Profs featured in Alumni Book Club discussion

Youngstown State University faculty members are featured panelists as the YSU Alumni and Friends Virtual Book Club discusses the 2013 autobiography of a teen-aged Pakistani girl who was shot for her activism.

The discussion of I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban will be 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, via Facebook. The book tells the story of 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, her activism for education for females in Pakistan and the assassination attempt against her. Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

Guest panelists include Cryshanna A. Jackson Leftwich, associate professor of Political Science and Public Affairs and director of Women’s and Gender Studies at YSU, and Amanda Fehlbaum, associate professor of Humanities and Social Sciences and an affiliate faculty member of the Women’s and Gender Studies program.

Others panelists, from the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, include: Bridgid Cassin, library assistant; Starr Jones, library supervisor; and Andrea Zupcsan, librarian.

Jackson, whose research interests focus on public polices linked to social equity, cultural competence civil rights and gender equality, is chair of the Board of Directors of the YWCA of the Mahoning Valley. Among her honors is Distinguished Professor of Service, Distinguished Professor of Teaching, Diva of Distinction for Educational Leadership, YWCA Board Member of the Year and 30 for the Future Award.

Fehlbaum’s research interests include gender and sexuality, bodies and embodiment, sex education, culture and media, feminism and family. She is a member of the American Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women in Society and the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. She is also involved in numerous community service projects, including the Planned Parenthood Community Leadership Council of the Mahoning Valley and one of the organizers of a YSU student trip to the Women’s March on Washington.

For more information on the book club, contact Heather Belgin, associate director, Alumni and Events, at 330-941-1591 or habelgin@ysu.edu.