Second Roundtable on Feminism and Intersectionality in Okinawa

Why Feminisms Matter: Structural Violence and Possibilities for Change

Glenda Bonifacio - Professor at the University of the Lethbridge (Canada) and UNESCO Chair in Gender, Migration, and Post-disaster Communities in Asia Pacific

Violence is a reality that is experienced in diverse forms by different individuals and vulnerable communities. It is, for example, direct or indirect, personal, collective, systemic, and hegemonic spanning scales of impact. Gender-based violence is the unifying factor of shared experiences around the world. However, the continued reproduction of gendered-based violence as structural violence is, disappointingly, often unrecognized. To say that we are all complicit in creating and maintaining structural violence invites contested discourses, ideological rifts, fragmented actions, or even silence. Based on my work and teaching practice, I offer critical insights into forms of structural violence from local-global contexts and provide space for a meaningful dialogue of possible everyday feminisms that foster change from the personal to societal spheres.

Our Archipelagos: Indigenizing Feminist Knowledges

Ayano Ginoza - Professor at the University of the Ryukyus (Okinawa)

This talk foregrounds feminist knowledges in the Ryukyu archipelagos which are home to indigenous Okinawans by contextualizing the militarized disasters and human rights issues on the islands. In doing so, I present possibilities and responsibilities of higher education in Okinawa to care for the world of our archipelagos.