S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 N E W S L E T T E R
In This Issue
Faculty & Staff Updates and Accomplishments
Graduating Students
Graduate Symposium Abstracts
Message from Dr. Nicole Erin Morse, Director: Congratulations to the Class of 2020! It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve and the Director of the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University for the past 4 months. This has been a very strange spring, but the incredible work of our undergraduate and graduate students has been a sign of hope for all of us who are connected to WGSS. Times like these make evident the critical contributions that our field makes to a world grappling with profound challenges -- from the pandemic to climate change to those issues that our graduating Masters students are studying:
phenomenology of illness and embodiment (Emily O’Connell), LGBTQ+
Center for Women,
Gender and Sexuality Studies
p. 561-297-3865
w. http.://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/wgss/
IG: fauwgss
inclusivity on campus (Annelyn Martinez), sexual violence education and prevention and sexual health education (Kelsey Probber), and access to menstrual products and reproductive care (Elena Steinhaus). I am
extremely proud of our graduating class, who have also received positive feedback on their teaching and graduate assistantship work. While
thanks goes to all those who have supported them in their education – from the core faculty (Josephine Beoku-Betts and Jane Caputi) to faculty associates (too many to list!) to the two interim directors (Barclay Barrios and Adam Bradford) – their success is a testament to their own
commitment to their education. As you can see in this Newsletter, the WGSS core faculty and faculty associates are outstanding scholars who are making critical contributions to their disciplines as well as to the interdisciplinary field of WGSS. I encourage you to review their accomplishments and congratulate them. I want to offer heartfelt thanks to the Executive Committee (Josephine Beoku- Betts, Susan Brown, Jane Caputi, Sika Dagbovie-Mullins, Dawn Frood, Mary Ann Gosser, Ingrid Jones, Ashvin Kini, Christine Scodari, and Lotus Seeley) who have offered critical support, institutional knowledge, and guidance as I have been learning how to do this job. Our Program Coordinator, Ji Bae, has done an incredible job supporting faculty and students through the normal challenges of the academic year as well as through the new challenges we’re facing working
remotely. She has also pursued professional development opportunities to expand her knowledge of creating an inclusive academic culture.
We have new leadership from the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, and William Trapani will be advocating for WGSS at the College level while supporting me in achieving the long-term goals that I, the WGSS Executive Committee, and the Dean of the College have articulated. This includes some exciting future developments that are in the works: a proposal to transform the undergraduate certificate into an undergraduate minor, a proposal for an IFP course that highlights our unique strengths, revision of the graduate curriculum, expansion of the Advisory Council, and developing resources and engagement opportunities for Faculty Associates – among many other things.
We recently went through a Program Review with external reviewers who are leaders in the field of WGSS. The review they submitted to the Provost highlights our strengths and advocates for many of the resources that WGSS needs in order to build upon these strengths. I’m excited to draw upon this review to make long-term and short-term plans for WGSS. Amid significant uncertainty about the State of Florida’s finances, we are fortunate to have the incomparable support of our Advisory Council (headed by Lisa Armbrust and Skeets Friedkin). We have also received a new graduate scholarship from the Howard Greenfield Foundation, which we will be awarding to incoming graduate students.
This coming year will have many opportunities and challenges that we can’t yet anticipate at this time, but I’m looking forward to strengthening WGSS and highlighting, supporting, and expanding our critical contributions to the institution and our communities. In a zine marking the 50th anniversary of the field as an academic discipline, one collective of WGSS scholars argues these difficult times are exactly when we most need the insights of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Along with first-year graduate student Daniella Orias, I wrote a piece for the zine discussing ecofeminism and FAU’s unique ability to articulate the connections between WGSS and environmental justice. Over the next few years, I am committed to showcasing and enriching all that our WGSS Center has to offer to scholars, artists, activists, and the community.
Graduating Undergraduate WGSS
Certificate Students & WGSS MA Students
"I rise up my voice - not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard...we cannot succeed when half of us are held back" - Malala Yousafzai
The following graduating seniors and M.A. students have thrived academically and have strived to make positive changes to the FAU community.
Dylita Maharaj
Major Communications & Minor in Sociology.
“What I love about this program is being able to understand different backgrounds in terms of sexuality, race and gender.”
Graduating WGSS Certificate Students:
Amanda Capote Elaine DiRose Shytearia Hillman Kaylyn Koutz Rachel Lacenere Dylita Maharaj Alexander Ring Janoah Robinson Amanda Serrano Bailee Szymanski Carrie-Anna Wade
Annelyn Martinez
Annelyn has been a Graduate Assistant with Owls Care Health Promotion serving on the planning committee for the Women's Leadership Institute and creating gender content. They also served as an intern for the Office of LGBTQ+ Initiatives and Allyship, helping to create the Owl Ally Network. They have also served as President for the Feminist Graduate Student Association. They are the
founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Feminist Agenda Magazine. Their research uses queer theory, specifically phenomenology and affect theory, to analyze non-binary and other LGBTQ+ representation in animated series.
Elena Steinhaus
Elena has served as a Graduate Assistant and intern for Owls Care Health Promotion creating gender content and organizing the annual Period Party and the Women's retreat. She has also worked on creating a proposal for funding menstrual equity on FAU's campus. She has also been Vice President of the Feminist Graduate Student Association. Elena Steinhaus’s research focuses on reproductive justice and specifically menstrual equity. She
looks at how the feminization of poverty affects menstruators through period poverty.
Emily O'Connell
My academic interests are focused in philosophy, feminist theory, and disability theory. My primary areas of interest are phenomenology and existentialism, and their intersections philosophically with disability theory and praxis. Through my work at Florida Atlantic University, I have engaged with how phenomenology informs the lived experiences of living with a chronic and disabling condition. Looking forward, I will continue to work on my thesis project research and further my analysis, and start applying to law schools and PhD programs.
She has also served as Secretary for the Feminist Graduate Student Association
Kelsey Probber
My main area of research has been in intimate partner violence and sexual health education. During my time at FAU I worked at Owls Care as a Flip the Script Facilitator and created sexual health education programming. I did my internship at Women in Distress where I helped to create and present on intimate partner violence.
She has also been a core member of the Feminist Graduate Student Association and served as Liaison for the organization during her first year.
M.A. in Women, Gender and Sexuality
Studies
The Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University is a strong interdisciplinary program with nationally and internationally known faculty from a variety of disciplines. Students receive credit for courses in fields such as Anthropology, English, Criminal Justice, Communication, History, Languages and Linguistics, Literature, Nursing, Political Science, Sociology, and of course, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Current MA Students:
Halle Mayne
Cassiopeia Mulholland-London Sofia Honekman
Sonia Baron Daniella Orias
Laura Sylvia Myers Scholarship
The 2020 Laura Sylvia Myers Scholarship Recipient is Kaylyn Koutz, a graphic design major who explores feminist history and ideals through her work. One nomination described Kaylyn as follows: "Kaylyn is extremely passionate about human rights and gender issues. She has done multiple graphic design projects that focus on feminist history and ideals. She is in a leadership position with an organization dedicated to her subject matter. She is one of the most hardworking, dedicated, and kind people I know and I believe she deserves this scholarship because of her drive and passion, along with financial need. I have known her for almost four years now and can vouch for her character, friendship, and leadership."
The Laura Sylvia Myers Scholarship recognizes one female student* who has demonstrated a commitment to feminist ideals and/or leadership with an award of $1000. It is available to students who have completed all requirements for graduation and all of the requirements for the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Certificate. Preference is given to students with a minimum GPA of 3.7, with financial need, and/or who are active in public/community service.
*Following best practices in the field of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, "female student" includes all those who currently identify as female, in relation to this scholarship nomination and also beyond.
Scholarship Recipient Kaylyn Koutz
"In one of my classes I had the opportunity to create and design a magazine, I chose to create a feminist magazine. Getting some inspiration from Ms. Magazine."
In Memory of Penny Ashwanden
Penny Ashwanden was member of our counsel a great benefactor with the real concerns about the rights and the futures of all of our masters program students. She will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. She has left her mark on all those that have had the privilege to met her.
“Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity.” – Terri Guillemets
By the WGSS students she will always be remembered for her kindness and joy. She always had a big smile on her face and she was always happy to talk to the students.
FACULTY & STAFF
ACCOMPLISHMENT UPDATES
Dr. Jane Caputi Professor
of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Dr. Jane Caputi's book Call Your "Mutha'": A Deliberately Dirty-Minded Manifesto for the Earth Mother in the Anthropocene is on track to be published by Oxford University Press in August 2020. She has
also published her article “Is Seeing Believing?: Rapist Culture on the Screen,” In Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives, ed. Wanda Teays (Springer Press, 2019, 207-223. In March Dr. Captui received the 2020 Saga Special Recognition Award for Contributions to Women's History and Culture from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.
Dr. Sika Dagbovie-Mullins Associate Professor
Journal articles:
& Director of Graduate Studies
“Performing White Innocence while Invoking Black Slavery in Contemporary ‘Post-Racial’ Popular Culture.” Journal of Popular Culture, 52.3 (June 2019): 481-499
Book Chapters:
“The Whiteness of the Whale and the Darkness of the Dinosaur: The Africanist Presence in Superhero Comics from Black Lightning to Moon Girl” (with Eric Berlatsky) in Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics. Ed. Martin Lund and Sean Guynes-Vishniac. The Ohio State University Press, 2020. 38-56.
Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric Berlatsky, “‘The Only Nerdy Pakistani-American-Slash-Inhuman in the Entire Universe’: Postracialism and Politics in the New Ms. Marvel” (with Eric Berlatsky) in Ms. Marvel’s America. Ed. Jessica Baldanzi and Hussein Rashid. University Press of Mississippi, 2020. 65- 88.
Dr. William L Leap Emeritus
Professor of Anthropology at the American University and an Affiliate Professor in the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
My study of Language Before Stonewall (Leap 2020) is now available from Palgrave-McMillan. Besides outlining a queer approach to studies of language in history, the book
challenges the idea that “lesbian” and “gay” language use in the US was limited to secret code or silence until the Stonewall Rebellion brought lesbian and gay cultures out of the closets and into the streets. Examples discussed range from language use during military induction in World War II, language of women’s softball teams, the language of public cruising and police surveillance, and the language(s) of sexuality during the Harlem Renaissance.
Ji Young Bae, Coordinator of School of Interdisciplinary
"Working with WGSS Students and faculty and running various events have helped me to learn in-depth knowledge of women, gender and sexuality issues, recognize the importance of gender education and women’s empowerment, and value one’s equality and rights, which are the gravest
Studies
issues affecting our lives and communities in many ways."
Ji Young Bae was the recipient of the Staff/Faculty of the Year Award at the 2020 Women's Leadership Institute.
Dr. Mary Cameron, PhD Professor, Department of
Anthropology College of Arts and Letters
Three Fruits: Nepali Ayurvedic Doctors on Health, Nature and Social Change (Lexington Books, 2019). The book is based on two decades of anthropological field research with Ayurvedic medical doctors, their families and patients, government health officials, and lay people in several geographical regions of Nepal. The 264-page monograph is the first full-length and comprehensive study of the ancient, currently popular, and still evolving South Asian human health knowledge system, Ayurvedic medicine, as practiced in Nepal – several studies have been published about India’s Ayurvedic medicine. I examine how the doctors meaningfully encounter and adapt to sociopolitical change, to modern medicine, and to the increasing anthropogenic threats to the Himalayan medicinal plants that comprise Ayurveda’s materia medica. The book is organized into eight chapters that cover the following: individual doctors’ practice as healers, teachers, and botany-trained conservationists; the history of medical anthropology research on Nepal; health care development in the context of socioeconomic and political change; and, women Ayurvedic doctors. The book has received very good reviews and was recommended by Choice for all levels of university students, scholars, and the general public. The Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Michael Horswell, recorded an “In Conversation” interview podcast with me about the book in late 2019, available here.
Two articles co-published with former FAU graduate students in Anthropology and Geosciences:
2020. Weisner, Meagan and Mary Cameron. “Does Yoga Increase Sustainability? Enhanced Sensory Awareness and Environmental Behavior in South Florida.” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology. https://brill.com/view/journals/wo/24/1/wo.24.issue-1.xml
2020. Ripu M. Kunwar, Maria Fadiman, Santosh Thapa, Ram P. Acharya, Mary Cameron, Rainer W. Bussmann. “Plant Use Values and Phytosociological Indices: Implications for Conservation in Kailash Sacred Landscape,
Nepal.” Ecological Indicators. Vol. 108. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X19306727? utm_campaign=STMJ_75273_AUTH_SERV_PPUB&utm_medium=email&utm_dgroup=Email1Publishing&utm_aci d=1060075177&SIS_ID=-1&dgcid=STMJ_75273_AUTH_SERV_PPUB&CMX_ID=&utm_in=DM575543&utm_source= AC_30
Dr. Josephine Beoku-Betts, PhD Professor of Women, Gender
Public ations:
and Sexuality Studies and Sociology
"Education for African Girls: Still Striving for Equality": Book Chapter in Nwando Achebe and Claire Robertson (eds.) Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective, University of Wisconsin Press, 2019: 211-232
UN Security Council Resolution 1325: The Example of Sierra Leone": Book Chapter in Niamh Reilly (ed.) International Human Rights of Women, Springer Nature: Singapore, 2019: 461-476.
"Science as a Development Tool in Ghana: Challenges, Outcomes and Possibilities for Women Scientists": Book Chapter in Muna B. Ndulo and N'Dri Assie Lumumba (eds.) Education and the Development of Human Capital. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. (In Press).
Conferences:
American Sociological Association Annual Conference, Manhattan, New York, August, 2019. Presentation on "Feminist Sociology and Social Justice: African Feminist Voices and Perspectives".
ADVANCE/AWIS/ARC Workshop, October 2019, Cleveland, Ohio. "Transforming Institutions: Gendered Perceptions of STEM Faculty on Diversity at Florida Atlantic University"
Sociologists for Women in Society Winter Meeting, San Diego, California, February 2020. Panelist at Plenary Session. "Developments in Gender Studies in African Tertiary Institutions: Accomplishments, Dilemmas and Ongoing Trajectories".
Professional Accomplishments:
Fulbright Scholar at the Institute for Gender Research and Documentation, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, 2018- 2019.
Elected President, Sociologists for Women in Society, 2020-2021.
Dr. Nicole Erin Morse, Director, Women, Gender and
Sexuality Studies, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Publications:
"A Madea Sensation: Paradox and Trans Feminist Possibilities in Tyler Perry’s work,” Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture, forthcoming 2020-2021.
“A Frown Turned Upside Down: Hypervisibility and Obscurity in Vivek Shraya’s Trauma Clown (2019),” Public 62: TRANS+, forthcoming Fall 2020.
“Beyond the Gaze: Seeing and Being Seen in Contemporary Queer Media,” co-authored with Lauren Herold, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, vol. 60 (2020), forthcoming. “Trans* Cinematic Embodiment: Spectator and Screen,” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Book Reviews, forthcoming.
Conferences:
“A Scandal in Seriality: Heterosexuality in Elementary and Sherlock,” Panelist, Videographic Television Studies, Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual conference, Denver, CO, April 2020 [postponed]
“Holographic Epistemology: Detection in Three-Dimensions,” Participant, Seminar on Ghosts, Holobionts, and Superorganisms., Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual conference, Denver, CO, April 2020 [postponed].
“Addressed and Interpellated: The Selves Pronouns Construct,” Panelist, Embodying Disobedience, Crafting Affinities, South Eastern Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, March 2020 [cancelled].
“Pronouns, Protest, and Policy: The Worlds Pronouns Create,” Panel Organizer and Presenter, National Women’s Studies Association annual conference, San Fransisco, CA, November 2019.
“‘I Never Cared Until I Met You:’ Affective Labor, Transition, and Selfhood on YouTube,” Panelist, Affective Labor, Sexual Stories, Digital Authenticity, and Queer Media, Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual conference, Seattle, WA, March 2019.
A Decade of Service
The members of the CWGSS Advisory Council are advocates in the community promoting awareness, engagement, and funding needs to foster academic excellence and support of students, faculty, and programs of the FAU Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. thw advisory council works tirelessly to support the program and its students.
"As I review the 10 years of effort courage persistence and dedication I am in awe of our councils accomplishments through three presidents of the University 2 deans of our college of arts and letters 4 executive directors of the center. Especially the strength of Lisa Armbrust and myself cochairs for the last 10 years. Our advisory Council has fluctuated from 16 members to 12 members for 13 members to 14 members all with an interest in furthering the advancement and the courage of our masters students." - Skeets F.
Discussion
Sunday, October 25, 2015
3 :30- 6 :30p.m . Educating girls can break cycles of poverty in j u one generation, yet millions of girls aren't in school. Girl Rising uses storytelling to inspire
Cosa Duci Restaurant
141 NW 20th Street B-21 Boca Raton FL, 33431
For directions: 561-393-1201
Cost: $30.00
All proceeds benefit FAU's Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
RSVP by Thursday, Oct. 22 to
gvorsas@fau.edu or 561-297-2337
Please reserve early, seating is very limited.
For more information about the FAU Center for
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action that gets girls into classrooms worldwide
FAU CWGSS Advisory Council:
Skeets Friedkin, Co-Chair Lisa Armbrust, Co-Chair Lauren Abbott
Penny Ashwanden Heather Blumberg Marilyn Davis
Sara Dill
Lalita Janke Tanya Jarvis Charlie Gleek Alina O'Connor Julie Pavlon Senator Nan Rich
na1ng
Sex Trafficking
in Florida
With Featured Guest Speaker
F£A A PlAY Rl NG Of AND DWA EPHRON's
"LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE"
The Boca Raton Observer Attention: Editor- Felicia Levine
The Advisory Council for The Center for Women, Ge Florida Atlantic University is presenting a stimulating Breakfast to be held on Friday, March 18'h at 8-8:45a.t
STATE SENATOR F
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"HUMAN TRAFFICKING:
FLORIDA , THE PORTAL STATE"
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The guest speaker, Alex Sink, was the former Presidet
America and the recent Democratic candidate for Flor breakfast and entire day is $100.00 which will create masters or certification in Women 's Studies and is eel FAU _
A Panel Presentation by the Graduate Students
M.J . Saunders, the new President of Florida Atlantic l
of the Center's "Feminization of Poverty" Seminar.
and participate in the day. Included in the 9a.m.-3p.m
and Power" will be lunch and the key note speaker A
Wednesday, November 13,2013
with noted women panelists covering topics from FAt
4 - 6 pm , Hillel Center, Wimber ly Library
Entrepreneurship , Breaking Barriers and Assessing Cc:
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
and Business . The Fomm will be held at The College
pavilion_ Presenting the day is The Center for Women
Followed by a reception. Open to the public .
The President 's Diversity Committee and Adams Cen
More information at 561-297-3865 .
breakfast and forum is being sponsored by Morgan St:
The Advisory Council of Florida Atlantic University 1S Center for Women Gender and Sexuality Studies invites you to an
evening with Katie Ford
CENTER fOR WOMEN. GENDER & SEXUALITY
11Human Trafficking: The Modern Day Slave Trade"
An honest discussi on wit h
Katie Ford
Founder of Freedom for All and Former CEO of the Ford Modeling Agenc
David Aronberg
Palm Beach County State Attorney
Katariina Rosenblatt
Survivor, and Founder of There is H.O.P.E. for Me
This event is par t af "Surviving Slavery : Sex Trafficking in Sauth Florida,•A r esearch initiative oft. FAU Center jar Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Human Trafficking:
Awareness, Update and Solutions
An Honest Discussion with
Linda Geller Schwartz
Professor,FAU Department of Sociology, state policy advocate and Florida co-chair for the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)
Katariina Rosenblatt
Survivor, and Founder ofThere is H.O.P_ E. for Me
FAU Students
STUDIES AT FAU Discussion and Dinner-by-the-Bite
Presenting their 2014/1S research initiative
Dr. Elena Machado, Director CWGSS Advisory Council:
Skeets Friedkin, Co-Chair Lisa Armbrust, Co-Chair Lauren Abbott
Thursday, September 11, 2014
6:30p .m.
City Fish Market
7940 Glades Road • Boca Raton Barclay Barrios, Ph.D.
on how to end Human Trafficking
Sunday, April19, 2015
4-6 pm, Reception and Discussion
Penny Ashwanden
Heather Blumberg
Free Valet Parking
WG SS Director
The Abbott Home, 2574 N.W. 29'h Drive, Boca Raton,
Marilyn Davis Lalita Janke
Tara Laxer
$50 per person CWGSS Advisory Council :
Skeets Friedkin,Co-Chair
FL 33434, New Floresta (Parking on the Street)
Julie Pavlon Nan Rich Edith Stein
For more info rmation, contact Skeets Friedkin at 561-750-4662
Lisa Armbru st,Co-Cha ir Lauren Abb ott
Penny A shwa nden
Heather Blumbero
RSVP by April15
to Lauren Abbott 561-703-5007
or Skeets Friedkin 561-866-6203 (Seating is limited)
The Greatest Thank you to the Advisory Council
f o r a l l t h a t y o u h a v e d o n e f o r t h i s p r o g r a m o v e r t h e y e a r s a n d f o r s u p p o r t i n g u s t h e s e p a s t 2
y e a r s . W e h a v e e n j o y e d e v e r y o p p o r t u n i t y t o s p e n d t i m e w i t h y o u a l l . T h e A d v i s o r y C o u n c i l
h a v e b e e n s o m e o f o u r b i g g e s t c h e e r l e a d e r s a n d w e a r e g r a t e f u l f o r e v e r y t h i n g t h e y h a v e d o n e
f o r u s .
Love,
The WGSS MA Graduating Class of 2020
22nd Annual
Feminist Graduate Student Association
Graduate Symposium Question, Challenge, Organize: Turning Feminist Theory into The Feminist GraduatePStruadexntiAsssociation (FGSA)
promotes critical feminist discourse on campus by sponsoring conferences, panels, lectures, workshops, and other academic and non-academic events. We are committed to encouraging intellectual excellence, research, and scholarship on women, gender, and sexuality; and to stimulating continued intellectual growth. We have an annual Graduate Symposium to showcase undergraduate and graduate research in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Giving students the opportunity to present their work and network with other emerging scholars. Due to the pandemic this year's conference was canceled.
Conference Abstracts:
Aminat Emma Bdamus | Challenging Gendered Geopolitical Notions of
Space in Nigerian Women Writers' Fictions | University of Verona
Through a comparative analysis, the aim of this paper is to track the ways in which third generation Nigerian female writers redefine and reconfigure gendered geopolitical spaces in Nigeria. By portraying characters who transgress and transcend spatial rigid categorization of gender, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Half of a Yellow Sun and Sefi Atta in Everything Good Will Come, ought to challenge gendered demarcations of space shaped by patriarchal ideology. The kitchen, in particular, a space usually associated with the female domain, becomes a powerful symbolic locus in which masculine and feminine identities are negotiated and re-created. In their attempt to explore the ongoing transformations of gender relations, both authors articulate the emergence of alternative patterns of gender identity in contemporary Nigerian society (Rezeanu 2015, 12) which question and disrupt geographical fixed borders.
Tammy Wolfe | Colonial effects on Indigenous women in Canada and the loss
of traditional roles and assertion of self determination | University of Winnipeg
The traditional matriarchal roles of Indigenous women are important factors in the inner workings of Indigenous communities; Indigenous women are seen as life givers, having been given this gift by the Creator and integral to the survivance of the next generations. Colonial effects caused the removal and stripping of these roles from Indigenous women in Canada and in turn reduced and limited women’s ability to contribute to individual and collective self- determination. Indigenous women continue to be adversely affected from an imposed
patriarchal society and the stripping of traditional matriarchal roles of Indigenous women within their communities throughout history and into today. Despite these hardships Indigenous women have continued to break barriers in the fight towards asserting their self-determination as matriarchs through reclamation of traditions and ceremonial practices, academia and activism within Canada.
Erin Day | Intermediary Identity in Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Gertrude Stein: A
Feminist Approach to Issues in Modern Representation | Rutgers University
Critical accounts of Pablo Picasso’s modernist (pre-Cubist) portrait of gay American writer Gertrude Stein have historically only focused on one perspectival reading: that of the male gaze which reflects the female body through his own creative subjugation. This problematic reading is formed around a binary relationship (subject and object) that purports to have only one means of momentum. The Portrait of Gertrude Stein (1905-1906) is a work that can be reclaimed for a Feminist writing of art history as it is the highly personal relationship between the two individuals, the painter and his subject, that characterizes the complexly curious rendering of this modernist era portrait. Picasso and Stein were mutually influenced by one another’s artistic pursuits and philosophy: Picasso by Stein’s profound use of fragmented language and Stein by Picasso’s faceted distortions of the visual realm. This essay argues for a more nuanced reading of Stein’s identity that stems from an intermediary position and can be gleamed through a process of uncovering the historically significant stylistic mechanisms of modernist portraiture that was beginning to burgeon in Paris at the turn of the century.
FAU Counseling and Psychological Services Roundtable : Co-facilitated by Dr.
Ruth Howard, Dr. Lucinda Bratini, Alyssa Zajdel, and Priscilla Renta | Decolonial Feminist Praxis and Mental Health
CAPS is currently using decolonial feminist praxis in their diversity and inclusion initiative. This roundtable will discuss how the counselors and students in CAPS are using decolonial theory to inform their mental health practices and how the use of feminist theory is beneficial.
Kaylee Kagiavas | Mentorship Within the Hierarchical Institution: The
Mentoring of Graduate Students as Feminist Praxis | University of Florida
Mentorship Within the Hierarchical Institution: The Mentoring of Graduate Students as Feminist Praxis centered on the impact of harmful power dynamics created and reinforced by the neoliberal university structure as a result of the non-profit industrial complex on the mentoring of graduate students—especially those with marginalized identities that have been historically barred from such institutions. My research makes an argument for the advising and mentorship process as innately feminist praxis worthy of significance, and showcases ways to incorporate feminist pedagogical aspects into power-differentiated relationship of mentor and mentee through exemplified practices of the feminist classroom research. The piece begins with a history of mentorship programs that exhibit classist, elitist, and imperialist tendencies and their introduction into social institutions that have been fueled by the competition of capitalist, non- profit, hierarchical structures such as that of the university. The piece then examines feminist pedagogical tenants as translated into a feminist classroom, dedicated to the destruction of power differentials between educator and student with supporting analysis of power from black feminist theorist, Audre Lorde. The piece lastly examines an attempt at such praxis within a Family
Studies department and showcases that the byproducts of such praxis result in the empowerment of students, and report a less threatening graduate experience compared to counterparts that do not impart such commitment to empowerment that feminist pedagogy explicitly calls for.
Annalise Chapman | What IS activism?: Lessons from feminist/queer fat activism |
Simmons University
In this contemporary moment of tumult and violence, dissent and protestation in the United States and beyond, a fundamental query emerges time and again: What IS activism? Or, what CONSTITUTES activism? Activism is largely bifurcated in overly simplistic notions of good and bad, effective and ineffective, whereby a hierarchical conceptualization privileges certain of its expressions over others. I suggest that a response to such vexing questions and such inadequate dichotomies may be located in the radical tenets of feminist/queer fat activism, particularly in micro and ambiguous fat activism. Theory and praxis, I contend, are not so easily separated, but rather they operate messily with and through one another. Following Cooper (2016), I argue that what constitutes activism is illimitable, that it is expressed on infinite fronts in such a way as to challenge the notion that activism must be coherent in order to be valid. I will enumerate the lessons to be learned about activism from fat activism, taking as an example the text of Fat Activism itself, a text of theory about fat activism that, in fact, not only enacts, but also facilitates activism. That is, the writing, reading, pondering, sharing, and/or discussion of Fat Activism, whether alone or in community, constitute activism, expounding the argument that activism operates beyond boundaries, beyond definition, for it is in the accessible, the quotidian, the conversational that activism can and must be located.
Gabriela Penagos | Female immobility within the Puerto Rican patriarchate in
Rosario Ferré’s “La muñeca menor” | Florida Atlantic University
In the case of Puerto Rico, Rosario Josefina Ferré (1938-2016) became the representative voice of Puerto Rican women and one of the island's most distinguished contemporary writers. As a result, she breaks the literary tradition of the Puerto Rican writer by promoting the revolution of the political-social order and the liberation of women through erotic themes (Palmer-López 109-110). The short story “La muñeca menor” from the Papeles de Pandora collection (1976) is the first literary text in which she introduced a feminist perspective on the island. Especially, by questioning the literary man who traditionally diverts women to the safest type of art for their creative expression — poetry — as an intellectual constraint among other things. Therefore, this story exposes the immobilized identity of the Puerto Rican woman through the aunt, the younger niece and the doll. The transition of female identity in Puerto Rican culture of the twentieth century is analyzed between the patriarchal ravage of Greek mythology, and the transcendence of matriarchy in Caribbean mythology
Ana Rita Matias Ramos | Analyzing Gender Representation of Florida Elected
Officials as of 2019 as Compared to National Statistics | Florida Atlantic University
This presentation will give information about the access women in different countries have in civil engagement, focusing on voting. It will briefly relay American suffrage history and current feminist politics. It’s main focus is feminist politics on a global scale: how feminism is spreading and making change, how quickly, and how effectively. It will ask questions of how equal different societies are, how much freedom women have, and open the conversation of how much feminism is still needed. American politics are very front-and-center in world political talk; it is rare that the main focus is on other countries and their problems. While American feminism is its own unique and important fight, I wish to spread awareness of international problems in feminism, and how international problems can greatly affect American politics as well.
Cassie Mulholland-London | Activism as Empowerment: Activism and Self- Care through Creative Expression | Florida Atlantic University
Fiction can be a product of academic research, and should not be considered inherently outside of research-based academia. By incorporating academic concepts into writing it becomes a form of praxis.
Annelyn Martinez | La Riena de Cuntspeak: Latina Artist Decolonizing Latin
Gender Roles | Florida Atlantic University
Gender roles in Latino culture are extremely explicit with its strict definitions of masculinity and femininity. The roles of Latinas are determined by Maraianismo. I argue that artists like Natti Natasha are creating music that challenges the gender norms of Latino culture through engaging in cuntspeak. And that through challenging and resisting it in this way they are also beginning to decolonize the Latino culture. In order to show how the use of cuntspeak is a form of decolonization I will conduct closed reading of lyrics by this artist. This particular artist is openly owning her sexuality and using her art form to talk about it despite growing up in a country and culture that condones female sexuality. I will be analyzing how their lyrics display a claim over their own sexuality and how that contradicts the gender norms of the culture.
Kelsey Probber | Ways in Which Sexual Health Public Health Initiatives are
Shaped by Public Health Education and Political and Cultural Factors in Brazil, Malaysia and South Africa | Florida Atlantic University
Many attempts to analyze public health programs of any kind, including sexual and reproductive health education, employ analysis methods based on western theories of public health education without looking at the cultural, historical, political and infrastructure differences among different regions and countries. Through analysis of sexual and reproductive health training at a higher education level, analysis of methods, and the cultural, political, and infrastructure barriers the variety of methodology that is employed by state and non-state organization and the challenges in implementing the methods can be analyzed in a culturally relevant manner. I want focused on how Brazil, South Africa, and Malaysia instruct public health educators, what programs these countries employ in sexual and reproductive health education, both state programs and NGO programs, and how culture, history, politics, and infrastructure limitations affect the training and actions of public health educators focused on sexual and reproductive health.
Aleia Dennis | IntersectionaliTEA Time | Florida Atlantic University
Defined by Kimberle Krenshaw, intersectionality intends to define the ways in which marginalized groups have various identities. The tea in intersectionalitea is that individuals face discrimination and disadvantages due to their overlapping identities. So, it is important to observe and analyze various power imbalances and assess the tool(s) by which those power imbalances could be eliminated altogether. The tea being spilled raises serious questions about the role of privilege. To insure that people do not slip on all of the tea that comes with embracing intersectionalitea, tolerating discrimination is unsatifactory.
Sofia Hokeman | Subverting Subjectivity: Teresa Burga's Relinquishment of
Authorship | Florida Atlantic University
Burga displaces the self as authoritarian producer of meaning, in turn, relinquishing singular authorship over the work, and extending the production of meaning onto the spectator. This essay explores the potentiality for autonomy and agency in Burga’s relinquishment of authorship, both for the artist and public. Not in the Barthesian sense, in which the Author must die entirely for the reader or viewer to be born , but rather how Burga used the renouncement of a singular and authoritative artistic authorship to reject a pre-inscribed identity and subjectivity imposed by the apparatus of biopolitical control, manifesting itself through the depersonalization of the subject seen in our public archival collection of documents.
The Feminist Graduate Student Association was the recipient of the FAU Women's Organization of the Year Award at the 2020 Women's Leadership Institute.
The Feminist Agenda
This year the Feminist Graduate Student Association founded The Feminist Agenda a student magazine designed to showcase the works of FAU students. Students are able to
submit art, academic writing, and creative writing pieces. The magazine is a space for students from all over the FAU community to express themselves and their work as it pertains to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Dawn Frood, Collection Development Librarian Dawn L. Rothe, PhD., Western Michigan University
S. Marek Muller, School of Communication & Multimedia Studies
Library Resources for WGSS
We are here to help students & faculty
Some of our recent ebook purchases:
Whistleblower : My journey to Silicon Valley and fight for justice at Uber, Susan Fowler.Published: [New York] : Viking, [2020]
All our trials : prisons, policing, and the feminist fight to end violence, Emily L. Thuma. Published: 2019
Diverse voices of disabled sexualities in the global south, Paul Chappell, Marlene de Beer, editors. Published: Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2019]
Global encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) history, Howard Chiang, editor in chief ; associate editors, Anjali Arondekar [and six
others].Published: Farmington Hills, Mich. : Charles Scribner's Sons, [2019]
Gothic queer culture : marginalized communities and the ghosts of insidious trauma, Laura Westengard.Published: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2019]
#Identity : hashtagging race, gender, sexuality, and nation, Abigail De Kosnik and Keith P. Feldman, editors.Published: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2019.
Disrupting rape culture : public space, sexuality and revolt, Alexandra Fanghanel.Published: Bristol ; Chicago : Bristol University Press, 2019.
Body battlegrounds : transgressions, tensions, and transformations, Edited by Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan.Published 2019 Nashville, Tennessee : Vanderbilt University Press, [2019]
Chances are : contingency, queer theory and American literature, Valerie Rohy. Published: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge,
#MeToo and the politics of social change, Edited by Bianca Fileborn, Rachel Loney- Howes.Published: Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2019]
Founded by Dr. William Leap, an internationally recognized leader in the fields of sexuality and linguistics, the Lavender Languages Institute offers participants ten days of training and discussion of topics related to sexuality and languages each June. Institute activities offer participants ten days of training and discussion related topics in language and sexuality studies. Participants include undergrads, graduate students, teachers and researchers, and community activists, all of
whom share common interests: how spoken language, archived materials, literary works, visual media, and similar sources shape (and are shaped by) understandings of sexuality. Institute faculty include colleagues from WGSS and other programs at FAU: Jose de la Garza Valenzuela , Ashvin Kini, Wlm Leap, Nicole Morse, S. Marek Muller) as well as David Peterson (University of Nebraska-Omaha) Nikki Lane (Spellman College) and Maria Amelia Viteri (Universidad de San Francisco de Quito). Course offered during the Institute range address: hate speech; language, trans and animal studies; queer language ethnography; language, sexuality and anti-imperial critique; citizenship’s queer exclusions; language and ecologies of desire; and quare linguistics.
Mo re than 35 applicants were admitted to the Institute for summer 2020. But safety considerations related to the pandemic required that the Institute be canceled But plans are underway for the Institute in summer, 2021, and student and faculty colleagues from WGSS are invited to be part of next year’s program.
The plans for 2021 will be posted there in September 2020 and the on-line application will be “live” in early October 2020. In the meantime, please contact Nicole Morse, WGSS director (morsen@fau.edu) or Wlm Leap (wleap@fau.edu) with additional questions.
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