The Women’s Research Colloquium will be hosted at the Pointe this Thursday.
Cal State Long Beach professors Deborah Thien and Savitri Singh-Carlson will discuss the complexities of women suffering from gynecological and breast cancer.
Thien, an assistant professor of Geography, said she is “fascinated by the complexities of human emotions,” particularly from feminist perspective. She credits her literature background to this interest in human emotion.
“Writers of novels and poetry seem to convey emotional life more successfully than scholars do,” she said. Thien said her presentation on Wednesday night will “invite the audience to consider the unexpected emotional terrain that results from a feminist analysis of gender, emotion and place.”
Thien also thinks that it is important to recognize that expectations of women and men are often based on presumptions of how each gender is allowed to handle emotion.
She challenges people to think about why those particular “assumptions and presumptions are in place, who they serve, why and how we might wish to challenge them.”
Thien is also a book review editor and vice-chair of Geographical Perspectives on Women.
Singh-Carlson, an assistant professor of Nursing, will discuss “the role of
mentoring and its value and support for women and their families,” particularly in women suffering from cervical or ovarian cancers.
“As a nursing researcher, I can help to provide public awareness for the need of getting screened for cervical cancer, which is one of the most curable cancers if diagnosed early,” she said.
Singh-Carlson said, women do not receive support and mentoring when diagnosed with cervical or ovarian cancers mainly because there is a social stigma against them. For women, who are diagnosed with cervical cancer, the implication is that they have the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
“This can lead to shame and creates notions of infidelity in some cultures,” according to Singh-Carlson.
Singh-Carlson will “discuss the importance of paying attention to gynecological cancer patients’ needs” as they go through treatment and recovery during her presentation on Wednesday.
“There is a need to encourage cancer survivors to participate in peer mentoring programs provided at institutions because this type of support from “one who has been in the same shoes” provides healing and resources for cancer survivors and their families,” she said
The colloquium will be from 5-7 p.m. April 28 at the Pointe in the Pyramid. The buffet dinner begins at 5 p.m. and presentations will begin at 5:30 p.m.
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