The University of Miami’s School of Law, along with the Human Rights Center of the University of Diego Portales (Chile), the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Human Rights Institute of Columbia Law School, will host the conference “Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Sexuality, Violence, Reproduction, and Human Rights” from February 23-25.

The conference, to be held on UM’s Coral Gables campus, will include leading scholars and advocates from more than 20 countries in North, South, and Central America as well as the Caribbean. Participants will examine recent law and policy developments at the local, national, and international levels in the areas of human rights, women’s rights, gender, sexuality, and economic justice, as well as the legal and advocacy strategies employed by the women’s and human rights movements in the region to deepen their effect.

The goals of the Gender Justice Conference are multifold. One of the main purposes is to promote a transnational exchange between advocates and academics working on sexual, reproductive, and women’s rights issues in the Americas. Additionally, the conference will serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of the women’s rights movement in the Americas. Ultimately, the organizers hope the conference will foster the development of a new network of advocates and scholars across the region engaged in using the international human rights framework as a tool for advancing women’s human rights.

The Gender Justice Conference will feature renowned international figures such as Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, the adjunct executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; Susana Chiarotti, member of the Advisory Board for the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women’s Rights; Rebecca Cook, professor of law at the University of Toronto; and Nancy Northup, executive director of the Center for Reproductive Rights. UM School of Law Dean Patricia White will give opening remarks on Thursday, February 24.

For more information, visit www.law.miami.edu/genderjustice.

A special panel hosted by the University of Miami’s School of Nursing and Health Studies will convene later this month to explore strategies that could be employed to help implement the recommendations put forth by a national committee that proposed sweeping changes for improving a distressed nursing profession.

The panel discussion, “The Future of Nursing: From Recommendations to Implementation,” will be held on Thursday, February 24 at 6 p.m. in Room 106 of UM’s M. Christine Schwartz Center for Nursing Education and will include UM President Donna E. Shalala, who chaired the special Institute of Medicine and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation committee that last year released a report calling for measures such as higher levels of education and training for nurses, greater opportunities for their ranks to hold leadership positions, and the removal of “scope of practice” obstacles that impede nurses’ ability to practice their profession to its fullest.

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Since opening its doors in 1996, the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center has nourished the physical, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of thousands of University of Miami students, alumni, and employees each year. With its 18,000-square-foot addition nearly complete, the center is more fit than ever to serve the wellness needs of its members.

President Donna E. Shalala and Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia A. Whitely invite the UM community to celebrate the expansion and 15th anniversary of the Herbert Wellness Center on Thursday, February 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. The first 500 guests will receive a special gift.

For more information, call 305-284-3253 or visit www.miami.edu/wellness.

Images of life and daily activities in Haitian communities will be the focus of a special exhibition in February at the University of Miami’s Wynwood Project Space.

Presented by UM’s Department of Art and Art History, “Haiti FotoKonbit: Third Vernacular Photography” will feature photographs taken by Haitians in their home country and Miami.

The exhibition runs from February 8-25 at Wynwood Project Space, 2200A NW 2nd Avenue, Miami, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 12 from 6 to 10 p.m.

FotoKonbit is a movement created to engage and empower Haitians to tell their own stories and document their communities through photography.

Inspired by the Creole word “konbit,” which can be defined as the coming together of similar talents in an effort toward a common goal, FotoKonbit educators use their skills as photographers, educators, and artists to impact the lives of their participants and the public through photography. By partnering with established Haitian grassroots organizations in Haiti and in the Haitian Diaspora, FotoKonbit is uniquely positioned to inspire hope through creative expression and provide Haitians with the opportunity to document their reality and share it with the largest possible audience.

A full schedule of exhibitions can be viewed at www.as.miami.edu/art. For more information about the exhibition or Wynwood Project Space, call 305-284-2543 or e-mail [email protected].

Robin Holder's "Descending Into the Valley of the Kings"

The Department of Art and Art History and Africana Studies will present “Atum Energy: Channeling Kemetic Metaphysics,” an art exhibition celebrating Black History Month.

The show, curated by international art curator Ludlow Bailey, will run from February 1 to 28 at UM’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Gallery, 1210 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables campus. The exhibition is free and open to the public. A special opening reception will be held on Friday, February 11, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

The exhibition will feature the works of African-American artists Robin Holder and Kerry Stuart Coppin, Haitian-American artists Asser Saint-Val and Nzingah, Jamaican-American artist Kristie Stephenson, and black British artist Everton Wright.

Bailey has curated shows in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. He has lived in Egypt and travelled extensively in Africa. A lifelong student of Egyptology and metaphysics, he holds degrees from both Brown and Columbia Universities. Bailey currently resides on St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.