The Women’s Center’s new Feminist Book Club will meet weekly to discuss and connect over feminist books.
The club will kick off with an interest meeting Feb. 28 at noon in Talley Student Union 5210 where attendees will receive a copy of the club’s selected book, discuss ground rules and enjoy free coffee, tea and snacks.
The club will then meet weekly from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays in the Women’s Center on the fifth floor of Talley starting March 21.
The club’s first book will be “All the Lovers in the Night,” by Mieko Kawakami, which follows freelance copy editor Fuyuko Irie as she tries to form relationships after a traumatic experience. Though there is a tentative limit on the number of participants due to how many books are available, everyone is welcome to attend the meeting.
Kaelie Giffel, assistant director for interpersonal violence prevention training and education and leader of the book club warns that the book references sexual violence.
“[The book] is about that experience, but it’s also trying to think long term about what the effect of that experience is, how that might affect your experience and your sexuality, your ability to form relationships with other people,” Giffel said.
Giffel has a doctorate in English and for their dissertation, researched how literature can be used as a part of interpersonal violence prevention education.
“I’m curious about how to use books to help people recognize their own experiences of [interpersonal violence] and how to process them, but also how to get people to start thinking about what our community responsibility is to survivors and how to recognize our own place in preventing it,” Giffel said.
While the book club will focus on the oppression main character Fuyuko Irie faces, Giffel stresses the importance of looking deeper into Irie’s character.
“We’re going to think about Fuyuko’s experience of oppression, but we’re also going to think about – what are the things she does enjoy?” Giffel said. “How is she living her life in ways that she finds sustaining where she can? I’m interested in both of those things.”
This book, which is set in Japan, also compliments University programming Asian Pacific Islander and South Asian American Heritage month. The club also leads up to Take Back the Night, an event hosted during Sexual Assault Awareness Month that honors the strength and courage of activists, advocates and survivors on campus.
The club will have a major focus on making all participants feel safe and respected during the group’s conversations.
“We want to find ground rules that are going to make it so people can genuinely engage the text, while also making sure we’re not hurting one another,” Giffel said. “Or if that happens, because it’s inevitable when you’re human, figuring out how we want to navigate disagreement or navigate conflict, because those are where the really great conversations happen.”
Having the ability to look inward into one’s own experiences is something Giffel hopes readers will gain from the club. Tyra Frye, a third-year studying English and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, agrees.
“I think it’s just a good opportunity all-around for all of us and everyone who attends the meeting to learn more about feminism and how people interact with it in their everyday lives,” Frye said.
Frye said reading novels and literature related to her major as opposed to theory required for class is another beneficial part of the club.
“I’m really excited to actually be able to read a book that I feel is not taking away from time at school because this is also furthering my advancements at the Women’s Center,” Frye said.
Giffel said the Feminist Book Club is another step towards creating more feminist spaces on campus. They have also selected new texts for the Women’s Center Library that focus on intersectionality in feminism. These books will explore the experiences of women of color, working class women, transgender women and nonbinary individuals.
