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Volume 299 | January 23, 2025

Welcome Back

Welcome back to campus for the Spring 2025 semester! I hope that your winter holiday break was fun and rejuvenating and that you are all managing to keep warm during this unusually frigid DC weather. The WGSS program is very happy to have Professor Eiko Strader rejoin us after her fall 2024 sabbatical. In addition to her spring 2025 classes, she has resumed her position as the Director of Graduate Studies for the Public Policy track. I will continue to serve as Director of Graduate Studies for the Liberal Arts track and the WGSS graduate certificate and we are grateful to Professor Ivy Ken for continuing her duties as the WGSS Director of Undergraduate Studies.

We have an exciting lineup of both undergraduate and graduate WGSS courses this semester, including several new cross-listed courses so do check them out! We also have a wonderful slate of speakers coming to give talks on campus during Women’s History Month in late March so please save the dates for these upcoming events that you will hear more about in future WGSS Digests: 1) the WGSS program is co-sponsoring a talk by Professor Juana Maria Rodriguez (UC Berkeley), author of Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex on Wednesday, March 26th at 3 pm in the Textile Museum (see flyer below); 2) the Department of Philosophy’s annual Elton Lecture will be given this year by Professor Kate Manne (Cornell University), author of Down Girl, Entitlement, and Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, on Thursday, March 27th at 4 pm; and 3) the Spring 2025 WGSS Yulee Lecture will feature Professor Lisa Guenther (Queens University), author of Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives and Professor E. Ornelas (Dartmouth University), author of several articles including “Telling 'Our Stories': Black & Indigenous Abolitionists (De)Narrativizing the Carceral State" on Monday, March 31st from 3-5:00 pm in the University Student Center, Room 310.

In addition to our spring speaker schedule, we are in the process of planning this semester’s student-led discussions, which will kick off with a Wednesday, February 5th event whose theme is International Feminist Solidarity. This discussion is being organized by WGSS MA student, Yaprak Eris, and will take place from 4-5 pm in PHIL 417. A second event that is in the works is a student-led discussion on Eco-Feminism that is being organized by WGSS MA student, Leah Bogan. We are grateful to both Yaprak and Leah for proposing these events and look forward to sharing more details about them with you in future Digests. We are also hoping to have a follow-up post-Presidential election, student-led discussion as a follow-up to Andrew Tissell’s fall pre-election event. Stay tuned!

I would also like to extend congratulations to GW junior River Robinson who has recently been accepted into our WGSS BA/MA hybrid degree program. This is an excellent program to consider if you are an undergraduate WGSS major since it allows students to receive both their BA and MA degrees in five years. Please contact us if you are interested in applying to this joint degree program.

Thanks to our fabulous Academic Department Administrator, Niacka Carty, for everything she does for our program, including putting together these WGSS Digests. Niacka has been doing this singlehandedly for the past year and a half and we’re very pleased that two new WGSS student assistants are now on board (see below) to assist her this semester!

On behalf of the WGSS program, I wish you all a terrific semester and I hope to see many of you at one or more of our events this spring!

Gail Weiss

Interim Director WGSS Program

Staff Spotlight

We are excited to introduce our new student staff: Genesis Lukasiewicz and Marlene Orantes! Both are instrumental to the communication and events efforts of the WGSS program. Genesis is a junior majoring in International Affairs and Criminal Justice. She is from a very small town in Pennsylvania and has always been interested in traveling! During this past year, she had the amazing opportunity to study abroad in both Singapore and London. She hopes to someday work in international law and to travel as much as possible! She also enjoys spending time with friends and playing with her dogs.


Marlene is currently in her first year at GW and plans to major in Journalism & Mass Communications and English. She would love to go into the media industry, whether it's writing stories, writing news, and/or being behind a camera. In her free time, she loves to watch movies and TV, take long walks across the city, bake some desserts, and spend time with her friends and family.


We are excited to have Genesis' and Marlene's enthusiasm and skills enhance our program!

Student Spotlight

Congratulations to WGSS MA student Andrew Tisell who was awarded the Lambert Graduate Award from the CCAS Office of Graduate Studies!









Pictured: Andrew Tisell

Upcoming WGSS Events

“Seeing, Sensing, Feeling: Representing Puta Life”

featuring Juana María Rodríguez

The Textile Museum, Myers Room | 4:00PM EST


Drawing on the publication of her recent book, Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex (Duke UP, 2023), this talk will explore how different genres of representation–from graphic narratives and oral histories to documentary films and social-media selfies–shape the life stories we consume. As a rumination on the limits and possibilities of representation, it probes the queer things that words do to images and that images do to words in order to confront the ethical quandaries posed by our role as authors and academics in representing the sexual lives of others.


About the Speaker

Juana María Rodríguez is a cultural critic, public speaker, and award-winning author who writes about sexual cultures, racial politics, and the many tangled expressions of Latina identity. A Professor of Ethnic Studies and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, she is the author of Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex (Duke UP 2023); Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings (NYU Press 2014); and Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces (NYU Press, 2003).

International Feminist Solidarity

Wednesday, February 5th, 4:00-5:00pm 

PHIL 417 (801 22ND ST. NW)

RSVP


As we go through challenging times, international feminist solidarity plays an important role in advocating women’s rights globally. Two important developments stand out recently. The first development is the deteriorating rights and struggles of women in Islamic countries especially in Afghanistan and Iran. In Afghanistan, women are no longer allowed to take part in aspects of public life. With the strict implementation of Sharia Law, Afghan women’s legal, political, educational, social and cultural rights have been almost completely eliminated. 


The second development is the opposition of several European countries to the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence). Some countries claim that the convention undermines traditional family values and they resist its gender equality provisions, especially regarding LGBTQ+ rights. Numerous countries either have not ratified the Convention (such as Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, etc.) or withdrew (Turkiye) due to these above mentioned claims. It is essential at this point to be the voice of those

who are not allowed to speak.


About the Speaker

Yaprak Eris (she/her) is a MA student in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies' Public Policy program. Yaprak's research interests are gender equality in organizations and effectiveness of inclusion policies/activities. 

Jobs, Internships, Fellowships, and Scholarships

The Honey W Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service 

The Honey W Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service at GW is hiring FWS students and volunteers. Apply for Math Matters, Jumpstart, engageDC, and SMARTDC tutoring and leadership open positions at the Nashman Center. Work directly with DC Public Schools and community organizations, making a real impact in the community.

Read full job descriptions and apply online. Contact the Nashman Center via email with any questions.

The University of Michigan-Rackham Graduate School’s Michigan Humanities Emerging Research Scholars 2025 (MICHHERS) application officially opened on Monday, December 2, 2024. Rising seniors, recent B.A.s, and terminal master’s students who are interested in pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan are eligible to apply. 


There will be an additional information session on Wednesday, January 29th. Register for a workshop online.


View the MICHHERS website for more information. For questions, email the MICHHERS team. The application deadline is February 10, 2025.

Other WGSS-related Events

Keynote Speaker Announcement | 13th Annual Student Research Symposium


WGSS is thrilled to announce that Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans, Professor of Black Feminist Studies, will be our featured keynote speaker for the 13th Annual Student Research Symposium at Wake Forest University. Dr. Evans’ areas of focus are Black women’s intellectual history, memoirs, and mental health. She is the author and editor of nine books, including her most recent publication, Black Feminist Writing


In addition to announcing our keynote speaker, we are currently accepting submissions. Utilizing the same format as last year, we are searching for faculty mentors to provide feedback to presenters during the symposium. Students and faculty members from other disciplines are encouraged to apply.


If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please review the guidelines and scan the QR code. 



Support for GW LGBTQ+ Students

QT Club (@qtclub.dc) is a community-based free school that explores the understanding that radical, liberatory knowledge is lived, and not just learned. Every meeting, guided readings of queer & feminist texts will help explore the importance of theory for our current movements. Through written and creative exercises, attendees will collectively do the work of raising consciousness about our lives. Discussions are grounded in the belief that conversations from and across different experiences enables us to better understand how to organize in vulnerable, intimate, and powerful ways.


Sign up link

Workshop Guidelines

UniQue Voices: Mental Health for the GW LGBTQ+ Community

This supportive therapy group is tailored specifically for LGBTQIA+ students, providing a safe and inclusive space to share experiences, explore identities, and enhance mental well-being.

Sexual Assault Survivors Group

A support and healing space for femme/female-identifying individuals who have experienced sexual assault. This group offers a collaborative space to learn about trauma, process complex emotions, and integrate the experience into a healthier self.

Healthy Relationships Group

A processing space to help students gain insight and tools to improve all types of relationships. 

Research and Grant Funding Opportunities

Applications for The Gay & Lesbian Review/WORLDWIDE (The G&LR)'s 3rd annual Charles S. Longcope Jr. Writers and Artists Grant is open! The Gay & Lesbian Review/WORLDWIDE (The G&LR) is a bimonthly magazine of history, culture, and politics focusing on LGBTQ+ issues that publishes non-fiction and poetry, as well as reviews of books, movies, and plays. This grant is open to graduate students across disciplines and fields that make a contribution to LGBTQ+ scholarship or the arts.


The purpose of this gift is to bring new and diverse ideas and voices to the magazine and to encourage and support emerging and unpublished LGBTQ+ writers, thinkers, scholars, and artists. Recipients will receive funding (up to $7,500) to write an article for the magazine and to begin, complete, or advance LGBTQ+ related writing and other creative projects such as a research paper or thesis, a book, a podcast, a video, a script, a novel, a multimedia creation, or an art installation.


Review the grant's website for more information. Applications are due by January 31, 2025 at 11:59pm EST. Visit the website for questions or email Quinn Tahon, Grant/Project Administrator.

Research Study

Researchers invite you to participate in a research study in Washington, D.C. in February 2025. These researchers are from Christopher Newport University, Georgetown University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and this study is part of a broader research project on public opinion in the United States.


Participating in this study will require up to three hours of your time, spread out over six months, most of which is done through online surveys. You will also be asked to visit one museum on the National Mall. You can receive up to $50 in Amazon gift cards and a chance to win one of ten (10) iPads in a raffle throughout the course of the study.


If interested in participating, please fill out this form to provide some information about yourself. More details on the study will follow.

Conferences

2025 National Young Feminist Leadership Conference

March 29–31, 2025 | Doubletree Hotel, Arlington, VA (right outside D.C.)

Early Bird registration is open


NYFLC is a weekend full of learning from truly extraordinary feminists, some who have committed their lives to this work and others who are emerging leaders. NYFLC is a chance to recognize that we are a part of something big, a community of activists working for justice all around the country.


March 29-30th: Saturday and Sunday will be jam-packed with general assemblies featuring national speakers and panels diving deep into feminist issues. You'll learn about current issues and gain new organizing tactics and strategies to mobilize on your campus and in your community. Panels will cover topics ranging from protecting reproductive rights and publishing the Equal Rights Amendment to ending gender apartheid in Afghanistan.


March 31st: Congressional Advocacy Day! After learning about a range of feminist issues facing our country and communities, students take their knowledge, power, and voices to Capitol Hill for a Congressional Advocacy Day where they meet with lawmakers and legislative aides from their home states and districts.

“Critical Perspectives on Care: Social Reproduction Theory in a Global Context”

Upcoming Event: January 28th featuring Premilla Nadasen

Register for this event


The virtual speakers’ series “Critical Perspectives on Care: Social Reproduction Theory in a Global Context” speakers’ is interdisciplinary and open to the public, featuring cutting edge international feminist philosophy of care and social reproduction.


Information about the series can be found on the symposium’s website and in the attached flyer. 


The symposium's first speaker, Prof. Premilla Nadasen (Barnard College) will talk about Care, Racial Capitalism, and Social Reproduction, on Tuesday, January 28, at 2pm EST, with a response from Professor Rachel Brown (Washington University in St. Louis).


Contact the series organizers with any questions.

Call for Submissions

GW English Graduate Student Association (EGSA)

2025 Virtual Symposium “The Brain and the Body: the Love Affair of the Cognitive and the Corporeal in Literature”

March 7, 2025 | Abstracts Priority Deadline: January 27, 2025

 

The GW English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) invites short abstract submissions for its upcoming virtual symposium, “The Brain and the Body: the Love Affair of the Cognitive and the Corporeal in Literature.” This symposium will explore the relationship between cognition and embodiment in literature, film, and media, with particular attention to questions of power, difference, and identity. 

 

GW EGSA's 2025 Virtual Symposium “The Brain and the Body: the Love Affair of the Cognitive and the Corporeal in Literature.” 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Evelyn Tribble

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025  

 

Graduate students are invited to submit 300-500 word abstracts for fifteen-minute presentations, along with a short bio (100 words). Email submissions with the subject line “2025 EGSA Symposium Submission.” The priority deadline for submitting abstracts is Monday, January 27, 2025.  

Proposals are due by February 28, 2025 for the co-edited volume (Emerald Publishing) by Soma Chaudhuri (Michigan State University) and Portia Loeto (University of Botswana) titled "Our Bodies Our Terrain," which critically analyses the legal, social and feminist politics around the issue of rape in Africa and Asia.


This edited volume takes an exclusive focus on rape, an act of sexual violence against an individual without their consent, to understand how this disturbing trend of sexual violence can be critically understood using a decolonial queer feminist lens. The goal of this edited volume is to bring researchers, activists, and center survivor voices in the forefront of the discourse around rape as a violation of global human rights, to move towards stronger legislation and structures of reporting, and provide informed ways to deliver equitable justice for victims and survivors. Chapters that looks at how changes in rape legislation in the global south was influenced by history, events and protests throughout the decades, and the challenges that still exists and what we need to do to move action forward are invited, as well as, contributions from scholars across disciplines who focus on cases in African and Asian context towards critically examining the changes in legislation, strategies that push legislations, historical events, and what leads to legislation failures. 

Chapter contributions may focus on one or more of the following topics:

  1. The changes in understanding of rape: whose bodies can (or cannot) be raped; conceptual clarity on what is rape; decolonial queer feminist approach towards whose rape matters and whose doesn't.
  2. Feminist critique of colonial rape laws and how that influenced the laws of today in the global south.
  3. Focus on corrective rape or homophobic rape using a queer feminist lens.
  4. LGTBQ+ rape, hate crime, homophobia and legislations (or lack of).
  5. War, ethnic conflict, religious and caste-based politics and rape of women, trans individuals and children.
  6. Protests, strategies of organizing and push towards strong rape laws.
  7. From blaming victims to embracing survivors' resilience: Daring to speak up.
  8. What's in a name: Renaming rape victims and erasure of identity (example: Nirbhaya 2013; Tilottama 2024). Taking a critical feminist perspective.
  9. When does the push towards strong laws and legislation fail?
  10. Challenges to reporting and delivering justice: a critique of the patriarchal state and its institutions.
  11. When does strong anti-rape laws fail?
  12. How can rape culture and politics of sexual entitlement be combatted?

Abstract submissions of no more than 1000 words and a short biography of the authors are due by 28th February 2025 via email to: chaudh30@msu.edu and loetotp@ub.ac.bw

Full chapters would be around 5,000 to 7,000 words, including references and notes.

Read the full CFC online.

Ethics Press is inviting proposals for scholarly books and edited collections in Humanities and Social Sciences, and broader related fields including Life Sciences and Health Sciences. Read the Notes of Guidance and review the Book Proposal Form.


Suitable proposals will be independently reviewed. A completed proposal form, a sample of the proposed book, if available, a CV, is required. You are also welcome to send a summary or abstract first.


Books are published in English, initially in academic hardback and eBook format, with a paperback version released later. The books we select range from 50,000 words to around 150,000 words. There are no charges to publish.

Subject coverage includes:

  • Philosophy, religion and faith, ethics and morality
  • Human rights and equality, including indigenous studies and land rights, and race and gender issues
  • Arts, humanities and social science topics including history, sociology, society and culture, community, anthropology, and language and literature.
  • Global challenges, including war and conflict, sustainability and climate change, food security, poverty, and technology/AI. Our portfolio on issues and challenges associated with Artificial Intelligence is particularly popular
  • Applied fields, including all areas of business, management, economics and finance, and decision making, plus bioethics, education, the built environment, and data ethics
  • Politics and government, both national and regional, from US election politics, to international banking, to global policy issues
  • Legal and medical issues, covering healthcare, medicine and medical ethics, psychology, counselling, childhood studies, and law
  • Health sciences and life sciences

An adapted Doctoral Theses, and Edited Collections, including adaptations from conferences and symposia will be considered.

MA Program in American Studies at George Washington University

The Master of Arts in American Studies provides students opportunities for pre-professional training in their chosen specialty. Through challenging courses and in-depth research, students delve into topics like architecture, popular music, immigration and borders and racial and gender equality in American culture.

The MA prepares students for a variety of careers or advanced work in another PhD program. Apply by February 1st (for fellowship consideration).

For questions about this program, email Gayle Wald, Director of Graduate Studies.

Resources

GW Mutual Aid Spreadsheet



Created by GW students for GW students, this resource serves as a connecting point for those who are providing or seeking aid. Areas of support include housing, health care, food, transportation, storage, pet/child/plant care, and more.

Online Therapy Resources for the LGBTQ+ Community

Online therapy is a resource that offers a plethora of different types of virtual therapy for the LGBTQ+ community. Online therapy makes it easier to access mental health care and to engage in therapy on your own terms. Find more resources that can be helpful for navigating the coming-out process, strengthening your relationships, and learning how to be true to yourself as an LGBTQ+ individual.

The First Women's Monument Edition

Image Caption: President Joe Biden with Anna Laymon, Women's Suffrage National Monument Foundation President & CEO | Washington, D.C. | Dec. 16, 2024 

(Image Credit: Women's Suffrage)

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed into law the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act, which authorizes the first and only monument dedicated to American women’s history to be built on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. With the passage of this historic legislation, the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation will begin the work of selecting the monument’s permanent location on the National Mall.


“... I was proud to sign into law the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act, authorizing the placement of a monument honoring the women’s suffrage movement on the National Mall,” said President Biden. “In addition to commemorating the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the Women’s Suffrage National Monument will recognize the generations of women who fought to ensure an equal voice for women in our democracy and honor the leaders who fought for the enfranchisement of all women long after the 19th Amendment was ratified.”


Read more about this monumental first for women.

Contribute to the WGSS News Digest

Would you like your event, announcement, or news to be featured in our news digest? There is a process! Please fill out the below form by Thursdays at 4:00 PM to have your event featured in our upcoming digests.


Submit additions to the digest. We look forward to hearing from you!

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