Actress, writer, and social activist Patricia Arquette will be the keynote speaker for Illinois State University’s Science and Technology Week, April 17-21. Science and Technology Week events are sponsored by the College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST).
Events during the week will include a professional development dinner for students, a 5K run, a conference on women in leadership, and the induction of new members into the CAST Academy of Achievement. Complete event and registration information is available online.
Arquette will present the keynote address “Going Global with Community Sanitation: The Story of Give Love” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in Braden Auditorium in the Bone Student Center. The talk is free and open to the public.
Patricia Arquette has spent her career portraying memorable characters in film and on television. Winner of both the Academy Award and the Emmy for her roles in Medium and Boyhood, Arquette has chosen to use her considerable visibility to shine a light on issues and speak for people whose voices are rarely heard.
Her work post-Katrina and then in Haiti after the devastating hurricanes in 2012 led to the creation of Give Love, a skills training organization that is deeply engaged with community-led sanitation projects to treat and compost waste, improve public health, and create jobs around recycling.
When Arquette raised the issue of equality and fair wages for women at the 2015 Academy Awards, the world took notice. She has since galvanized a growing movement determined to achieve equality for women in the United States, which has culminated in launching a petition to compel Congress to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which gives women a clear constitutional basis for challenging discrimination.
Arquette is also an executive producer on a new documentary addressing the pay gap, Equal Means Equal, which explores topics such as pregnancy discrimination, female poverty, reproductive health care, and sexual assault.
