Quinnipiac University will host the 15th Annual Women’s Creativity Conference on Feb. 28. The event will be held in Buckman Theater, beginning at 9:30 a.m. with author Virginia Scharff as host speaker. Along with Scharff’s speech, the day’s activities will also include six different creative workshops and a discussion of memoirs with author Marry-Ann Tirone Smith.
It has become a running tradition at Quinnipiac for professors to volunteer their time to perform workshops, and this year is no different.
To begin the day, Lisa Burns, associate professor of media studies, and Jennifer Sacco, assistant professor of political science, will be discussing women in the White House. Later in the afternoon, Cynthia Barrere, Quinnipiac associate professor of nursing, and Mary Ann Cordeau, another Quinnipiac assistant professor of nursing, will be making mandalas during their workshop. The creation of mandalas is an activity using art to model the organization of life.
Another workshop that afternoon is being run by Rebecca Abbott, professor of communications, and Liam O’Brien, professor of media production. They will be discussing their Emmy Award winning documentary “Schweitzer: My Life is My Argument.”
“We want students and members of the greater New Haven [area] to celebrate the creative endeavors of women,” Director of Women’s Studies and psychology professor Michele Hoffnung said.
Burns discussed the benefits of hosting the conference.
“The Women’s Creativity Conference exposes students to a variety of subjects, ranging from art to ecology to politics,” Burns said. “The Conference draws a very diverse audience from the local community, and the discussions are always very interesting and enjoyable.”
“Virginia Scharff is a very creative woman. She studies and writes women’s history and suspense novels. She will talk about women’s contributions to the development of the West,” Hoffnung said of this year’s host.
The Women’s Studies Organization at Quinnipiac is hosting the event. The organization is made up of all professors who joined because they wanted QU to be a part of Women’s History Month, which is in March.
“The women who present are awesome, lunch is served, and overall it is just a great day,” Quinnipiac senior and Co-President of Women Activists Vocalizing Equality (WAVE) Christina Giani said. “We always encourage our members to attend.”
“Some of the e-board members, Bianca Ursillo, Leah Silverstone and I spoke at our own panel at the conference last year,” Giani said. “This was a great honor as the other panelists are professional women who share their creative side, and we were just ecstatic that they would let us students present a panel.”
However, Ursillo, the other co-president of WAVE, said they declined from doing another panel this year simply because they had a lot on their plate.
“I think it is a great conference and they do a great job of bringing a broad range of topics into the panels,” treasurer of WAVE Alissa Pacheco said. “My mom and I go each year, and make it a fun mother-daughter day.”
