I was privileged to be an invited panellist for the University of Victoria Association for Women and the Law (UAWL) conference in March 2007 in Victoria, British Columbia. UAWL is “an association of law students promoting awareness, study, and understanding of the issues that women face both as professionals in and as subjects of the law.” Their focus embraces community activism, which includes opening dialogues between law students, legal professionals, and academics. This year’s conference was titled “Branching Out: Contemporary Challenges to Feminist Advocacy” with the aim of discussing different forms of feminist advocacy in the community and academia, and the challenges that feminist advocates currently face.

The one-day event was an extremely successful one, with many excellent discussions from a wide spectrum of advocates – from feminist legal professors to First Nations community activists to students. My own presentation was on thirdspace – how we were founded, what we offer for feminist advocacy, and what our challenges are. I can’t say enough about how well run the conference was, and I must admit I was quite floored by the wonderful present of special tea and a lovely mug from a woman-owned local business (Silk Road – http://www.silkroadtea.com/) – it’s my new favourite mug.

Coming out of the conference, I was inspired to add a new section to our journal: 'Dialogues' – a non-peer-reviewed section that is selected by invitation only, bringing in discussions from a variety of scholars and activists on feminist theory and feminist culture.

I put out a call for papers fort his section to the participants of the conference and was very pleased with the excellent and warm response I received. In this issue we will offer the first two of these papers: Susan Boyd on current challenges in family law, and Gerry Kilgannon’s look at the activities of Women Elders in Action (WE*ACT).

In the Winter 2008 issue we will offer the second half of this round of Dialogues: Habiba Zaman on immigrant accreditation, and barabara findlay’s excellent keynote to the conference.

	Dialogues: Contemporary Challenges to Feminist Advocacy
	Jenéa Tallentire
	I was privileged to be an invited panellist for the University of Victoria Association for Women and the Law (UAWL) conference in March 2007 in Victoria, British Columbia. UAWL is “an association of law students promoting awareness, study, and understanding of the issues that women face both as professionals in and as subjects of the law.” Their focus embraces community activism, which includes opening dialogues between law students, legal professionals, and academics. This year’s conference was titled “Branching Out: Contemporary Challenges to Feminist Advocacy” with the aim of discussing different forms of feminist advocacy in the community and academia, and the challenges that feminist advocates currently face. The one-day event was an extremely successful one, with many excellent discussions from a wide spectrum of advocates – from feminist legal professors to First Nations community activists to students. My own presentation was on thirdspace – how we were founded, what we offer for feminist advocacy, and what our challenges are. I can’t say enough about how well run the conference was, and I must admit I was quite floored by the wonderful present of special tea and a lovely mug from a woman-owned local business (Silk Road – http://www.silkroadtea.com/) – it’s my new favourite mug. Coming out of the conference, I was inspired to add a new section to our journal: 'Dialogues' – a non-peer-reviewed section that is selected by invitation only, bringing in discussions from a variety of scholars and activists on feminist theory and feminist culture. I put out a call for papers fort his section to the participants of the conference and was very pleased with the excellent and warm response I received. In this issue we will offer the first two of these papers: Susan Boyd on current challenges in family law, and Gerry Kilgannon’s look at the activities of Women Elders in Action (WE*ACT). In the Winter 2008 issue we will offer the second half of this round of Dialogues: Habiba Zaman on immigrant accreditation, and barabara findlay’s excellent keynote to the conference.