GABRIELA ADAMESTEANU, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ROMANIA'S MAIN POLITICAL AND CULTURAL WEEKLY, WILL SPEAK AT BARD COLLEGE ON SEPTEMBER 19 The topic of her talk is "Gender Politics and Trafficking of Women and Children in Eastern Europe Today"
*Talk is rescheduled for Wednesday, September 19, at 5:30 p.m., in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building.ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-Gabriela Adamesteanu, the editor-in-chief of 22 magazine, Romania's main political and cultural weekly, will speak at Bard College on the topic of "Gender Politics and Trafficking of Women and Children in Eastern Europe Today." The talk, presented by the Human Rights Project at Bard, will take place on Tuesday, September 18, at 7:00 p.m. in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building. Norman Manea, the noted exiled Romanian writer and Bard's Francis Flournoy Professor in European Studies and Culture, will introduce the program.
"The trafficking of people for prostitution and forced labor is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity . . . the overwhelming majority of those trafficked are women and children," writes Francis T. Miko in Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response, a U.S. Department of State's Congressional Research Service Report of May 2000. The report names the former Soviet Union as the largest new source of trafficking for prostitution and the sex industry, with more than 100,000 persons trafficked each year from that region. An additional 75,000 or more are trafficked from Eastern Europe.
Gabriela Adamesteanu was awarded the annual prize of the Romanian Writers' Union in 1984. She was the editor of the literary publishing house Cartea Romaneasca (Bucharest) from 1984 through 1990. Adamesteanu is the vice president of the Romanian PEN Center, the president of the Foundation for Culture and Human Rights, and a member of the Group for Social Dialogue in Bucharest. She was an honorary fellow in writing at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 1990, a member of International PEN Women Writers' Committee, and a member of Women's Edition, Population Reference Bureau. Adamesteanu was also awarded the annual prize of the Romanian Writers' Union for a Young Author in 1975, and the annual prize of the Romanian Academy in 1976. In addition to Romanian she speaks English and French.
"I am an exception [in Romania]. All the top media jobs are held by men. The reason for me is that my magazine is edited by intellectuals who all have confidence in me," said Adamesteanu at the 2000 International Women's Media Foundation in Washington, D.C. "In my country, the women are as conservative or more conservative than men. They are reluctant to be in these positions."
Adamesteanu's talk at Bard is presented by the Human Rights Project and the Languages and Literature Program. For further information, call 845-758-6822.
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