Real Art Ways Hartford, CT
Dr. Mala Matacin
Associate Professor and Co-Chair, Psychology Department, University of Hartford
Real Women Have Curves— Women's Leadership
Program Description
A discussion of women's health, stress and body issues, and women's leadership.
Presented At
Real Art Ways Hartford, CT
Film Synopsis
Real Women Have Curves is a humorous and warmhearted look at a Mexican American teenage girl coming of age in a boiling cauldron of cultural expectations, class constrictions, family duty, and her own personal aspirations.
Ana (America Ferrera) is a first generation Mexican American teenager on the verge of becoming a woman. She lives in the predominately Latino community of East Los Angeles. Freshly graduated from high school, Ana receives a full scholarship to Columbia University. Her very traditional parents (Lupe Ontiveros, Jorge Cervera Jr.) feel that Ana should help provide for the family and not attend college. Torn between her mainstream ambitions and her cultural heritage, she agrees to work with her mother at her sister's downtown LA sewing factory. When a crisis arises at the factory, it seems as if Ana's fate is unhappily sealed. But her indomitable will to reach beyond sweatshop life eventually leads her to burst through every restriction she faces.
About the Speaker
Dr. Mala Matacin is an associate professor and the director of the Undergraduate Program in Psychology at the University of Hartford. She has a PhD in social psychology with postdoctoral training in behavioral and preventive medicine. Her research focuses on women’s health (primarily issues of body image and stress) and women’s leadership. With her interest in gender issues, Dr. Matacin designed and teaches a popular university honors course called “Women, Weight, and Worry,” and a first year seminar entitled “Beauty, Body Image, and Feminism.” She is the founder and faculty advisor for “Women for Change” whose mission is to provide a space for education and support for women in regard to feminism and body image issues. In 1999, she was given an “Outstanding Teacher Award.” In 2010, she was awarded with the “Excellence in Service to Students” for going “above and beyond” work with students. This award was given by Sigma Alpha Pi, the National Society for Leadership and Success. In a 2009 post-graduation survey done by the Career Center, Dr. Matacin was named one of the three top faculty members in the entire University of Hartford community as a faculty member who had a major/positive impact on students’ University of Hartford experience. Dr. Matacin has been awarded two grants from the Women’s Education and Leadership Fund (WELFund) at the University of Hartford to support her work in “Women for Change,” and to enhance the education of women and cultivate their leadership skills by initiating an innovative collaboration between the University of Hartford and the Hartford Seminary.