Lecture to discuss #MeToo movement

Dr. Lisa Huebner will be the speaker at a lecture about sexual assault and the #MeToo movement on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 4:30 p.m. in 002 Breckinridge Hall. 

The lecture is called “Bad Sex, Sexual Assault and #MeToo: The Personal is Political and What to do About It.” During the talk, Huebner will discuss the importance of making social change that is survivor-based, intersectional and visible. Huebner draws on social movement theory and gender studies theory to describe how the #MeToo movement is different from other social movements.  

“#MeToo is different because each individual social media post is a personal outing from a survivor,” Huebner said. “Each #metoo breaks the silence that is normally associated with intimate violence and each post is both personal and political. In this way #MeToo is very similar to other identity-based social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. They are based on personal and painful experiences of violence that are also political in how this violence is either remedied or it is not.”

Huebner is a feminist sociologist of gender and professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and West Chest University in Pennsylvania who has been giving lectures on the #MeToo movement since September 2017. Her publications include “Catheters, Slurs, and Pickup Lines: Professional Intimacy in Hospital Nursing" and "Fear, Fraud, and Frank Complexities: The Influence of Gender on Human Trafficking" in the journal Human Trafficking: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Huebner said she hopes students who attend the lecture gain some perspective about the ties between race, gender and violence. 

“I want students to understand how identity-based norms such as those that shape our understandings of race, gender, and sexuality bolster significant forms of violence,” she said. “I want students to see the connections between mundane life and extreme harm. I want students to leave the talk better understanding themselves and our society and see when and how there is potential to make positive social change.”

The lecture is sponsored by the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of Nursing, the Interdisciplinary Gender Studies program, the Hinkle Endowment for the Humanities, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Justice Center and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

For more information, contact Dr. Ann Andaloro, director of Gender Studies, at a.andaloro@moreheadstate.edu or 606-783-2714.