All the Colors of the Rainbow
Text von Lilia Galarza Orcada und Caroline Rein
PRISMA –
the student women’s network of the University of Witten/Herdecke
We at Prisma promote a cross-disciplinary and generational networking of women and foster mutual support and exchange of experience. Our aim is to empower graduates to start their professional life in a self-confident, prepared and enlightened manner, to encourage them to develop their skills, to convey a progressive image of women, and to strengthen the perception and recognition of women in society.
In optics, a prism is a transparent element that breaks white light up into its constituent spectral colors. Thus, it symbolises our commitment to diversity and equality, and our pursuit of a peaceful social coexistence.
The Prisma team currently consists of eleven women who come from diverse backgrounds and study at different departments of the UW/H. Prisma closely cooperates with the UW/H alumnae network Fidelia, and also works on selected projects with the social-ecological bank GLS and Theodora, a student initiative that similarly fights for equality and against any form of sexism, homophobia and discrimination at the Brandenburg Medical School MHB.
Today’s society is caught between progressive change, which manifests itself in movements such as the global women’s marches and UN projects like „he for she“, but must still always defend itself against anachronistic forces that want to curtail women’s rights.
As part of our commitment to contribute to more justice in our society, we organise a wide range of events, focusing on politics, health, communication and finance. Among these events are panel discussions, workshops, networking meetings and our feminist film series.
LEARNING FROM FILMS FOR LIFE
THE PRISMA FEMINIST FILM SERIES
To watch a film is to briefly walk in some else’s shoes.
Cinema helps us gain new perspectives and experience other people’s stories together, as a community. This is how – and why – the idea of a feminist film series was born. The films we watched together – with as many as a hundred people at times – have made us laugh, cry, marvel and rejoice, and helped us find the courage to change the world together.
All our screenings are always preceded by an introduction and followed by a group discussion. We make a point to screen films that give us a lot of food for thought and challenge us emotionally as well as intellectually. Our goal is to have stimulating conversations on the topics such as history, health, sexuality, rights, religion, politics.
The pandemic may have interrupted many of our activities and routines, but thankfully we at Prisma were able to participate in the Bicycle Cinema and thus our Feminist Film Series could continue and be part of a larger university event. We are looking forward to the coming semester when we show more films that shed light on the struggles and victories of the LGBTQI+ movements across the globe and further strengthen intersectional feminism.