Women’s Studies is scheduled to hold two more Rethinking Gender talks before the end of the spring semester, according to their events page.

With the emergence of Five-Star Fridays, students should find these talks more accessible, as the Rethinking Gender Series presents on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m.

The Rethinking Gender series is sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program, and generally hosts speakers with research, speeches or creative approaches to gender-related topics.

“Rethinking Gender provides a forum for presenting the research of feminist faculty at The University of Akron and nearby colleges and universities,” the webpage reads.

On Friday, March 8, Dr. Stazy Nofziger and Dr. Robert Peralta, associate professors in the Department of Sociology, will host their talk,  “Gender Identity and Crime on Campus: An Examination of Patterns Over 20 Years” in room 308 of the Taber Student Union according to the events page.

Dr. Nofziger specializes in the intersection of criminology and gender. Currently, Nofziger’s research is currently investigating the importance of parenting on a child’s sense of self-control. She is also looking into the issue of gender identity and offenses such as bullying or campus violence and how they fit together.

Dr. Peralta is the Internship Coordinator for the Department of Sociology, as well as the faculty adviser for the Sociology Club. He is using the sociology of gender to examine many forms of criminal behavior, with a focus on substance abuse.

With a more creative twist, Dr. Mary Biddinger and Noor Hindi are scheduled to perform “A Rethinking Gender Poetry Reading” on Friday, April 5 in room 316 of the Taber Student Union.

Dr. Biddinger is the editor of the Akron Series in Poetry for The University of Akron Press, as well as assistant Chair and Undergraduate Adviser in the Department of English. Dr. Biddinger has published four poetry collections, including works such as Prairie Fever and A Sunny Place with Adequate Water.

Descriptions of these works, as well as other works and accomplishments, can be found on Dr. Biddinger’s website.

Noor Hindi is a Northeast Ohio Masters of Fine Arts student and an editor for The Devil Strip.

On Saturday, April 3, Beverly Gooden, a writer and activist, is scheduled to make an appearance at 7 p.m. as a part of the Rethinking Gender Series. Gooden is a nationally-recognized public speaker who focuses on advocating for domestic violence survivors.

She is known for starting the hashtag #WhyIStayed after a video of former NFL running back Ray Rice punching his wife and rendering her unconscious quickly went viral. Gooden, as a survivor of domestic violence, says she started the hashtag to “change the tone of the conversation”, according to her website.