Loretta Ross to Speak on Reproductive Justice

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: 413-597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 23, 2018— Loretta Ross, an expert on women’s issues, racism, and human rights, will present “Reproductive Justice as Human Rights” at Williams College on Tuesday, April 3, at 4:15 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3. The talk is free and tickets are not required.

A nationally-recognized women’s rights and human rights leader, Ross’ work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how this transforms social change. She is the co-author (with Rickie Solinger) of Reproductive Justice: An Introduction and Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice. She has written extensively on the history of African American women and reproductive justice activism and appears regularly in major media outlets about the issues of our day.

Ross was a co-founder and the national coordinator, from 2005 to 2012, of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a network of women of color and allied organizations that organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement.

A rape survivor, Ross was forced to raise a child born of incest and is a survivor of sterilization abuse. She is a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. In addition, she is a nationally-recognized trainer on using the transformative power of reproductive justice to build an inclusive human rights movement.

Ross is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary doctorate of civil law degree awarded from Arcadia University in 2003 and a second honorary doctorate degree awarded from Smith College in 2013.

This event is sponsored by Africana Studies, American Studies, Anthropology & Sociology, the Black Student Union, the Center for Learning in Action, College Council, the Committee on Undergraduate Life, the Davis Center, Dively Committee, the Feminist Collective, the Minority Coalition, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, Political Science, Public Health, the VP for Campus Life, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

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Published March 23, 2018