Building Bridges will be hosting their 20th Annual Conference on Saturday, March 7. This is a historical year for Building Bridges not only because this is the 20th conference, but also because of major changes in funding.

“We are now permanently funded with a percentage of the student activity fee, instead of having to deal with the variability that accompanies the spring budget request process,” Junior Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Major and Building Bridges Co-Chair Leah Soule said.

This year, the conference is titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Recognizing and Rejecting Rape Culture.”

“Rape culture is the culture that perpetuates and normalizes sexual violence. It is the culture that uses the bodies of women to sell everything from lamps to beer. It’s the culture that promotes the idea that men can’t be sexually assaulted. It’s the culture where the absence of a ‘no’ is mistaken for the presence of a ‘yes.’ It’s the culture that keeps us from being horrified when we learn that one in four college women will be sexually assaulted during their years at school,” Soule said.

Soule and her Co-Chair, Senior Political Science and Economics Major Kyle Maloney, selected this topic in an effort to bring this unjust culture to the attention of the Gustavus campus, while also hoping to reach a larger audience.

“We believe that sexual violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum, that in order to end rape and sexual assault it is necessary to address the culture that supports it,” Maloney said. “It’s important for us to have discussions about rape culture on our campus because colleges have historically been great engines for social change, and college campuses are areas where sexual violence occurs regularly. We hope to bring these conversations into the mainstream and everyday, where they belong.”

The conference will begin in Christ Chapel at 9 a.m. on Saturday with a short performance by I Am We Are, followed by the first keynote speaker, Jessica Valenti. Valenti is a daily columnist for the Guardian US and the author of four books on politics, feminism, and culture.

“Jessica will present a perspective that critiques the way in which our media and other institutions contribute to rape culture,” Maloney said. “She has also been vocal on the need for perpetrators of sexual violence to be held accountable in order to dismantle rape culture.”

After a break for lunch following Valenti’s presentation, the second keynote speaker will present. Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre is a hip hop artist, two-time National Poetry Slam champion, activist, educator, and writer.

“We believe that Guante will excel at engaging with attendees about sexual violence in a way that is accessible and unconventional,” Soule said. “Guante will be performing spoken word pieces he has written about rape culture in addition to the more conventional speech expected at conferences such as this.”

The conference continues into the afternoon with a series of workshop sessions beginning at 2:15 p.m. in Jackson Campus Center and Beck Hall.

“We’ve got a group of nationally renowned workshop presenters so we hope students take advantage of the afternoon sessions,” Soule said.

Starting at 3:15 p.m. and running at the same time as some of the workshop sessions, there will be an interactive walkthrough in Beck Hall.

“The walk-through, taking the form of a mock-museum titled ‘Silent No More: Rape Culture in Retrospect,’ will feature some amazing visual and performance art that has been created by Gustavus students over the past several months,” Maloney said.

While this format matches that of Building Bridges conferences in recent years, it evolved from a much different experience that started twenty years ago. Sophomore Environmental Studies Major and Building Bridges Historian Gabe Grosshuesch offered insight to the history of the conference:

“Originally, the conference was a set conference, with the same topic every year. It was about student initiated change through diversity education. It was a three day conference that was sponsored by more than twenty different Minnesota liberal arts colleges, and now it’s a conference that we host as a one day event. ”

Having the conference occur over a several day period with the sponsorship of other colleges allowed for different events to be held. One of the most notable events which no longer occurs was a celebratory closing ceremony.

“As time went on, it changed into different forms,” Grosshuesch noted. “There was a four year period when it was a benefit concert, and a period when it was a Native American Powwow. Now, there’s nothing. I think it’s important, though. These students plan this massive conference, they put almost an entire year’s worth of work into it while keeping up with everything else they’re involved in, and they don’t really have a way to celebrate it on campus.”

One thing that has remained consistent over the past twenty years is the excellent quality of keynote speakers who have been brought to the Gustavus campus.

“Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, came and spoke about how to take action in your community and how to make change through peaceful methods,” Grosshuesch said. “Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed in the movie Hotel Rwanda, came in 2008 and spoke about what he did in his efforts to protect citizens. Lisa Ling, a key reporter for the O network and for National Geographic, covered topics like bride burning in India and the looting of cities in Afghanistan. I think those are some really powerful people, and I hope that in the future we have more of them visit.”

The Co-Chairs of the conference noted a distinct difference between this year’s topic and previous Building Bridges themes.

“This topic, rape culture, is different than past topics because of the intimate way it affects the lives of all students here at Gustavus,” Kyle Maloney said. “It is also a topic that we each have the ability to get involved with in our day-to-day lives. We can stand up to sexism and rape jokes in our friend groups, create safer spaces for survivors of sexual assault, re-think the traditional party culture prominent on campuses and learn to use affirmative consent in our sex lives.”

While this topic can be difficult to discuss, those who have been working on the conference are exciting to engage in dialogue about rape culture with attendees.

“I definitely can’t wait to meet our amazing speakers and get the chance to ask them their thoughts on the different things we’ve been talking about as a committee and a campus community,” Leah Soule said. “I’m also excited to talk with participants on the day of the conference about what they are taking away from the conference and how they plan to take action to dismantle rape culture.”

Tickets for the 20th Annual Building Bridges Conference are available at no cost to students and $10 to the general public.

-Kaity Young