Local Author, Academic and Humorist Gina Barreca Joins Civility Panel

The Connecticut Forum Announces:
Gina Barreca to Join David Gergen and Christopher Buckley at
The End of Civility?
Saturday, October 2, 2010

Deemed a “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine and “Very, very funny. For a woman” by Dave Barry, Gina Barreca is most recently the author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World. She has appeared on 20/20, 48 Hours, NPR, the BBC, The Today Show, CNN, Joy Behar, and Oprah to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor.

Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor, and Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League; her books have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. She’s the editor of seventeen books, including The Signet Book of American Humor and The Penguin Book of Women’s Humor as well as The Erotics of Instruction and A Sit-Down With the Sopranos.

You may recognize Barreca's name from her weekly column in The Hartford Courant, "Irreconcilable Differences". She also writes for the "Brainstorm" section of The Chronicle of Higher Education, blogs for Psychology Today, and occasionally spars with her former co-author (of I'm With Stupid: One Man, One Woman, and 10,000 of Misunderstandings between the Sexes Cleared Right Up) Gene Weingarten in his "Below the Beltway" column in The Washington Post. With degrees from Dartmouth College, Cambridge University, and the City University of New York, Barreca is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Barreca on her female students and their fear of not dating:

Fans & Teammates Remember UConn Football Player Jasper Howard

Rentschler Field was awash with the number 6 on Saturday afternoon, as teammates, fans and students remembered Jasper Howard, the University of Connecticut football player who was killed on campus two weeks ago.

Our YOUTH Forum Associate, Danielle Joseph, was there for the pre-game ceremonies and shared her thoughts about the tribute to Howard.

"At the UConn game on Saturday, everyone felt a sense of loss. Not because of the final score but because of the missing player, Jazz. For the few moments of silence the whole stadium seemed united. Even those of us who had never met him were overwhelmed by the unity the team, the fans, the band and the cheerleaders, showed by their proud display of the #6. Even though I had never met him I think Jazz would have been proud to see how many people he touched.”

Photo courtesy of NBCConnecticut.com

U-C-O-N-N - UConn, UConn, UConn!

By Jamie Daniel, Advancement Associate & UConn basketball fan

UConn basketball pretty much is Connecticut sports, so the loss of the men's team on Saturday was a blow to many of the state's sports fans. I was disappointed, but it was a great game of basketball and a tournament run that lasted longer than many thought it would.

And, if we're being honest here, I just never felt all that connected to this UConn team.

There, I said it - and it's a huge weight off my shoulders.

I am a lifelong Huskies fan: I celebrated with my father after the Tate George buzzer-beater against Clemson, I idolized Rebecca Lobo and Nykesha Sales, the season schedule for both teams hangs on my fridge every year and somewhere, deep in my parent's basement, is the scrapbook that I made the year I was 12 containing every single article written about the legendary women's team that went 35-0. But this UConn team, led by this Jim Calhoun - the angriest, scariest version of him yet - just didn't have it. They might have had the skills, but, especially after the loss of Jerome Dyson, they just didn't have the heart. Call me naive, but skills alone can only bring you so far.

I'm not sure Calhoun will retire, but I think it's time. UConn needs someone who can revitalize the program and reciprocate some of that love that Connecticut has to give to its beloved Huskies.

In the meantime, I'm excited to watch that other UConn basketball team show us all how it's done on Tuesday with the joy, class and heart that we expect from UConn college basketball.

(For a dose of nostalgia watch "The Shot" with George here, about 2 minutes in.)