As part of the San Antonio Tricentennial celebration, the OLLU Center for Women in  Church and Society is hosting the event “Mujeres en Acción/Women in Action,” Wednesday, March 7, at 6 p.m. in Thiry Auditorium.

The event will explore the pivotal role of women in the history of education in San Antonio. The discussion will begin with the arrival of the Sisters of Congregation of Divine Providence and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in the late 1800s and continue through the years to the present struggles and successes in higher education. The discussion will include women religious, women activist-scholars and women of color.

Featured speakers include:

Diane Langford, CDP
Sister Diane Langford, CDP, a vowed member of the Congregation of Divine Providence of San Antonio since 1979, has a background in education, counseling and in Catholic parish work and has served on the General Council of the Congregation of Divine Providence. She is the author of, “The Tattered Heart: A Historical Fiction Biography of Mother St. Andrew Feltin,” “God has been God for Us: The History of the Missionary Servants of St. Anthony,” and “Shepherds in the Image of Christ: The Centennial History of St. John’s Assumption Seminary Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas.” She serves as the Director of Faith Formation at St. Peter’s Parish in Joplin, Mo., where she currently resides.

Norma E. Cantú
Publishing in the areas of folklore, literary studies, women’s studies and border studies, Cantú is the author and editor/coeditor of numerous works including the award-winning “Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera.” Her novel, “Cabañuelas, A Love Story,” will be out in spring 2019. She is co-founder of CantoMundo, a space for Latin@ poets and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Recently she received the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award from the American Folklore Society and the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature.

Ariana Brown
Ariana Brown is a Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio. She is the recipient of two Academy of American Poets Prizes and a 2014 collegiate national poetry slam champion. Brown, who has been dubbed a “part-time curandera,” is primarily interested in using poetry to validate black girl rage in all its miraculous forms. She is currently earning an MFA in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh.

This event is hosted by the OLLU Center for Women in Church and Society in collaboration with the Office of the President, Office of the Provost and Center for Mexican American Studies and Research. It is generously supported by the Impetus Foundation through the OLLU Higher Education for a New America (HENA) Initiative.

The event is free and open to the public.