Liz Hornyak: On this week's episode, Eastern Michigan University hosts a virtual panel discussion to honor International Women’s Day, and EMU’s Honor College created a book club for students, and EMU Campus Life hosts the annual Student Gold Medallion Awards. I am your host Liz Hornyak and this is the Eastern Echo Podcast.
On March 8, which is International Women’s Day, EMU hosted a virtual panel discussion entitled “The global impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women: Intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, work, and immigration.” This event was organized by Solange Simoes who is a professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies here at EMU. This panel discussion is a continuation of EMU’s 2020-2021 Women and Gender Studies lecture series.
Three panelists shared their perspectives at the event Bandana Purkayastha, a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut, spoke about the impact that COVID-19 has had on women in the United States. Denise Pimenta is a researcher of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil. Pimenta discussed COVID, gender, and race in Brazil. Naomi Lightman, who is an assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Calgary in Canada, focused on care workers specifically, immigrant women workers in Canada.
Purkayastha said that the common theme was “to address setbacks to women rights we need structural change.”
In other campus news, EMU’s Honor College has created a book club for students. The Honors College book club meets every other Monday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. via Zoom. The book club was created after students suggested it during the Honors College annual survey. Currently, the book club is reading Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. The last book club meeting will be Monday March 22. If you are interested in participating in the last meeting you can go to today.emich.edu/calendar for the Zoom link.
On March 23, EMU Campus Life will be live streaming through Facebook the annual Student Gold Medallion Awards. The Student Gold Medallion Awards were established in 1996, and their purpose is to recognize how students play a vital role in Eastern’s success. These awards are the most prestigious awards that Eastern can give. For this year’s ceremony there are 70 nominees. The winners will receive a gold medallion with their name and category on the back.
The categories for students are:
Eagle Ambassador
Outstanding Leadership by a Student
Outstanding Mentorship by a Student
Outstanding Volunteerism by a Student
Outstanding Professionalism by a Student Employee
The Glen Frank Miller Award for Collegiate Leadership
For Student Organizations and Student Advisors the categories are:
Outstanding Student Organization Advisor
Outstanding Student Organization
Outstanding Student Organization Program
For more information about the Student Gold Medallion Awards you can go to link on our website.
As always, thank you for listening to this week’s episode. This week’s episode was reported by Catherine Lietz and Emma Henri, scripted by Jasmine Boyd and produced by Ethan Myers. I am your host Liz Hornyak, and this is the Eastern Echo Podcast.
