Experts On International Women's Day

The following University of Victoria faculty members are available to comment for International Women’s Day (March 8):

Janni Aragon (Dept. of Political Science) is a feminist political scientist and expert on gender and politics, social media in political and cultural contexts, women and technology, and popular culture. Dr. Aragon is a regular blogger for University of Venus and the Globe and Mail as well as an avid conversationalist on #femlead. She is currently chair of UVic's Academic Women’s Caucus and a past president of the Caucus for Women and Gender Justice with the Western Political Science Association. Dr. Aragon regularly gives talks on campus or in the community about social media, pedagogy and community building. She is also an MBA mentor at UVic. Her Twitter handle is @janniaragon and she is on Google+ as Prof. Aragon. (Office: 250-853-3582 or jaragon@uvic.ca)

Annalee Lepp (Dept. of Women’s Studies), chair of UVic’s women’s studies department, is an expert on issues related to sex workers, human trafficking, and transnational migration. Dr. Lepp’s other research is on Canadian gender and legal history, including the history of domestic violence, with the latter resonating in particular after the Valentine's Day shooting of Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius's girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a law grad and model who was an advocate for action against violence towards women. Please note: Dr. Lepp is out of the province until March 8 but available that day. (Office: 250-721-6157 or alepp@uvic.ca)

Ana Maria Peredo (CCCBE/Gustavson School of Business) is director of UVic's Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy and a professor in UVic’s Gustavson School of Business. Dr. Peredo can speak about economics from women’s and the feminist perspective and can also discuss the role of women in international development. Her research relates to how business can be an instrument for poverty alleviation and community well-being. As an anthropologist, Dr. Peredo has worked for UN and European development agencies. A specific interest in the Andes arose from her work as a journalist producing reports on rural development for one of Peru's leading dailies. Please note: Dr. Peredo is available until March 7, but not on March 8. (Office: 250-472-4435 or aperedo@uvic.ca)

Vivian Smith (Graduate Student, Interdisciplinary Studies) is a journalist, media training consultant and instructor in journalism at UVic. She recently defended her PhD dissertation on career narratives of Canadian women print journalists, who still remain few in number in the top ranks of newspapers after being the dominant gender in journalism schools for more than 30 years. She was a reporter, columnist and senior editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto, spent nearly four years as associate editor of Boulevard magazine in Victoria and is a former CanWest Global Fellow in Media Studies at Western University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She has received two UVic interdisciplinary awards. (By email at viviansmith@telus.net)

Media advisory: Newly minted research from graduating UVic master's and PhD students is available to the public with just the click of a mouse—on UVicSpace online.

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