Atlanta 500 Women Scientists - Past: Reproductive Justice Workshop and Training

Who: Scientists. Any discipline. Any background.

When: Sunday, October 6th, 2019, noon-5pm

Where: Westview Studios (1450 Ralph David Abernathy Dr)

Tickets: $20/person Please RSVP & purchase ticket via Eventbrite!

500 Women Scientists is collaborating with Jalessah Jackson, Educational Equity & Social Justice Consultant & Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Gender and Women's Studies at Kennesaw State University, to bring a reproductive justice (RJ) workshop for scientists to Atlanta on Sunday, October 6th from noon-5pm at Westview Studios (1450 Ralph David Abernathy Dr). A vegetarian lunch of Caribbean food will be provided. The workshop will include an RJ leadership training led by Prof. Jackson. The workshop will also feature important group work and we will discuss how we can implement the RJ framework in our science and take action in our everyday lives.

What is reproductive justice? According to SisterSong, RJ is the “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” It’s about way more than just abortion rights (though that is unapologetically a part of it). RJ is rooted in the human rights framework and is ultimately about the right to bodily autonomy and self-determination. RJ also centers the most marginalized communities and actively works to dismantle systems of oppression that historically have made it so that a choice is not always possible for marginalized communities.

What is RJ for scientists? Well, that’s what we’re trying to figure out. 500 Women Scientists’ mission is to “to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible,” By providing tools for incorporating the RJ framework into our scientific communities, our goal is to reimagine best practices and future directions for science and research. We aim to examine the intertwining histories of science, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice movements. We will consider the relationship between science, legislation, and social movements, including the responsibility of science to inform radical social movements. We also aim to use an understanding of intersectionality as a socio-political power analysis and identify ways that we can incorporate this framework into our science and our everyday lives.

We are charging $20 for tickets to cover venue and food costs. If this is prohibitive, please reach out and we can make sure to accommodate you. We’d still love for you to attend! Additionally, if you are coming from out of town, we may be able to help house people. Please email atl500womensci@gmail.com to inquire!

About our facilitator:

Jalessah Jackson, Co-Founder, Jackson & Marshall Consulting Group, LLC & Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Gender and Women's Studies at Kennesaw State University

Pronouns: she/her/they

Jalessah is a Black mother, interdisciplinary scholar-activist whose research and teaching explores the connections between critical theories of race, gender, class, sexualities, and social inequity. She has been an educator in both community-based and formal settings and is currently a Lecturer of Gender and Women's Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies at Kennesaw State University. Jalessah was formally the Georgia Coordinator at SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. In this role, she was responsible for leading SisterSong’s state-based and regional advocacy efforts through organizing, advocacy, research, curriculum development and design, and training to help promote the reproductive justice framework throughout the state and southeast region.

In February of 2019, Jalessah Co-founded Jackson & Marshall Consulting Group LLC. Jackson & Marshall consultants is a team of passionate, committed, and experienced educators dedicated to equity and social justice. Her strengths include building and deepening collaboration among diverse groups, initiating and developing programs, and empowering people who care about social justice to advocate for change. Jalessah serves as an Executive Board Member for the Southeastern Women's Studies Association (SEWSA). In 2018, she was awarded the Errin J. Vuley Reproductive Justice Fellowship at Feminist Women's Health Center, and won the Distinguished Recent Alumna Award from Simmons University. She is also a mentor for the Simmons Alumnae/i ALANA Mentoring (SAAM) program. A program designed to build and foster meaningful and structured interactions between Simmons alumnae/i and students who identify as African American, Latinx, Asian or Native American to provide resources, support, and guidance.

Jalessah holds a Master in Gender and Cultural Studies from Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Arts in African and African Diaspora Studies from Kennesaw State University with concentrations in history and social sciences.