Michigan school hosts speaker that urges students to ‘counter the mom-led campaigns of the far-right'

On April 4, Grand Valley State University (GVSU) of Allendale, Michigan held an event titled ‘This is a work for the mothers: Strategic Maternalism Against the Far Right,’ featuring keynote speaker Lorna Bracewell.

Bracewell is a former singer and current associate professor of political science at Flagler College.

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Her previous publications include “Sex Wars, Slut Walks, and Carceral Feminism,” “Trans Feminism or No Feminism at All,” and “Feminist Sexual Futures.”

GVSU’s advertisement for the event stated that Bracewell would “revive these debates [about ‘maternalist politics’] to urge feminists to undertake a strategic reclamation of motherhood to counter the mom-led campaigns of the far-right.” 

The page also stated that Bracewell would also “focus on one possible model for a credibly feminist maternalism found in the writings and speeches of nineteenth-century feminist Victoria Woodhull,” whom Bracewell has previously described as a “suffragist, socialist, and ‘free-lover.’”

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The GVSU Political Science Department partnered with the Joseph Stevens Freedom Fund to host the event. The Joseph Stevens Freedom Endowment Fund was “established by GVSU in 1990 to fund lectures to promote the understanding of issues related to human freedom.”

Bracewell has given this same talk on other campuses including the University of Nebraska - Omaha and the University of Florida. 

Campus Reform has reached out to GVSU and Lorna Bracewell for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.