Social Justice Events

Posted in Past Events

Are you interested in involving yourself in the world and making a change? GWA sponsors events that focus on making a change in the world.


Headshot of Nancy Weiss Malkiel

A Conversation, Reception, and Book Signing with Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Ph.D., Author of “Keep the Damned Women Out”: The Struggle for Coeducation in conversation with Carol Benedict, Ph.D.

About Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Ph.D.

Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of History at Princeton University, where she was the longest-serving dean of the college, overseeing the university’s undergraduate academic program for twenty-four years. Her books include Whitney M. Young, Jr., and the Struggle for Civil Rights and Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR, both published by Princeton University Press.

About Carol Benedict, Ph.D.

Carol Benedict, Ph.D., is a Professor of History at our Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where she teaches modern China and world history.

Presented by John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University, The Georgetown University Women’s Center and The Georgetown Women’s Alliance

April 24, 2017, Riggs Library


What a Doctor Looks Like

Exploring Conscious and Unconscious Bias within the Healthcare Setting

“What a Doctor Looks Like: Exploring Conscious and Unconscious Bias within the Healthcare Setting” is set to be a dynamic panel discussion with leading physicians in the field of medicine.

In October of 2016, Dr. Tamika Cross, a Houston OB-GYN, was stopped by a Delta flight attendant who would not allow her to aid a passenger in need when they called for a physician on board, but trusted a white man who “fit the description of a doctor.” Dr. Cross is an African American woman.

In reflection of this incident on a Delta Airlines flight, this event presents an opportunity for students and physicians of all backgrounds to engage in candid dialogue about the roles in which race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status/class, age, ability, and privilege play in shaping our perceptions of who we believe medical professionals to be. In addition, we seek to explore the impact of conscious and unconscious biases within the medical profession, across intrapersonal and patient interactions.

February 8, 2017 Lohrfink Auditorium


Reading Our Many Pasts

Presented by the Georgetown LGBTQ Resource Center

Reflections from Urvashi Vaid, an award winning author, attorney, and organizer in the LGBTQ and Broader Social Justice Community whose work aims to address structural inequalities based on intersecting identities. Vaid’s work honors the importance of building the foundations of a movement in the context of the many histories from which our lives flow forth.

Her efforts range from creating an LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice network to researching global sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Professor Dana Luciano will join Urvashi Vaid for conversation and will moderate the Q&A that follows. Presented by: the Georgetown LGBTQ Resource Center, Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life and Lecture Fund in partnership with the Department of English, GU Pride, GU Queer People of Color, and Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action

October 26, 2016 HFSC Social Room


Gender Justice Initiative Fall Colloquium

The Gender Justice Initiative builds on the long-standing and path-breaking research already being done at Georgetown and sparks dialogue on sex and gender across departments and campuses.  The Gender Justice Initiative invites faculty from across the University to come together, bring your students, and join us to begin the process of starting interdisciplinary conversations on issues of sex, gender, sexuality, feminism, intersectionality, and inequality.

Panel topics include:

  • What Difference Does Sex Difference Make?
  • Gender-Based Violence, Local & Global
  • Intersectional Gender Justice

September 23, 2016 Ethics Lab, 201B Healy Hall


Women marching

Georgetown Women in Labor and Community Organizing

In partnership with the Georgetown Women’s Alliance, the Kalmanovitz Initiative hosted a discussion that addressed women’s leadership in labor and community organizing. The event aimed to encourage, inspire, and offer substantive ideas to women in the Georgetown community who are interested in social justice organizing and activism. By modeling women’s leadership as organizers, we hope to make the vocation of organizing accessible to tomorrow’s future women leaders across the United States. More information about Women in Labor and Community Organizing at Georgetown can be found on their website.

September 7, 2016 Healy Family Student Center, Herman Room.


Going Beyond the Buzzwords of “Diversity & ‘Inclusion’ at Medical Schools: Are We Moving the Needle Enough?

Offered by GU Women in Medicine and the Georgetown University Medical Center

March 29, 2016. A Talk by Dr. Marc Nivet, EdD, MBA, Chief Diversity Officer, AAMC. Dr. Marc A. Nivet, EdD, MBA is the Chief Diversity Officer at the AAMC. In his leadership role, Dr. Nivet provides strategic vision for all AAMC diversity and inclusion activities through his leadership of the Association’s Diversity Policy and Programs department, which focuses on initiatives designed to increase diversity in medical education and advance health care equity. Prior to joining the AAMC, Dr. Nivet served as chief operating officer at the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the foundation, and as special assistant to the senior vice president of health at New York University. He will talk about emerging new trends in diversity and inclusion within academic medicine and how to build the capacity of U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals to move diversity from a peripheral initiative to a core strategy for improving education of medical students.


IDEAA Fall 2015 Diversity & Inclusion Series on “Multiple Minority Identities: Practical Applications in Everyday Life”

November 19, 2015. Conversation with special guest, Dr. Reginald Nettles. Dr. Nettles is a Clinical Psychologist who provides individual, couples, and group psychotherapy. Dr. Nettles has presented on topics of Diversity and Identity, Multiple Minority Identities, Resilience, and Effects of “Change” Therapies with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Individuals. Among Dr. Nettles’ areas of expertise are group psychotherapy, gender and gender orientation issues. Dr. Nettles’ book: “Multiple Minority Identities” seeks to address the complex problems of individuals who claim more than one minority identification. It addresses social identity, power and privilege, AIDS, multiculturalism as it relates to gender, as well as ethnicity.


Book cover for South Side Girls on wood background

South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration

April 28, 2015. The GWA and the History Department co-hosted Dr. Marcia Chatelain, an alumna of the University of Missouri-Columbia (B.A.) and Brown University (A.M., PhD.) and Assistant Professor of History at Georgetown University, for a talk about her new book “South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration,” (Duke University Press, 2015). In South Side Girls Marcia Chatelain recasts Chicago’s Great Migration through the lens of black girls. Focusing on the years between 1910 and 1940, when Chicago’s black population quintupled, Chatelain describes how Chicago’s black social scientists, urban reformers, journalists and activists formulated a vulnerable image of urban black girlhood that needed protecting. Referencing girls’ letters and interviews, this book explores their powerful stories of hope, anticipation and disappointment to highlight their feelings and thoughts. In this book Marcia Chatelain helps restore the experiences of an understudied population to the Great Migration’s complex narrative. The event was attended by more than 75 guests and was followed by Q&A and a reception.