Academic Year 2020-2021

Thank you to all of our presenters and attendees who joined us on on Thursday, April 22nd for our second segment of our “WGSS Capstone Symposium: How Our Graduates Affect Social Change.” We heard from six of our current MA students about the timely and edge research they have been working on! Read on to get a glimpse into each of their presentations, and if you missed the event, be sure to watch the recording!

“Conflicting Desires: Exploring Ambivalent Politics in Trans-specific Media” by Walker Brewer
In an exploration of critical trans politics, Walker discusses the current binaries embedded in the movement for transgender rights and how we can challenge them with a politics of ambivalence, which allows conflicting desires to exist simultaneously.

“Un Violader en Tu Camino: A Postcolonial and Feminist Analysis of Contemporary Chilean Feminist Movements” by Tatiana Ruiz
Using a feminist and postcolonial theoretical framework, Tatiana explains the gender mainstreaming theory and details the differences among contemporary Chilean feminist movements.

“Advancing Reproductive Rights: Gender Implications of an Incomplete Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina” by Adriana Dameron
Arguing that the Women, Peace, and Security agenda would be greatly enhanced by the explicit inclusion of accessible reproduction services and education, Adriana emphasizes the importance of recognizing reproductive rights beyond trauma healing.

“Welcome to the Brotherhood: A Multidisciplinary Comparative Analysis of U.S. Street Gangs and Fraternities, and Their Violence Prevention Programs” by Olivia Foroughi
Olivia evaluates the impact of violence prevention programs and discusses how brotherhood is intensified through loyalty, the use of alcohol, and pride, as well as its ability to move into the theme of violence.

“Reproductions of Harm: Sex-selective Abortion Bans” by Michelle Nguyen
Highlighting why the study of anti-Asian history is important, Michelle explains the historical background of Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States and the ways in which Asian women are uniquely harmed by this today.

“(Re)Defining Sex Work: An Examination of the Policies, Language, and Activism Surrounding the Decriminalization of Sex Work in the U.S.” by Emmah Evangelista
Emmah reviews recent policy related to sex work and discusses the barriers to passing decriminalization, emphasizing the need for legislators to collaborate directly with sex workers and activists.

WGSS Capstone Symposium: How Our Graduates Affect Social Change Session I

Thank you to all of our presenters and attendees who joined us for our first segment of our “WGSS Capstone Symposium: How Our Graduates Affect Social Change.” We heard from six of our current MA students about the timely and edge research they have been working on! Read on to get a glimpse into each of their presentations, and if you missed the event, be sure to watch the recording!

“Mothering and the State: NIH ‘Safe Sleep’ Guidelines & Co-sleeping Dialogues on Reddit” by Casey Murray
Dissects the role of the state in parenting and debunking stereotypes and narratives surrounding parenting through an analysis of the NIH’s “Back-to-Sleep” campaign.

“COVID-19 Data: Who is Getting Left Out” by Makaela Bournazian
Using an intersectional framework to answer a very timely question, Makaela asks who is getting left out of COVID-19 data and points out the gaps with demographic data collection and the accessibility of this data.

“What the Wap?: Moving Towards a Black Feminist Pleasure Politics” by Shontrice Barnes
Theorizes how Cardi B’s “W.A.P” featuring Megan Thee Stallion reimagines a gendered subjectivity and reclaims Black women’s eroticism through the fields of Black feminism, Hip Hop feminism, and Black Feminist Pleasure Politics.

“Friendly Fire: Lesbian Representation and Reaction in Postcolonial Film” by Lauren Crisp
Sheds light on how the films Fíre (1996) and Rafikí (2018) from India and Kenya respectively, portrays indigenous gender and sexuality through postcolonial and queer theory and model methods for change and acceptance of gender and sexuality in postcolonial societies.

“Scripts of Misogynoir: Blackness, Gender Violence, & Colonialism in Puerto Rico’s Feminicidios” by Glorimar Mariño
Argues how the increase of femicides in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María in Sept 19-21 2017, and how the subsequent government response reinforces anti-Blackness, sexism, and transphobia through a literature review of almost 100 tweets.

“It’s Not That Deep: The Apolitical Curricula of Comprehensive Sexuality Education” by Kahlia Phillips
Portrays how comprehensive sexuality education is apolitical and complicit in forms of oppression through the lens of critical race theory.

Migration, Gender, and Rights in Comics and Literature: A Symposium Linking the World

Thank you to all who joined us on April 15th for the “Migration, Gender, and Rights in Comics and Literature” Symposium hosted in conjunction with GW’s Department of English. Our distinguished presenters, Lopamudra Basu, Pramod K. Nayar, Asha Nadkarni, and Amit Baishya have fascinating talks that illuminated how contemporary graphic narratives and fiction about South Asia, Syria, and the Caribbean depict displacement, gender, sexuality, conflict, and human rights. We had 58 attendees from around the world who were captivated from beginning to end!

If you missed this event, watch the recording (passcode: tq1u^1X3)!

Brown Bag Seminar: Everything We Know About Evictions is Wrong

Our WGSS Monthly Brown bag Seminar this week kicked off an important intersectional discussion with Professor Moshenberg speaking about the racialized and gendered dimensions of the current evictions crisis. We had attendees from across GW, the DMV area, and the country listening in as Professor Moshenberg pointed out: the U.S. has had an evictions crisis that predates the pandemic, and that disproportionately impacts women of color and families of color. This is a public health, women’s health, and food security issue, he argued. He also mapped the diverse ways in which our laws and landlords harm tenants’ rights to housing, and how activists have been trying to challenge, in the legislature and through activism, the harm of evictions. He ended with calling for all of us to advocate for tenants’ rights for housing, through social media, by writing letters to the editor, and by getting involved in our own local communities to find out: what is going on with evictions in my community?

If you missed this event, watch the recording!

2021 Annual Yulee Lecture Symposium: Gender, Race, and Migration

On Tuesday March 23, 2021, we were delighted to host our annual endowed Yulee Symposium on the topic of Gender, Race, and Migration. Professors Yên Lê Espiritu and Lorgia García-Peña gave illuminating and inspiring talks to 98 people in the audience from across GW as well as the United States! Award-winning Distinguished Professor of Ethnic Studies at University of California, San Diego and founding member of the Critical Refugee Studies Collective, Yên Lê Espiritu’s talk was entitled “Gendered Displacement and Refugee Lifemaking Practices.” Dr. Lorgia García-Peña, Roy Clouse Associate Professor of LatinX Studies at Harvard University and the co-founder of Freedom University in Georgia gave a talk entitled “Contesting Unbelonging: Black Latina Migrants in Contemporary Italy.”
In this symposium, we honored the lives of the Asian American women killed in Atlanta; we articulated our collective grief at the racial misogyny and ongoing racial violence against the AAPI community; we learned about how media and art differently represent refugees’ lives, and the legalized disenfranchisement of women of color in Italy; and we talked about feminist and queer modes of survival, hope, radical kinship, and rebuilding. Both speakers showed us that to understand contemporary U.S. immigration, we must situate it in the larger context of global modern migration, and attend to the histories of colonialism, war, and geopolitical conflict that create displacement. We are grateful for the generosity of this scholarly community which gathered thinkers from across GW, Washington D.C., and the United States, to talk about one of the most urgent issues of our time, in compassionate, ethical, and just ways.

Job Search Workshop

Thank you to all who joined us this Tuesday for the WGSS Job Search Workshop with GW’s Center for Career Services! Anna Hartge, Industry Career Coach, led a group of undergraduate, graduate, and alumni of WGSS through the current state of job search. We delved into tips to finding jobs in the WGSS field, how to organize your job search, LinkedIn and Handshake tips and tricks, setting appointments with GW Industry coaches, salary negotiation, and more!

If you missed this event, watch the recording!

Black History Month Presentation: The Art and Activism of Lorraine Hansberry

Thank you for joining us last week, as we honored Black History Month with a Brown Bag Seminar on “The Art and Activism of Lorraine Hansberry” by Professor Chapman (Associate Professor of History; WGSS Executive Committee Member). Professor Chapman gave a remarkable history of Hansberry’s dedication to a genuine, fundamental transformation that called for equality for all. Professor Chapman also highlighted Hansberry’s commitment to Black self-determination, economic justice, and considering the role of women in the Freedom Movement.

When asked how educators can use Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun today, Professor Chapman remarked that Hansberry had political commitments that can be seen through her play, which will attest that her writing is still relevant today with special regards to the relevancy of Black Lives Matter movement.

If you missed this event on an insightful look into Lorraine Hansberry’s life of advocacy, be sure to watch the recording!

WGSS Faculty Research: Towards a History of State Neglect

We featured our very own Dr. Sara Matthiesen (Assistant Professor of WGSS and History) in the “Toward a History of State Neglect” Brown Bag Seminar. In this discussion of her forthcoming book, Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice after Roe v. Wade, Dr. Matthiesen shared that Angela Davis encouraged her to look beyond work and home and to consider how developments in the 21st century like mass incarceration, racism in medicine, and welfare aid reliance on faith-based organizations have also constrained families’ ability to raise children. Dr. Matthiesen reminded us that choice needs to be accompanied by access and this perspective moves away from the idea of “choice” and uses a human rights framework to be able to consider rights like the right to raise children and in a healthy and safe environment. Reproduction Reconceived… aims to tell the stories of families who did not relinquish this right, in the decades following Roe v. Wade.

In conclusion, Dr. Matthiesen emphasized that family making is not a private burden nor a privilege but a right and placed the onus on states to provide the infrastructure and care for families to exercise their right to raise children.
If you missed this event, watch the recording!

Black History Month: Student Research Presentations

Thank you for joining us this past Tuesday to hear from our MA students Shontrice Barnes and Kahlia Phillips. We had a great discussion and sneak peak at their cutting-edge research on Black feminism!

Shontrice’s research project, “What the WAP?: Advancing a Black Feminist Pleasure Politics,” analyzed how the groundbreaking rap song by female rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion exemplifies Black feminist pleasure politics and challenges systems of oppression surrounding sexual pleasure. Kahlia’s research project, “The Apolitical Nature of Sexuality Education,” critiqued how politics, race, gender, and sexuality shape current sexuality education, and pointed to methods for change.
If you missed this event, check out the recording.

Strategies for Successfully Managing Family Relationships Workshop

Thank you to all who were able to virtually join us for the “Workshop for Students: Strategies for Successfully Managing Family Relationships in a Remote Semester”! We want to especially thank the wonderful presenters, Dr. Jessica Parrillo and pre-doctoral student Talissa Dorsaint, for leading us through a transformative discussion on tips to build and reinforce healthy relationships, as some of us navigate being around family more often or not being around family at all.

We received great insight on establishing healthy boundaries, prioritizing authenticity over approval in family relationships, and methods to practice self-care in difficult times. This was a timely and very necessary conversation and we are overwhelmed by the great responses and participation throughout this event.
If you missed this discussion, watch the recording.

Textiles as Community Empowerment in South Asia

Shoutout to GW Art History professor, and WGSS Affiliated Faculty member Cristin McKnight Sethi, who concluded her three part webinar series on December 3, 2020, with the final webinar on “Textiles as Community Empowerment in South Asia.” The webinar gathered WGSS faculty and entrepreneurs from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, in conjunction with an exhibit at the GW Textile Museum. Organized by Professor McKnight Sethi, the exhibition shares artist stories alongside vibrant examples of handmade saris, scarves, and other garments inspired by centuries-old traditions that are being made across Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Artists are interpreting traditional textile techniques, patterns, and motifs in fresh new ways that empower communities and build cultural understanding. On December 3^rd, artists and community organizers from across South Asia came together for a discussion of how textiles reinforce community ties while simultaneously crossing the political borders of the subcontinent. WGSS Executive Committee faculty member Professor Elizabeth Chacko, joined this group of cultural leaders, adding her perspective on the linkages between transnationalism and development. Professor Chacko was joined by Anita Reddy, founder of DWARAKA in Southern India; Mahua Lahiri, artist and founder of Hushnohana in Kolkata, India; Noorjehan Bilgrami, founder of Kohl Gallery in Pakistan; Shahid Shanim, founder of Prabartana in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Cristin McKnight-Sethi, Assistant Professor of Art History at GW (moderator). Professor Chacko’s illuminating remarks in response also posed questions that generated a fascinating dialogue about women’s empowerment, caste oppression, color, transnational collaboration, Partition, sustainability, and more.

WGSS Guest Speaker: Jaimee Swift

We were excited to have Jaimee Swift, creator and founder of Black Women Radicals, visit Professor Sara Matthiesen’s WGSS 1020 “Approaches to Women’s History” last week! Jaimee answered questions regarding radical Black feminist politics, both past and present, and what goes into creating a public archive were discussed with students. Jaimee also discussed her multi-pronged project, the politics of the archive, and radical Black feminist politics.

WGSS Virtual Brown Bag Seminar: The Impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown Communities

Thanks to all who joined our most recent and popular Brown Bag Seminar featuring Dr. Jameta Barlow, Dr. Shilpa Rao, and Dr. Elizabeth Vaquera on “The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown Communities.” It was a great pleasure and honor to have these three distinguished experts sharing their research and personal experiences, and addressing the urgent issue of how COVID-19 disproportionately ravages Black and Brown communities, especially given how the pandemic is intensifying and infection rates are rapidly going up.
Dr. Barlow took the lens of a Black feminist community psychologist, interrogating the roots of settler colonialism and other social determinants of health on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities. She outlined both the short-term and long-term systemic changes that need to happen, if we are to protect Black and Brown lives and families. Dr. Rao shared her experiences as a clinician and frontline worker in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Rao urgently called for more robust and viable solutions for the social determinants that affect the health of Black and Brown communities, such as economic stability, neighborhood and built environment, education, and more. Dr. Vaquera’s research on the Latinx community and COVID-19 discussed how systemic racism has placed the Latinx community at a higher risk of getting and dying from COVID-19 than the white population. She also called for special attention to the plight of the Puerto Rican population, as it is ravaged by both hurricanes and the pandemic.

This was a moving, necessary, and inspiring dialogue. It expanded our understanding of the factors and forces in our institutions and our economy that have intensified Covid-19-related death, injury, and harm on Black and Brown communities; it also identified concrete steps that we need to take to interrupt this harm and expand safety, public health, and well-being in these communities. We thank our distinguished presenters for sharing their expertise and insights, and leading the conversation from their different disciplinary and professional vantage points. If you missed this discussion, you can watch the highlights in the recording!

Faculty Round Table: Exploring and Addressing Racism through Scholarship

The Office of Undergraduate Studies and CCAS Advising held a faculty roundtable with multi-disciplinary perspectives on systemic racism and a focus on this summer’s protests and social justice movements. Professor Strader joined Professors Lisa Bowleg (Psychology), Tom Guglielmo (American Studies), LaKeisha McClary (Chemistry), and Greg Squires (Sociology). Panelist used each of their academic fields to help us better understand the unequal impact of COVID on different communities and the widespread Black Lives Matter protests in response to George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. Panelists also discussed what the members of the GW community can do to participate in building solidarity. Watch the recording!

Former U.S. Attorney General Visits WGSS Class

Mr. Eric H. Holder

The 82nd Attorney General of the United States (2008-2015) Mr. Eric H. Holder, Jr. visited WGSS 2135 “A Study of Gender and Media.” Undergraduate and graduate students (who joined just for this #onlyatgw moment) were very inspired by his reflections on voter suppression, the Supreme Court decision on Shelby County v. Holder which struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the importance of voting, and fighting for justice. He shared brilliant advice with great moral clarity and warmth for the next generation on imagining and creating change, and left us all so inspired and motivated. He reminded us that although young people outnumber baby boomers, due to their relatively lower voter turnout (30-40% vis a vis baby boomers’ 60-75% turnout), the latter group has an outsized say in the outcome of electoral politics in the United States today. We are grateful for the privilege and the honor of meeting Mr. Holder.

As one WGSS student later wrote in their note of thanks to Mr. Holder: “The time you spent with us this Tuesday was immensely inspiring, and I wanted to thank you for not only taking time to speak, but also urgently communicating the importance of our personal civic engagement. Your insistence that “the people are the cavalry” stuck with me, and I aim to push myself and those around me in this last month before the election.” – Maryam Gilanshah, Class of 2021

Student Centered Dialogues

We thank the dynamic and visionary leaders of three GW student organizations (GW Women of Color, GW Feminist Student Union, and WGSS Student Association) that came together to create this timely dialogue on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Breonna Taylor, and the stakes of the elections next month. We are so inspired by the intellectual integrity and moral clarity of the diverse students’ perspectives we heard from, including Shree Venkataraman, Allison Torres, Maddy Sherbet, Michelle Nguyen, Caroline Nystrum, Sofia Gonzalez, Mashiyat Ahmed, Blair Cox, and Riya Gavaskar.
GW Law Professor Joan Meir kindly joined this conversation and gave remarks addressing the students’ clear and powerful intersectional reflections. WGSS Faculty who participated in this dialogue include Professors Eiko Strader, Cynthia Deitch, and Kavita Daiya.

We hope that these reflections clear pathways for us to appreciate the power of voting next month, as we participate in GWVotes, and grow the mission of the Honey Nashman Center for Civic Engagement at GW.

Thank you to all who joined us last Friday for our first monthly social. We enjoyed seeing you all, though virtually, to catch up on how the semester is going, reconnect with classmates, and see what everyone is up to! Do not fret if you missed this event, this is a monthly event!

Monthly Brown Bag Seminar Series: Economic Vulnerability of Transgender, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Gay People

We thank all who joined us for this monthly Brown Bag Seminar Series featuring Dr. Eiko Strader. This seminar discussed Dr. Strader’s research on wage vulnerability in the LGBT community.