Presenters & Sessions
Enter your email here to receive the latest news on WAM!2009 as it unfolds, as well as receive information on attending the conference:
Click here for info on some of our 2008 presenters.
WAM!2008 Session Schedule:
(Sessions and presenters are subject to change)
Saturday, March 29th 11:00am-12:30pm:
Breaking the Frame: Revitalizing and Redefining Reproductive Rights Media Coverage
Emily Douglas, Aimee Thorne-Thomson, Amanda Marcotte, Christina Page
You Gotta Have a Plan: Three Women Founders Talk About the Nuts and Bolts of Creating Sustainable Media
Nancy Gruver, Rita Henley Jenson, Theresa Moore
By Any Media Necessary: Empowering Youth to Use Media to Make Change
Cara Lisa Powers
Do It Yourself New Media: Creating and Maintaining a Viable Internet Presence
Sarah Jenny Bleviss, Axon Damien Luxe
Feminist Blogs: Activism, Journalism or Masochism?
Jennifer Pozner, Veronica (Roni) Arreola, Deanna Zandt, Liza Sabater
Having Our Say: Using Community Cable TV Access as a Force for Positive Social Change
Kelley Chunn, Clementina Cherry, Neptopha Jean, Katherine Tyler
Immigration in the U.S.: The Women’s Rights Crisis Feminists Aren’t Talking About
Tara Tidwell Cullen, Carly Burton, brownfemipower, Irina Contreras
Making High Impact Progressive Media
Tracy Van Slyke, Erin Polgreen
Networking for Newbies
Sarah Karpman, Rochelle Lefkowitz, Yvette Modestin
Saturday, March 29th 2:00pm-3:30pm:
Beating the Old Boys’ Club
Ann Friedman, EJ Graff, Kara Jesella, Veronica Miller
Big Coverage & Big Cash, How to Get National News Media Exposure and Turn it into Big Funding
Jennifer Einhorn
Blogging 101: Everything You Wanted to Know (and Didn’t Know You Needed to Know) About Blogs and Blogging
Christine Cupaiuolo
Dying for Your Entertainment: Gender Bias in News Coverage of Britney, Lindsay, Courtney and Owen
Carla DeSantis, Jeannie Smith, Kristin Bredimus, Jennifer Trynin
Good Media Needs Good Bones: Feminist Approaches to Media Policy and Infrastructure
Laura Forlano, Carolyn M. Byerly, Amelia Bryne Potter, Leslie Regan Shade, Saadia Malik, Dharma Dailey
Less Trauma/More Impact: New Ways to Cover Tough Issues
Risa Mednick, Olinka Briceno, Meqdes Mesfin, Phuni Meston
Women and Religion: Challenging Journalistic Convention
Tara McKelvey, Onnesha Roychoudhuri, Esther Kaplan, Lisa Webster, Wendy Cadge
We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color and Online Feminism
Lisa Factora-Borchers, Sydette Harry, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Nadia Ann Abou-Karr
Writing a Book Proposal that Sells
Deborah Siegel, Courtney E. Martin, Amy Caldwell, Laura Mazer
Saturday, March 29th 4:00pm-5:30pm:
Battling Backlash: Strategies for Fighting Back, Rising Above and Making Progress
Jessica Valenti, Miriam Zoila Perez, Patti Binder, Carmen Van Kerckhove
Doing It Yourself! Promoting Your Own Book or Project on a Tight Budget
Jen Angel, Nell Greenberg
Empowering Online Communities
Deanna Zandt
Media, Technology & Social Justice: Preparing for and Shaping the Future
Marie Celestin, Yawu Miller, Cara Lisa Powers, Aliza Dichter
FACT-UP: Fact Check, Research, and Thinking Critically like a Radical Librarian
Jenna Freedman, Lana Thelen
Sex Workers and Media Representation
Audacia Ray
Stereotyping and Typecasting in Reality Television
Terra Renton, Andi Zeisler
The Future of Investigative Journalism
Esther Kaplan, Tara McKelvey, Asra Nomani, Onnesha Roychoudhuri
Sunday, March 30th 9:00am-10:30am:
Can Blogging Help End Racism?
Carmen Van Kerckehove, Latoya Peterson, Wendi Muse
Fact vs. Fiction: Advancing the Truth in Today’s Media Maelstrom
Janna Zinzi, Rebecca Wind
Here We Go Again: Bad Stories About Women that Never Die
Caryl Rivers, Dr. Rosalind Barnett
Resisting Walls and Bars: Amplifying Voices From Death Row and the Prison Industrial Complex
Alice Kim, Barbara Becnel
Strategies for Making Change: Models for Progressive Feminist Media Action
Jennifer Pozner, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Betty Yu, DeAnne Cuellar
Growing Independent Media in a Time of Shrinking Resources
Debbie Rasmussen, Andi Zeisler, Jen Angel, Nancy Gruver
Who’s Talking About Abortion, What Are They Saying, and Is Anyone Listening
Britt Wahlin, Kelly Blanchard, Frances Kissling, Kirsten Moore
You in the Commentary Continuum: Crafting an Op-Ed
Denice Zeck, Sui Lang Panoke
Sunday, March 30th 11:00am-12:30pm:
Cleavage, Cackles and Cookies: Analyzing News Coverage of Hillary Clinton and the 2008 Presidential Election
Allison Stevens, Betsy Reed, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Barbara Lee
Conscious Women Rock the Page: Using Hip Hop Fiction to Incite Feminist Action
Elisha Miranda, Jennifer Calderon, Sofia Quintero, Marcella Runell-Hall
Beyond Croft and Cooking Mama: Expanding the Discussion of Sexism in Gaming Culture
Roy MacKenzie, Naomi Clark
How to Get Heard: The Art of Strategic Communication with Editors
Barbara Beckwith, Jeanne Harnois, Shirley Moskow
Making Internet TV
Margaret Pickering, Dean Jansen
Raising Women’s Voices/Building Women’s Power: Collaborative Approaches to Strategic Communications for Social Justice
Ellen Braune, Deepa Fernandes, Makani Themba-Nixon, Debra Cole
Going Grassroots Globally: How Feminist Journalists Are Using the Power of the Internet to Explore and Expand Local Community Radio
Preeti Mangala Shekar
YouthSpeak: The Present & Future of Online Media and Activism
Kierra Johnson, Pamela Merritt, Molly Tafoya, Sarah Schacht
2008 presenters included:
Nadia Ann Abou-Karr, writer, artist, blogger, zinester, media activist, conference and community organizer, media maker
Jen Angel, Freelance publicist and former publisher of Clamor Magazine
Veronica I. Arreola, professional feminist, co-chair of Chicago Abortion Fund, mommy blogger, board member of WIMN
Rosalind C. Barnett, Ph.D. senior scientist and director of the Community, Families & Work Program, Brandeis University.
Barbara Beckwith, National Writers Union, Boston Co-Chair, mentor to younger freelancers
Barbara Becnel, author, documentary producer, founder of the Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network, and executive director of the Neighborhood House of North Richmond (a multi-service social service and advocacy agency)
Patti Binder, advocate for girls/ leadership and girls’ organizations in New York City
Kelly Blanchard, president, Ibis Reproductive Health and international women’s health researcher
Sarah Jenny Bleviss, new media artist, social justice advocate, former blogger, and web developer for $pread Magazine
Ellen Braune, vice president of communications, Ms. Foundation for Women
Kristin Bredimus, director of the Boston Music Awards, the NEMO Music Festival, The Verge College Music Conference and the Starbucks Music Makers Competition
Olinka Briceno, well respected youth advocate, and co-founder and co-executive director of VOX Project
Brownfemipower, editor of the Women of Color Blog and a media justice activist
Carly Burton, policy association with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalitionwho works to improve immigrant access to public programs like health care, food stamps and services for immigrant victims of violence.
Carolyn M. Byerly, serves on the communications faculty of Howard University, Washington, DC. She conducts research on the media and social movements, media policy, and race, class and gender issues in relation to media. In a former lifetime, she was a journalist and media activist in anti-violence and other movements.
Wendy Cadge, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University.
Jennifer “J-Love” Calderon, author, educator, activist and co-creator, facilitator, and life coach of the We Got Issues! Leadership Institute for Young Women
Amy Caldwell, executive editor at Beacon Press
Marie Celestin, founder and Executive Director of the G.I.R.L.S. (Growing Individuals Reacting to Life’s Struggles) Project and Creator/Producer of Girl TV.
Clementina Cherry, founder of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Dorchester and the organizer of the 11 year old Mother’s Day Walk for Peace. Her 15-year-old son Louis was an innocent victim of a gang related shooting in Dorchester 14 years ago.
Kelley Chunn, moderator, producer and consultant with 30 years of experience, specializes in multicultural and cause-related public relations and marketing
Jessica Clark, director, Future of Public Media Project, Center for Social Media and In These Times editor-at-large
Naomi Clark, game designer, Gamelab and blogger Feministe
Irina Contreras, artist, educator, journalist, and activist, editor of LOUDmouth Zine a staff writer for make/shift magazine, and a contributor to Radioactive on KPFK/Radio Pacifica
DeAnne Cuellar, media justice activist, blogger and director, Texas Media Empowerment Project
Christine Cupaiuolo, freelance editor/writer & nonprofit consultant
Dharma Dailey, is Director of Research for the Ethos Group, a consulting company focused on the social impact of information and communication technologies.
Carla DeSantis, advocate for Women in Music, director of the ROCKRGRL Music Conference and founder of ROCKRGRL Magazine
Aliza Dichter, co-director of Center for International Media Action (CIMA)
Emily Douglas, assistant editor, RH Reality Checkand has been an editorial intern at The Nation and worked in direct service legal advocacy at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston.
Jennifer Einhorn, communications, media and fundraising consultant/ Director of Communications for the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Lisa Factora-Borchers, feminist of color writer, blogger, photographer, and poetic cultural critic
Deepa Fernandes, journalist, educator and author of Targeted. Homeland Security and the Business of Immigration
Janet Fine, victim rights & policy advocate and executive director, Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistancean independent state agency.
Laura Forlano, is a Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and a Board Member of NYCwireless, a community wireless organization in New York.
Jenna Freedman, radical reference volunteer; reference and zine librarian, Barnard College; zine publisher
Ann Friedman, deputy editor, The American Prospect, and editor of Feministing.com
Heather Gehlert, managing editor, AlterNet
E.J. Graff, Senior Researcher directing the Gender & Justice Project at Brandeis University’s Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism
Nell Greenberg, communications manager at Rainforest Action Network
Nancy Gruver, founder of the award-winning magazine by and for girls, New Moon
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, writer, inciter, publisher, scholar
Marcella Runnel Hall, author, educator, diversity trainer, doctoral student, activist and co-editor of The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook
Dr. Carol Hardy-Fanta,Director, UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
E. Jeanne Harnois, arts-and-entertainment writer with a background in finances
Sydette Harry, WOC radical youth blogger, Having Read the Fine Print verbal machete wielder
Rita Henley Jensen, founder and editor in chief of the daily, nonprofitWomen’s eNews
Dean Jansen, Participatory Culture Foundation’s outreach director and project coordinator for MakeInternetTV.org, an internet video resource
Neptopha Jean, 16-year-old senior who attends a Boston public pilot school in Brighton called Another Course to College, also serves in a program who helps young women involved in the court system
Lisa Jervis, writer, editor, and co founder of Bitch Magazine
Kara Jesella, freelance writer and author
Kierra Johnson, executive director of Choice USA an organization building a youth movement for reproductive justice
Debra Cole, nanny, community organizer and reporter.
Esther Kaplan, investigative editor with The Nation Institute, author of With God on Their Side
Sarah Karpman, young feminist networker and researcher
Alice Kim, anti-death penalty activist, co-editor of The New Abolitionist and director of The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council that fosters participatory democracy by creating spaces for public conversations
Frances Kissling, Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
Rochelle Lefkowitz, President and Founder, Pro-Media Communications
Axon Damien Luxe, DIY media-maker, electro performer, art director, event curator, and is aka Hadassah Hill
Krista Lyons-Gould, VP, Publisher of Seal Press, a Member of the Perseus Books Group
Roy MacKenzie, writer/founder, No Cookies For Me
Saadia Malik, Assistant Professor of Mass Communication in Department of Mass Communication and Information Science at Qatar University where she studies how media policies, media literacy and cultural literacy initiatives influence the knowledge gap between western/non-western audiences, especially youth and children.
Amanda Marcotte, host of RealityCast on RH Reality Check and executive editor, Pandagon
Courtney Martin, Brooklyn-based blogger, journalist, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters
Laura Mazer, managing editor at Counterpoint Press
Tara McKelvey, author of Monstering: Inside America’s Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War, senior editor at The American Prospect and research fellow at the NYU School of Law’s Center on Law and Security
Risa Mednick, consultant to social change organizations and co-founder and co-executive director of VOX Projectof VOX Project.
Pamela Merritt, author of AngryBlackBitch.comand staff writer RH Reality Check
Meqdes Mesfin,human rights activist, public health educator, Victims of Violence Community Response Team director
Phuni Meston, fair trade entrepreneur and human rights activist
Veronica Miller, radio producer and Howard University graduate
Yawu Miller, organizing and communications director at the Public Policy Institute, freelance writer and senior editor at the Boston Banner.
Elisha Miranda aka E-Fierce, filmmaker, writer, cultural activist, educator, social entrepreneur, co-founder of Sister Outsider Entertainment & Chica Luna Productions
Yvette Modestin, international afro-latina activist, community-builder, feminist, and mentor, Founder/Director of Encuentro Diaspora Afro
Anne Elizabeth Moore,
Kirsten Moore, president & CEO, Reproductive Health Technologies Project; advocate
Theresa Moore, president and founder of T-Time Productions
Shirley Moskow, journalist/author, former newspaper editor, National Writers Union contract adviser
Wendi Muse, managing editor, The Coup Magazine, The Coup Magazine/a> Special Correspondent, Racialicious
Amie Newman, associate editor, RH Reality Check
Asra Nomani, former reporter at the Wall Street Journal, is a professor in the practice of journalism at Georgetown University, leading an investigative reporting project into the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl
Cristina Page, author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America and spokesperson for birthcontrolwatch.org
her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian UK, The Chicago Sun Times, Newsday, Balitmore Sun and the Huffington Post
Sui Lang Panoke, op-ed author and outreach coordinator for National Women’s Editorial Forum
Miriam Perez, writer, blogger (Radical Doula) and Senior Advocacy Associate at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
Latoya Peterson, freelancer and blogger focusing on race, gender, new media and entertainment
Margaret Pickering, Participatory Culture Foundation volunteer, filmmaker, and educator
Erin Polgreen, before coming to The Media Consortium as a Program Associate, Erin worked with In These Times as Associate Publisher
Amelia Bryne Potter, is a researcher with the Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project (CWIRP.ca), and the Ethos Better Broadband Toolkit (ethostoolkit.net), who is interested in ‘mapping’ the historical, financial, and physical make-up of infrastructures to understand how they are (re)formed.
Cara Lisa Powers, founder of By Any Media Necessary, Media Education Organizer, Project: Think Different
Jennifer L. Pozner, executive director, Women In Media & News (WIMN); journalist, lecturer, blogger, editor, WIMN’s Voices
Sofia Quintero aka Black Artemis, cultural activist, writer, community educator, social entrepreneur, co-founder of Sister Outsider Entertainment & Chica Luna Productions
Audacia Ray, editor of $pread Magazine and author of Naked on the Internet
Debbie Rasmussen, publisher, Bitch Magazine/Feminist Response to Pop Culture
Betsy Reed, executive editor, The Nation
Terra Renton, television series producer and journalist
Caryl Rivers, professor of journalism at Boston university, author of Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women
Onnesha Roychoudhuri, San Francisco based writer and editor
Liza Sabater, online communications strategist, technologist, and founder, culturekitchen.com
Sarah Schacht, seeks simple solutions to complex social problems, executive director and founder of Knowledge As Power
Leslie Regan Shade, is an Associate Professor at Concordia University, Dept of Communication Studies; her research focuses on the social, policy and ethical issues of ICTS with a focus on gender and globalization.
Preeti Mangala Shekar, feminist journalist and activist from India, radio producer with KPFA 94.1 FM for Women’s Magazine. She currently is part of the communications team of the Global Fund for Women, the largest organization that funds women’s human rights world wide.
Deborah Siegel, blogger at Girl w/ Pen, journalist, author of Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild and Only Child
Jeannie Smith, provides career guidance, management and support for several artists as well as concert, theater and festival productions
Allison Stevens,Washington Bureau Chief, Women’s eNews
Molly Tafoya, blogger with ChoiceUSA
Lana Thelen, Radical Reference Volunteer Librarian; Deputy Director / Outreach Librarian, Perkins Library
Makani Themba-Nixon, executive director, The Praxis Project, an organization supporting media and policy advocacy at the local level
Helen Thomas (Friday night keynote), First Lady of the Press and former White House Bureau Chief
Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, executive director, Pro-Choice Public Education Project,leader in the Reproductive Choice Movement
Tara Tidwell Cullen, communications coordinator with the National Immigrant Justice Center
Jen Trynin, musician and author of the music business memoir, Everything I’m Cracked Up to Be
Katherine Tyler, co-facilitator of the Living After Murder Program’s Support & Empowerment Group for Survivors of Homicide run by the Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center or RoxComp
Jessica Valenti, founder of Feministing.com and author of Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters.
Carmen Van Kerckhove, co-founder and president of New Demographic
Tracy Van Slyke, director, The Media Consortium co-editor of Build the Echo
Britt Wahlin, development & communications manager, Ibis Reproductive Health
Lisa Webster, Lisa Webster is Senior Editor at ReligionDispatches.
Rebecca Wind, senior communications associate, Guttmacher Institute
Betty Yu, Director of Community Outreach & Media at Manhattan Neighborhood Network
Deanna Zandt, media technologist and consultant to key progressive organizations, including AlterNet.org and the Hightower Lowdown
Haifa Zangana (Saturday morning keynote), chair of Iraqi Patriots in Media and Culture (IPMC), novelist, columnist and former prisoner of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime.
Denice E. Zeck, executive director, American Forum & National Women’s Editorial Forum
Andi Zeisler, co founder and editorial/creative director, Bitch Magazine/Feminist Response to Pop Culture
Janna A. Zinzi, communications associate, Guttmacher Institute
