UNC Asheville Women’s Studies Program will continue its community lecture series with a two-part talk on "The Cultural Valorization of Quilts," at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, in UNCA’s Owen Conference Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Yolanda Hood, UNCA assistant professor of literature and language, will begin the discussion with "A Piece of the Fabric: African American Quilt Culture Then and Now." She will examine the history of African American women and men in America’s quilt history and the various ways race, class and gender played a role in the acceptance and validation of African American quilters.

Karin Peterson, assistant professor of sociology, will discuss "How Quilts Became Fine Art: The Costs of Conformity to Aesthetic Norms." This talk will examine the transformation of quilts into art at New York’s Whitney Museum and how it affected feminists’ notion of conformity and women’s cultural differences.

The talk is the second in the four-part, year-long series sponsored by the UNCA Women’s Studies Program. The series, "Celebrating 10 Years: A Taste of Our Scholarship and Community," marks the tenth anniversary of the program.

Founded in the spring of 1991, the program’s mission is to promote the dissemination of knowledge about women and gender by offering courses, promoting the integration of knowledge about women and gender across the curriculum, and supporting co-curricular university activities, including one of the region’s most comprehensive Women’s History Month programs every March. To date, more than 110 Women’s Studies courses have been taught by a third of UNCA’s faculty.

For more information, call the UNCA Women’s Studies Program at 828/251-6122.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Tracey Rizzo, UNCA Women’s Studies Director, 828/251-6122
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant, 828/251-6526