Deschutes Public Library is pleased to welcome Jamie Bufalino to the Redmond and Downtown Bend Public Libraries for two programs as part October’s Know Politics series of programs. Both programs are free and open to the public.

Saturday, October 27, 2012 • 3:00 p.m.
Redmond Public Library

Sunday, October 28, 2012 • 2:00 p.m.
Downtown Bend Public Library

According to Bufalino, the “war on women” is one of several hot-button topics in the 2012 election. Intimately tied to the current debate over government-sponsored health care, the rhetoric and policies threatening women’s reproductive freedoms are the latest rallying-calls in a battle that places women’s bodies at ground zero in a contest over the power of the federal government over states and individuals. She says that Americans’ views on women and reproduction have changed throughout history. “Transformations in gender norms, scientific and medical advancement, and competing notions of the role of the state in the protection of civil liberties all have contributed to the changing view,” Bufalino says. Bufalino’s presentation will explore the history and place current rhetoric regarding reproductive rights within the context of larger social, political and economic trends.

Bufalino teaches History at University of Oregon. She also teaches courses in History and Women’s Studies at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, OR. She holds a Ph.D. from University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on women, consumer culture and political activism in the early twentieth-century U.S.

For more information about this or other library programs, please visit the library website at www.deschuteslibrary.org. People with disabilities needing accommodations (alternative formats, seating or auxiliary aides) should contact Liz at 312-1032.