by NIKKI ROBERTI
Lifestyles Reporter

This weekend, around 200 people are anticipated to attend the Southeastern Women’s Studies Association (SEWSA) conference at Plemmons Student Union to discuss topics surrounding women and the environment.

The event starts today at 2 p.m. and ends Saturday.

Registration is $65 for students and includes five meals.

Students can sign up today at the student union before the conference.

Two of the keynote lectures by speakers Elisabeth Lloyd and Marilou Awiakta are free and open to the public.

Lloyd’s lecture is tonight at 8 p.m. and Awiakta will present Friday at 5 p.m.

Appalachian State University’s Women’s Studies program is hosting the event and has been planning the conference for over a year.

The official theme for the conference is “Women and Environments: The Feminism of Ecology and the Ecology of Feminism” and will discuss such topics as religion and gender, how to create strong environments for women and pop culture, among others.

Last year the SEWSA conference was held at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The 2010 conference will be held at University of South Carolina at Columbia, Maggie McFadden, president of the SEWSA said.

“This conference is held annually and offers professors, students and sometimes community members in the southeastern U.S. region the opportunity to share exciting new research in our field,” Women’s Studies Director Martha McCaughey said.   “Conferences like this are one way that academics stay current in their fields, gaining new ideas about teaching, research, and matters vital to our field of women’s studies.”

Black Sheep Theater will also present the original play “Witchwork” as part of the conference on Friday and Saturday in I.G. Greer Studio Theater at 8 p.m.

The show is open to the public and tickets can be purchased at the door for $5.

A discussion will follow the play Friday night.

Playwright and co-founder of the Black Sheep Theater Georgia Rhoades began writing the piece in 1999 and the play was later produced in 2002.

The script has been expanded and revised for this particular production, Rhoades said.

Rhoades researched the play in England and Ireland with the help of locals, particularly librarians and fellow Black Sheep co-founder, Dennis Bohr.

The play is based on true stories and is about the witch trials in the 17th and 18th century.

“I hope the audience will feel connected to these women’s stories, that they will learn something new and that at some points, they’ll be moved to laugh and think as well as feel,” Rhoades said. “It’s important for us to recognize that women are still at risk just because they are women and for us to know our history: ‘her story.’”

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