Cal State Fullerton’s WoMen’s and Adult Reentry Center is hosting the 20th Annual Violence
Prevention Conference Friday, Oct. 25, featuring keynote speaker Carlos Andrés Gómez, author of the memoir “Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood.”
“(MEN)toring for Change: Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Violence Prevention” is the theme of the conference, which is free and open to the public. Registration is required for the 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. event in Titan Student Union Portola Pavilion.
A Colombian American poet, speaker and actor, Gómez also penned a poetry book “Hijito.” A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, Gómez delivers his keynote at 12:30 p.m. on “Reimagining Modern Manhood.”
The conference also features workshops on topics such as “The ManKind Project” and re-imagining masculinity. Workshop presenters include CSUF’s Clint-Michael Reneau, associate vice president for student affairs; David Christian, lecturer in women and gender studies; and Vincent T. Harris, director of the Male Success Initiative-Fullerton.
The WoMen’s and Adult Reentry Center was awarded an American Public Health Association Sexual Assault Prevention Action Planning grant. The grant submission focused on engaging male identified students as allies in violence prevention work on college campuses, said Alisa Flowers, the center’s director.
The center partnered with Student Life and Leadership to identify opportunities that focused on the intentional engagement of CSUF’s male identified students. As part of the grant, the center developed this year’s conference around these issues, Flowers added.
“As a result, (MEN)toring for Change: Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Violence Prevention was designed to highlight the role of male identified students in our violence prevention efforts to create a safer campus,” Flowers said.