UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With March serving as national Women’s History Month, the Gender Equity Center is collaborating with various campus entities to present a pair of panel discussions focusing on issues related to gender, faith and equity within the sports realm.
"Breaking the Binaries: Gender and Faith" will take place at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 19, in 129 C HUB-Robeson Center. The second interfaith panel in a series addressing various topics within faith, this panel discussion will explore how no matter how someone identifies within faith communities or identifies gender or sexuality, religious and spiritual beliefs are not so linear. Panelists will include representatives from various faith-based organizations. Peggy Lorah, interim assistant vice president for Student Affairs diversity and inclusion, will moderate. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Development.
"Gender Equity in Sports: Reality or Dream?" will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20, in Freeman Auditorium in the HUB-Robeson Center. Panelists include Sandy Barbour, director of athletics for Penn State University Park; Coquese Washington, head coach of Penn State women’s basketball; Erica Dambach, head coach of Penn State women’s soccer; Kristina Petersen, assistant director of Penn State athletic communications; and Amira Davis, assistant professor of history and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Audience members may pose questions to the panel as part of the event. The panel will be moderated by Jonna Belanger, an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and a U.S. paralympics track and field classifier. The event is co-sponsored by the Penn State All-Sports Museum.
“We are really looking forward to looking at issues like gender and gender equity through unique perspectives presented by both of these panels,” said Jennifer Pencek, programming coordinator of the Gender Equity Center. “Whether it is discussing gender roles in various religions and faith practices or exploring the reality of gender equity in sports, it is important for everyone to examine how gender and bias affects our everyday lives.”
For more information about these and other events, as well as more information on the Gender Equity Center, a unit of Penn State Student Affairs, visit studentaffairs.psu.edu/genderequity.