Women's History Keynote Address

In recognition of the 2018 national Women’s History Month theme “Honoring Women Who Fight All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,” the Institute for Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia will be sponsoring numerous programs in March.

This year’s Women’s History Month Keynote Address will be presented by Andrea J. Ritchie, Researcher-in-Residence on Race, Gender, Sexuality and Criminalization at the Social Justice Institute of the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant and police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. 

Ritchie is a nationally recognized expert and sought after commentator on policing issues. She has testified before the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the White House Council on Women and Girls, the Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and several United Nations Treaty Bodies.  She is the co-author of numerous books and articles on the topic of police brutality of women and LGBT people of color, and has served as lead counsel or co-counsel on many groundbreaking litigation challenging unlawful actions against the LGBT community.

Her lecture, titled “Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color,” named for her recently published book examining police brutality of women of color, will take place on Thursday, March 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries, room 271.  A book sale and reception sponsored by the Lucy Hargrett Draper Center and Archives for the Study of the Rights of Women in History and Law will immediately follow the lecture.