Lebanon Valley College Welcomes Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Debra Chasnoff Nov. 3-7

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Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, Debra Chasnoff, to present as part of Lebanon Valley College’s Gender Colloquium series.

ANNVILLE, PA (10/31/2014)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College welcomes Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Debra Chasnoff, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, to present as part of the College's Gender Colloquium series. Chasnoff will be in residence November 3-7 and will share her experiences in social justice activism with students, faculty, and community members through classes, workshops, and presentations.

Chasnoff will participate in a Q&A following a screening of her film "Straightlaced: How Gender Got Us All Tied Up" on Monday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. at The Allen Theatre in Annville. The film explores the gender and sexuality pressures teens and young adults face. Admission is $3 for the public, $1 for non-LVC students, and free for LVC students with student ID.

In collaboration with LVC professors, Chasnoff will interact with the College community by speaking with students on Nov. 4-5. She will visit classes in multiple disciplines including first year seminars, English, and sociology to offer insight and to facilitate conversations among students on the topic of gender.

On Thursday, Nov. 6, Chasnoff will offer a free and public lecture, "I Came to College to Study a Major and Get a Job: Why Should I Care About Gay Issues?" at 6 p.m. in Leedy Theater of Mund College Center. She will share short excerpts from many of her highly acclaimed films to challenge listeners to understand why lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues are ones people must examine if they want to be successful in college, the workplace, friendships, and family relationships.

Chasnoff is the recipient of the Wallace A. Gerbode Foundation Fellowship for outstanding nonprofit leadership, the Pathfinder Award from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and the first-ever alumna achievement award in documentary filmmaking from Wellesley College.

In addition to these accomplishments, Chasnoff is also an expert in social justice activism, creating media as tools for change, the pressures on youth to conform to gender norms, the importance of adopting LGBT-inclusive curricula and how to do that, and culture change strategies for addressing name-calling and bullying.

The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program, which is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in Washington, D.C., brings prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders, and other professionals to campuses across the United States for a week-long residential program of classes, seminars, workshops, lectures, and informal discussions.

Chasnoff's presentations are a part of the College's 2014-15 Gender Colloquium Series. Gender is a yearlong integrated series of keynote presentations, guest speakers, films, and academic courses. Gender actively and passively shapes our shared destinies. More than an idea, its practice and performance unfold within the constellations of biology and culture, bodies and institutions. In the face of powerful social conventions and the culturally constructed binaries of "male" and "female," "masculine" and "feminine," the complexities of gender challenge us to think beyond the genus, to reach beyond the type and category, and to step into the spectrum of being and becoming. For more information, visit: http://www.lvc.edu/colloquium.