Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Interest Group

Red Washburn

Fall 2021 Meetings

September 29, 2-3PM

October 20, 3-4PM

November 17, 3-4PM

The Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Faculty Interest Group is still using Zoom for our critical discussions. This year we are focusing on indigenous history and rights. We are using Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s work, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and supplemental teach-in videos. The WGS FIG has been well-attended and supported.

The first meeting we discussed Dunbar-Ortiz’s lecture about her book, Not a Nation of Immigrants:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNMZaZHNNqk We focused on unpacking histories of immigration that do not offer critical perspectives on settler colonialism and genocide. We talked about the psychology of violence in knowledge production, as well. In particular, we addressed ways to decolonize our curriculum in WGS and in our classes.

The second meeting we discussed Chapter 4: “Continental Imperialism.” We talked about the politics of place and space. We also discussed practical implications for indigenous women-led land return using Sogorea Te Land Trust: http://bcnm.berkeley.edu/events/22/history-theory/3998/a-conversation-with-the-sogorea-te-land-trust We spent much time exploring ways to support/ give back land in addition to re-centering genealogies of resistance in our research and pedagogy. We discussed possible civic engagement projects. We talked much about time – how to address past inequalities in the present.

The third meeting we discussed creating more intellectual spaces to address difference and power. We spent much time brainstorming how to make our WGS curricula reflect our critical questioning of colonialism as it intersects with sexism, racism, classism, cissexism, heterosexism, abelism, etc. We talked about ways to cover indigenous histories as well as make our WGS syllabi more transnational. We also shared our ideas for next semester’s events, future internships, and other pedagogical and scholarly projects.

Fall 2014

Meeting Tuesday, October 7, 2014
3-4PM, M357

Reading: Roxanne Gay’s Bad Feminist

Topic and Discussion: We discussed feminist genealogies in terms of language and intention.  In particular, we focused the contradictions within feminism, such as attending women’s rights events and dancing to sexist music, in the first chapters. We also explored depletion (i.e, overwork in mentoring, teaching, and publishing) and microaggressions (i.e., latent forms of discrimination such as notetaking or mansplaining) in academia for scholars and professors, especially women and folks of color, in interdisciplinary studies.

Meeting Tuesday, November 18, 2014
3-4PM, M391

Reading and Discussion: Roxanne Gay’s Bad Feminist

Topic: We discussed pop culture, trigger warnings, and rate your gender in the later chapters. Specifically, we addressed pedagogical practices like admonishing students about a rape scene in a film as opposed to calling out sexist language as a form of intellectual overprotection and practical dissociation. We brought up events we are planning for Women’s History Month, the conference the FIG core members are planning for next year, and checked in about pedagogical issues some of us are having with students.

Meeting Tuesday, December 2, 2014
3-4PM, M357

Topic: End of the Semester Celebration

We brought food and drink to share together to celebrate the end of a highly productive year in the Women’s and Gender Studies FIG.

Fall 2012

Meeting Wednesday, December 12, 2012
3-4pm, M378

Topic: FIG Ideas and Directions

We bounced around several ideas, including creating a digital library on Blackboard to share pedagogical and scholarly materials; establishing consciousness raising/ support groups on campus for survivors of domestic violence/ intimate partner violence, organizing brown bag lunches on feminist movements, on feminist taxonomies and waves, on systems of power in the classroom, and on theories of gender and sexuality; conducting intellectual discussions on current articles in the field of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and forming working groups to promote collaborative publishing  and Women’s History Month; and starting up monthly cultural events and information sessions for students to help the Program grow at Kingsborough. We will divide up these tasks in the spring.