WGSS Colloquium, Spring 2019

by Salonee Bhaman

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This semester, the WGSS Colloquium and Working group was able to host a series of exciting conversations between an interdisciplinary community of students and faculty. 

Visiting LGBTS Graduate Fellow Desirae Embree, a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University opened up the semester’s Working Group (where faculty members and visiting scholars share pre-circulated work) with a portion of her dissertation, an exciting interdisciplinary work exploring Dyke Porn, community formation, and early feminist media production.  In March, Professor Eda Pepi shared a chapter in process from her forthcoming book and led a fascinating discussion on the biopolitics of empire and the bounds of citizenship in Jordan and Morocco. The last working group of the semester will meet on April 22nd to discuss work by Professor Ana Ramos-Zayas.  

The colloquium also met three times during the semester to hear presentations from WGSS graduate students. This year, the first colloquium featured presentations by Nishin Nathwani (Political Science) who presented an alternative legal framework for interpreting Roe v. Wade in the language of state power and Matt Shafer (Political Science), who explored the concept of epistemic violence through engaging postcolonial theory within neoliberal context. The second meeting featured presentations from Ever Osorio Ruiz (American Studies), who shared thoughts and reflections on social media and the #MyFirstHarassment movement, and Sam Huber (English), who shared work exploring feminist internationalism through a critical engagement with the writings of Grace Paley, Toni Cade Bambara, and Muriel Rukeyser on the politics of War and Empire. Finally, Yuhe Faye Wang (American Studies), and Kate Redburn (History/Law) concluded our colloquium series with presentations exploring the histories of laws and regulations governing Chinese Laundries in California and the strategies of gay and trans communities with regards to cross dressing laws respectively.