Kathy Giuffre

Kathy Giuffre, associate professor of sociology, presented her work at the “TEDxMileHigh: Women | Values + Instincts” event at Denver’s Newman Center on Nov. 16.  The event featured some of Colorado’s most innovative, brilliant, and passionate women — women who are pushing the boundaries and making huge impacts in science, sociology, artistry, health, and education.

Giuffre, billed as a “creative maven” on the TEDxMileHigh website, discussed “Generous Women: Creativity and Social Networks.” The presentation was based on her research on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands of the South Pacific, where she spent a sabbatical year studying the artists. Giuffre also took a CC sociology class to Rarotonga for two weeks in 2007 to study Polynesian culture.

In her talk, Giuffre focused on the role women play in fostering the arts, especially the ways in which they work to build social networks that support innovation. “This is tied to traditional Polynesian values of generosity that the women I studied really espoused,” she said.