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Lori B. Girshick, Ph.D.Trainer/ConsultantLGBT Domestic and Sexual Violence lgirshick@cox.net (new email as of 4/18/08) |
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Lori B. Girshick, Ph.D.Trainer/ConsultantLGBT Domestic and Sexual Violence lgirshick@cox.net (new email as of 4/18/08) |
| WHO I AM:
Hello, I'd like to introduce myself and also tell you about some of the projects I'm involved in. My main passion is social justice. I am committed to working toward the nonexploitation of animals, humans, and the environment. I am a feminist, a vegan, and a lesbian. Until the end of the spring semester, 2003, I had been teaching sociology and women's studies at Warren Wilson College for nine years, where I was also the Chair of women's studies. Then I decided to move to the Southwest, starting out in Tucson. After working 6 months as Outreach Coordinator at The Brewster Center in Tucson, AZ I worked as the Coordinator of the Wingspan Anti-Violence Project until the end of August, 2005. In December 2004 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I have chosen alternative treatment for my cancer and am doing very well, not to say that having breast cancer isn't a major life challenge. Primarily due to the cancer, I made the difficult decision to leave anti-violence work and find a job that was less stressful. I went to work as a Program Coordinator with the Intergroup Relations Center at Arizona State University in Tempe. I was there almost two years. Now I am happy to say I have returned to full-time teaching in Sociology at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, part of the Maricopa Community College District. I have been active in the battered women's movement since 1990. For eight years I worked with Helpmate, a battered women's agency in Asheville, NC, doing relief staff work at the shelter, facilitating a support group for women battered by other women, and leading parts of Helpmate's volunteer trainings. Before the NC state budget crunch, I facilitated a support group for battered women at the Black Mountain Correctional Center for Women for several years. I have been a sponsor at the prison, taking women out on community passes. I am empowered through my work but I also seek balance. I love to walk in the woods, meditate, read, and enjoy my wonderful cats. I now live in Mesa, Arizona and am in love with the desert. My book, Woman-to-Woman Sexual Violence: Does She call it Rape? (Northeastern University Press), came out in March, 2002. I also do trainings on the issues of same-sex domestic violence and sexual violence, LGBT issues such as programming and outreach, homophobia and heterosexism, and on working with abused women in prison. The work is very exciting as I meet people across the country who are committed to social change, new analysis and new services. My latest research is on gender identity. There were several delays in the work due to illness, job changes and moving but the book is finally in production. The book is titled Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men, In this work I heard from a range of folks who transgress gender (150 in all) and were willing to share some of their gender identity journey and their thoughts about social values, social norms and expectations, as well as the social pressures to "be" a certain way for a man or a certain way for a woman. The book is published by University Press of New England (UPNE) and IS OUT. See the link "Books I've Written" below for order information. This work is important because I believe people should not be forced to be one way when they feel otherwise. People should not be ashamed to be different than the established "traditional" gender expectations. Perhaps it is time to challenge the gender binary as a trap, a shackle, to true individual expression and identity. This challenge is very personal, but it is also political. Our very rights as people to jobs, to marry, to benefits, to a host of societal opportunities may be denied us if we stray from these gender notions. It is my hope that this study, to be developed into a book, will propel our society to greater understanding that gender variation is not a threat but a liberation. If you are interested in more of my work on gender please go to the link on this web site titled "Gender Work." |
