC — Panel discussion, 4-5 p.m., Jackson Hall, . Free and open to the public.
Evening talk: Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More — 8-9:30 pm, Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.
The evening program will include a question-and-answer session moderated by Scott Syphax, president of Syphax Strategic Solutions, and the host and co-executive producer of Studio Sacramento on Sacramento's PBS affiliate, KVIE.
Media Resources
Dateline Staff, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu