Author Archives: kimberlytheidon

Screening of The Milk of Sorrow and discussion, New York, November 25th.

09 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by in Announcements

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Join us for a 10th anniversary screening of the film THE MILK OF SORROW followed by a panel discussion with Kimberly Theidon and Ulla Berg.

About this Event

The Latin American Film Center (LAFC), a non-profit based in New York City, plans to open its inaugural film series on November 25th, 2019 with a screening of THE MILK OF SORROW (La teta asustada), an award-winning 2009 film by Peruvian director Claudia Llosa.

Fausta suffers from la teta asustada, which translates literally as “the frightened tit”, an illness transmitted through the breastmilk of women who were abused and raped during the period of the Sendero Luminoso terrorism in Peru during the 1980s. Both in the film and reality, the illness is testament to how painful memories accumulate in the body and how one can physically suffer from the symptoms of history. Although the war has ended, its traumatic memories remain living inside of the character of Fausta. Claudia Llosa’s widely acclaimed film sheds light on a repressed country that can only express itself via its unconscious: its myths, its fears, and its traumas.

Screening América: The Series brings together two anthropologists to explore THE MILK OF SORROW through the lenses of medical and visual anthropology. Kimberly Theidon, the medical anthropologist whose ethnographic work inspired the film, will be in conversation with Ulla Berg, whose work explores racial and class divisions in contemporary Peru through visual mediums.

The goals of the LAFC are educational and cultural as well as artistic, through the establishment of a permanent home for the continued screening and research of films from Latin America and the Caribbean. The films we plan to include in this series have been selected for their artistic merit as well as their ability to help us better understand the issues and concerns being faced by the countries in the region.

Please visit our website at http://www.lafcnyc.org to learn more about LAFC’s projects and long-term goals and to find out more ways that you can become involved.

 

 

 

 

#TheMissingWomen…five decades derailed

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by in Title IX Issues and Updates on My Lawsuit Against Harvard

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Screen Shot 2019-05-26 at 7.44.59 AM

I woke up to a message from a colleague, asking for advice and expressing her outrage.  She recently learned that a former student, who had studied for her Masters Degree under my colleague’s supervision, has been driven out of her PhD program due to a sexually harassing professor. What to do? I offered the standard package of advice, knowing this young woman will most likely go quietly for fear of retaliation and career-ending retribution if she reports this professor.  All of which leads me to consider #TheMissingWomen.  From the actresses who left the film industry due to Harvey Weinstein; the musicians/composers/singers run out and ruined by Russell Simmons; the hostesses/servers/sous-chefs who gritted their teeth and let their pot of rage simmer on low; the hotel maids who escaped groping guests; to the young women who leave academia to avoid sexually harassing professors whose power over them makes or breaks careers — how can we begin to measure the missing women who leave their careers of choice (or necessity) because they have been ground down, groped, sexually harassed and driven out?  This is about sexual assault and harassment, to be sure. It is about the violation of bodily integrity and personal dignity, with equal certainty. It is also about the loss of employment, career aspirations, dreams and economic security. How can we begin to measure the economic fallout for #TheMissingWomen?