Conference Agenda

Current times highlight the desperate need for leadership that leaves us drawn to false idols who pretend they can save us from ourselves. Denouncing any public link between women and leadership, the U.S. President feeds the denigration born of a terror of women that leaves us all off-balance. In such times, what can women bring to the table that will help ease the terror so our voices might be heard in ways that are reparative rather than furthering the divides that threaten to take away our most basic freedoms?

Where is the place for ethics, morality, or basic care for others in this current economy? Although women are not alone in caring about these values, we have tended to be relegated to that basic bastion of care: home and family. How do we carry the truths of basic care back that we have learned - not only from our roles in family but also in our larger institutions - into the larger world in ways that might save us from ourselves?

We have watched how even good intentions can be turned terribly awry but there are also darker forces at play that must be contended with. In this era of dire invitations to repeat some of our worst epochs in history, we are invited to take a closer look at ourselves to see more clearly how we have gotten into this mess and how we might get ourselves out of it. Opposing this hysterical turn towards a deadly jouissance, the women on this roundtable will use the lenses of psychosocial studies, psychoanalysis, and group relations to better learn the lessons inherent in our troubled times and turn our laments into constructive actions so that we can become better leaders – and followers – as we try to reshape the future.