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"We need to examine what it is in our culture that destroys the happiness of so many teenage girls," writes Mary Pipher in her book, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.
 Pipher |
"The Reviving Ophelia Seminar" is aimed at parents, counselors, teachers, social service professionals and anyone else who is concerned about helping America's girls grow into strong and independent young women.
Pipher, whose book was on The New York Times best seller list for 123 weeks, opens the seminar with compassionate and reassuring information for the audience. She combines her undergraduate and graduate training in anthropology and psychology, respectively, to look at how culture has changed during the past generation and how those changes are adversely affecting our girls.
Unlike many popular parenting experts, Pipher is unwilling to place the blame for alarming problems such as eating disorders, self mutilation and accelerated sexuality with parents. She says that in most cases, mothers and fathers are working desperately to save their daughters.
Pipher offers wisdom gleaned from her 20 years as a therapist -- and her experience as a mother, and she offers hope.
Following Pipher's keynote address, seminar participants are invited to participate in sessions led by IU School of Medicine specialists. The "break-outs" will focus on eating disorders, sexuality in adolescence, adolescent health care, gender and math, effectively teaching girls of color, empowering girls, and athletics and self-esteem in girls.
IUPUI's acclaimed A.C.T.-Out Ensemble, a social-issue theater group comprised of students, faculty and community, will perform at the end of the seminar.
The Reviving Ophelia Seminar and the appearance of Mary Pipher launches IUPUI's "In the Company of Women" series, a program aimed at bringing nationally prominent women to campus. It is sponsored by University Place Conference Center and Hotel and the IUPUI Commission on Women.
Registration deadline for the seminar is Nov. 30 and the registration fee is $125. For more information, call 317-274-5053.
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