Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Richard Breaux, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "“The Mahjar [Diaspora] in Wisconsin”" at Arab American Public History Conference on Feb. 16 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Conference brought together senior and junior scholars of Arab American History from Brazil, Canada, and the United States.

Submitted on: Feb. 26

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Politics of State’s Recognition of, and Disabling Policies towards, the Disabled" at Disability Impact: The Annual Conference of Interdisciplinary, Intersectional, and International Disability Studies on July 5 at Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, United Kingdom. The presentation was part of the panel, “Center for Disabilities and Disciplines” with Hemachandran Karah and Saji K. Mathew.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Feminist and Queer Critiques of Multiple Empires: A Conversation among Women of Color" at National Women's Studies Association on Oct. 28 in Baltimore, MD. Consisting of four women of color, this roundtable critically analyzed the phenomenon of multiple empires in today’s world. Contrary to the binary understanding of the democratic West leading the fight for human rights against oppressive regimes such as Iran and China, many Western policies, companies, organizations, and scholarship in fact, strengthen the power of authoritarian governments. This roundtable makes an original and significant contribution by unpacking the complex ways in which different imperial forces collaborate in the suppression of feminist and queer resistance in Global South/Third World.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, authored the chapter "Making Sense of the Disability Autonomy and Collectivity Binary: A Review of Informal Disability Justice Pedagogy (IDJP) across Cultures" in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Social Justice published on Oct. 31 by Routledge. This essay examines the possibility of taking stock of disability justice pedagogy from within communities and cross-cultural settings, while attending to the ways in which disability justice is negotiated as everyday aesthetics across cultures. We call the workings of such everyday learnings concerning disability as Informal Disability Justice Pedagogy (IDJP). This essay emerges out of decades-long teaching, scholarship, activism, and our involvement in social movements, and mentorship across transnational spaces in South Asia, North American, and the Middle East in formal classrooms and informal learning spaces as well as aligning and organizing with several multilingual communities across the globe. In this essay we present two examples of IDJP based on cross-cultural everyday aesthetic while making sense of autonomy and collectivity binary.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023

Sana Illahe, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Gendered Spaces: Transgender Community in Pakistan" at The University of Central Florida on Oct. 5 in Orlando, Florida. Sana Illahe presented to students, staff and faculty at UCF about the historical transgender community, also known as Khwaja Sira, in Pakistan and how colonization caused an erasure of spectrum in sexuality and gender. Illahe will discuss different stories of victory, defeat, resilience, and survival to share the voices of a community that has to navigate daily violence while maintaining identity in the urban landscape of modern-day Pakistan.

Submitted on: Oct. 9, 2023