GSFS Newsletter Spring 2017 Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies On what seems like the last warm day in country is (except maybe Canada). If the global Vermont, November 8th, 2016, three feminists rise of highly nationalist and patriarchal politics sat on the back porch of Chellis House. As the in places as far flung as Russia and France, the sun warmed our faces, we acknowledged that the Philippines and the UK, has taught us anything future might not be female. We allowed ourselves it should be that no place is protected from the to enjoy these last fleeting hours of not knowing. reassertion of political machismo and racial and We promised to try and spend more time making religious supremacy that is sweeping through so community and less time frantically working. many other countries. It is not guaranteed that I can still feel the sun’s rays, the prom- everything will be okay. We must all do the hard ise of warmth even as winter was coming. That work of making the future possible. afternoon held the promise of feminist connec- Third, we feminists now have more work tion even as we were staring into the abyss of one added to our already double and triple-burdened of the most virulently misogynist, homophobic, lives. As caretakers of children and elders, re- transphobic and xenophobic political moments in sponsible community members, teachers, lead- U.S. history. ers, and just plain good citizens, we now have As director of the program in Gender, Sex- the added burden of doing what we can to resist. uality, and Feminist Studies, I want to summon Whether that work finds us calling Congress up the possibility of warmth even when storms members or showing up every weekend to protest are raging, metaphorically and, in Vermont, liter- the latest anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immi- ally, all around us. grant, anti-planet-earth policy, we, as feminists, First and foremost, we as feminists owe must take on this burden as well. it, to ourselves and our communities, to not get Fourth, we can be afraid, very afraid. lost in the storm. We cannot give up the warmth Feminism and feminist studies are under attack. of feminist connection, even when such warmth, At a global level, universities like the European like the winter sun, seems further and further University at St. Petersburg and Hungary’s Cen- away and less and less visible. As Arundhati Roy tral European University are being threatened told us, “Another world is not only possible, she is specifically because they offer feminist, gender, on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breath- and queer studies. At a local level, when Charles ing.” To sink into the cynicism and nihilism that Murray, a man who has consistently argued for also swirls around us is to give up on the very racial differences in intelligence, was the object premise of feminist thought and action: that we of protest at Middlebury College, his colleagues are more than our individual selves, that we are at the American Enterprise Institute and many part of larger communities and that our actions, right-wing pundits blamed the Program in Gen- although personal, are also always political. der, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (despite no Second, we cannot lose ourselves in the direct link between the two). This is not coinci- sort of optimism that assumes “everything will dental. Certain forms of knowledge, including be okay.” This optimism often rests on a lie about the critical knowledge of feminist studies, are un- the U.S. —that somehow it is exceptional and is der attack under this new global Right. Feminism not subject to the forces of populism and authori- as theory and as praxis represents a threat to tarianism in the same way apparently every other these political movements. We should not assume continued on page 7 been like? CT: I have taught 16 classes at different types of institutions with varying demographics of students—University of Arizona, UCSB, Rice. While at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, I also taught a class on race, gender, and resistance to high school boys who were man- dated by the courts to attend the class as part of their drug treatment program. I loved teaching the class–although it was heartbreaking and challenging too. The vast majority of the students who ended up in the class were Latino—and not because Latino teenagers do any more drugs than An Interview with White teenagers, but because of the racism of the criminal justice system. So, we talked about this Carly Thomsen as part of the class. I learned how to teach in this space. Teaching high school students forced to be By Rebecca Coates-Finke ’17.5 and Meiriely Amaral ’19 in a class they didn’t want to be in taught me in- Professor Carly Thomsen is the newest faculty valuable lessons—about pedagogy and about life. member of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Q: What sorts of classes are you hoping to bring Feminist Studies. We sat down with her to get to Middlebury? to know her a little bit better. This interview has CT: Last semester I taught “Politics of Reproduc- been edited and condensed. tion: Sex, Abortion, and Motherhood” and “Intro to Queer Critique.” This semester I am teaching Q: How has your time at Middlebury been so far? “Feminist and Queer Politics of Food.” In the CT: I’m really excited about the culture at Mid- latter, we use feminist and queer theory to think dlebury. I have already made some friends and about food justice movements, and politics. I’m I really appreciate my new colleagues, both in looking forward to teaching it because I think it GSFS and across campus. I admire how engaged builds on things already happening at Middle- and excited the students are, which is something bury, such as the prospective food studies minor, that makes this a wonderful place to be a teacher the Food Studies House (Weybridge), and the and a scholar. community garden. In the future, I’ll also teach Q: Where were you before you were here? engaged research and I hope to teach courses on CT: I’m from rural South Dakota and I lived in activism as well. the upper Midwest for the first 25 years of my life. Q: Do you consider yourself an activist? I completed my Master’s degree at the Univer- CT: Yes. I’ve been involved in reproductive, in- sity of Arizona and my PhD at the University of digenous, queer, and food justice activism. I have California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Most recently, participated in lots of campus based activism and I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University’s engaged in community organizing in conjunction Center of Women, Gender and Sexuality in Hous- with and outside of nonprofit organizations. At ton. UC Santa Barbara I was the faculty advisor for Q: Sounds like a lot of warm places—how do you a queer reproductive justice group. This group like the cold? utilized feminist and queer thought to exam- CT: I don’t prefer the cold, but I can deal with ine reproductive justice as a site through which it. The year I left Minnesota the temperatures gender and sexual norms get reproduced, but also reached minus 40 degrees. At the time, I was liv- through which they can be challenged. Beyond ing in a trailer without central heat and working being engaged in activism, my scholarship also for a non-profit on the White Earth Reservation. critically examines different social movements. So, in short, I feel like I can handle the winter! The book I’m writing and the film I’m produc- Q: What has your previous teaching experience ing, for example, consider gay visibility politics 2 through the lens of LGBTQ women in rural South cultural norms are produced and how they move Dakota and Minnesota. My new project focuses and shift across time and space, and, further, to on food justice movements. So, my scholarship develop the various tools and skills to engage in examines social justice movements as sites where conversations that, despite being on, say, a topic norms and ideas are both reproduced and chal- similar to what we discuss in class, differ sharply lenged, and I hope that the kinds of analyses I from the ways in which we’ve discussed that same offer will be useful to fellow activists. topic in class. It might come as no surprise, then, Activism doesn’t mean just one thing, of course, that I see social engagement as one site through and it shows up in my courses in significant which we can sharpen our critical thinking skills, pedagogical ways: In most of my courses, for just as I see critique as central to social engage- example, my students complete engaged research ment. What if we saw activism as not only a site or translation projects through which they find for potential social transformation but also for ways to discuss feminist and queer theoretical epistemological transformation, a site where we ideas with people who haven’t read the texts can make more nuanced how we examine, under- we’ve read in class or necessarily had the kinds of stand, and approach the world? conversations we’ve had all semester. This assign- Q: Thank you for your time! ment is not about proselytizing; it is meant to get CT: Thank you! students to think about how ideas and terms and Sony Bolton on his older brother fashions himself as as a “Mex- ican gangster” to avoid being mistaken for a “‘Flip,’ Peasant Spanish” Filipino “houseboy.” He starts to breed attack dogs to sell to Hollywood celebrities. This book By Meiriely Amaral ’19 also explores the relationship between Filipi- nos and Mexicans in California. Coráñez Bolton On Wednesday, November 30, 2016, Sony mentioned a line in the book, where Thomas, the Coráñez Bolton, a Mellon C3 Postdoctoral Fel- older brother, says to Gabe, the younger brother, low in the Spanish & Portuguese Department, “Don’t you overstand me with your flip peasant gave a Life of the Mind lecture entitled “‘Flip, Spanish.” peasant Spanish’: Linguistic Incapacities, Subna- Using Gloria Anzaldúa’s book Border- tional Femininities, and Filipino Spanish in the lands/La Frontera as a theoretical framework, U.S.-Mexican Borderlands.” Coráñez Bolton defined “flip peasant Spanish” as Sony Coráñez Bolton talked about the an inventory of “deficient” Spanishes to examine inaccessibility of Filipino history to Filipinos, as how colonial history led to linguistic colonization. a national novel, Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal, Coráñez Bolton also showed some cur- was published in Spanish and circulated in Spain rent and older examples of the perpetuation of before being translated mainly into English and the model minority myth. A 1987 cover of TIME Tagalog so it would be accessible to Filipinos. In magazine, for example, was entitled “Those Asian his talk, he explored cognitive sovereignty and the American Whiz Kids—Why Asian Americans Are intellectual division of cognitive capacities. The Doing So Well, and What It Costs Them.” More inaccessibility of historical texts to Filipinos in recently, Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly appeared Spanish makes them resort to “half Spanishes.” in a television show in which O’Reilly claims that Another novel Coráñez Bolton analyzed white privilege doesn’t exist because Asian Amer- in this talk was American Son by Brian Ascalon icans have “made it.” In the end, this myth of the Roley, which in the U.S. is classified as “minori- model minority is used to affirm anti-black senti- ty fiction.” Interestingly, this novel avoids the ments. usual narrative of assimilation that describes Asian Americans as a “model minority.” Instead, American Son focuses on a Filipino boy observed through his little brother’s eyes. He notices how 3 The Ungendered Self: there was an indigenous celebration of feminized maleness exemplified by images of Chaitanya, an Sex Reassignment, incarnation of the god Krishna. Taylor and Ewing found that every inter- The Third Gender, and viewee expressed some difficulty and confusion with the concept of “third gender.” This is a con- Gender Fluidity in India cept that is not new to South Asia, but in the past entailed a class-based significance. A group of By Rebecca Coates-Finke ’17.5 people known as hijras are associated with both lower class and third gender. Hijras are relegated On November 28, Dean of Students and sociolo- to performative roles at events such as weddings gist Baishakhi Taylor, who is a Gender, Sexuality, and birthday parties. Taylor found that interview- and Feminst Studies faculty member, delivered ees were partly motivated to undergo sexual reas- a Life of the Mind lecture entitled “The Ungen- signment surgery by a desire to draw a distinction dered Self: Sex Reassignment, The Third Gender, between themselves and stigmatized hijras. Later, and Gender Fluidity in India.” In this lecture, Taylor pointed out a theme of “convenience” for Taylor drew on her research with Professor Kathy trans women going through SRS, as they more Ewing (Columbia University) from the forthcom- easily “fit” into the gender binaries that are en- ing edited volume Political Sentiments and Social forced in Kolkatta society. In order to be allowed Movements: The Person in Politics and Culture to have SRS, one must be diagnosed with “gender by Claudia Strauss and Jack Friedman. For their identity disorder.” essay, Taylor and Ewing interviewed male-to-fe- Taylor also pointed out the ways that in- male trans women in Kolkatta who were under- terviewees expressed and discovered “authentic going sexual reassignment surgery. self” as more fluid than a physical body. Manobi Taylor focused on the similarities and dif- Bandopadhyay, India’s first transgender college ferences between LGBTQ rights discourse in In- principal, was one of the people Taylor inter- dia and in the United States and Western Europe. viewed. When asked how she could go on in the A Western understanding of self dictates that face of violence and hatred, Bandopadhyay cited the Mahabharata. In this epic, the warrior Arjuna is punished to live as a woman named Brihanalla for a year. In Hindi, there are three genders: mas- culine, feminine, and neutral. In the Mahabhara- ta, Brihanalla is referred to by gender-neutral pronouns. Hindu culture holds space for a third gender in other ways as well: the Indian mystic Ramakrishna, for example, said that while one’s body can be both male and female, the self is Dean of Students and GSFS faculty member Baishakhi Taylor neither male nor female. Ramakrishna felt the goddess Kali within him, a feminized spiritual individuals are moved by internal feelings and being. The trans women interviewed by Baishakhi identities, and LGBTQ activism responds to this Taylor similarly cited this spiritual understanding understanding of identity, and a gendered sense as central to their self-identification. of self. The main desire is to express one’s au- thentic self, a desire centered in activist discourse and action. Because of the way Western coloni- zation in India codified and enforced the gen- der binary of “man” and “woman,” this internal gendered self in India is frequently understood in a binary. In Kolkatta, however, Taylor encoun- tered a long history and tradition of gender flex- ibility. At the time of colonization, for example, 4 The Empathy Gap Thomas Keith meets with Middlebury athletic coaches By Lucy Patterson Grindon ’19 or even to engage in sexist conversation and be- havior can be too great to overcome. Students, faculty and staff gathered in Dana One of The Empathy Gap’s primary goals Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2016 to discuss is to urge young men to defy harmful sexist how misogynistic cultural messages inhibit men’s norms by making themselves vulnerable so they ability to empathize with women. The discus- can discuss love openly and develop their natural sion was led by Dr. Thomas Keith, a professor empathy. of Philosophy and Gender Studies at Claremont In the discussion that followed the lec- Graduate University, who presented his film, The ture, Keith raised the question, “How do we all Empathy Gap. get through that apathy in a credible way so they As he introduced the film, Keith argued [young men] will take this seriously and partner that men in our society have been socialized to to make a better-gendered world?” respond with apathy to the female experience. Keith believes that “young men listen to Keith suggested that sexism has an adverse im- other men,” so The Empathy Gap tries to reach pact on men because it promotes objectification those who may be apathetic to the feminist mes- of women, violence, and a “masculine script” as sage by featuring feminist male athletes, actors social norms. He added that according to the and celebrities—such as Terry Crews and Daniel Center for Disease Control and Prevention, men Craig—as examples of empathetic manhood. in the United States are four times more likely Male-identifying Middlebury students to commit suicide than women, are eleven times made up a large part of the crowd at the screen- more likely to be incarcerated, and die seven ing. Athletes in particular were encouraged to years earlier than women on average. attend the event, which was organized by the Keith’s film argues that “masculinity is Chellis House and co-sponsored by the Athletics performed in groups” in contemporary society. Deparment, Brother-to-Brother, the Center for On college campuses, some believe that peers the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, and older leaders can establish and perpetuate Distinguished Men of Color, Feminist Action at a damaging sexist culture in groups of men like Middlebury, the Program in Gender, Sexuality, fraternities and athletic teams. and Feminist Studies, the Queer Studies House, Although many men are concerned about Queers and Allies, Sister-to-Sister and Women the treatment of women as “sexual opportuni- of Color and a special Community Engagement ties,” Keith suggested that for others, the social mini-grant. pressure to be apathetic towards women’s issues “I was so encouraged to see so many 5 male-presenting people and so many people who “We’re in this amazing political climate right now looked like athletes really coming to engage,” said where just a few days ago, a man tried to excuse Katie Preston ’17. the sexual assault of women as ‘locker room’ Most of the attendees left the evening chatter,” he observed. event immediately after the screening without Keith explained that the film —which pres- sharing their opinions on the film. However, ents Donald Trump as the most “dysfunctional Keith had been able to gauge the reactions of sev- example of manhood in America”—was made a eral College athletic coaches when he spoke with year before Trump declared his candidacy, so its them about encouraging men to empathize with pertinence is entirely coincidental. women that afternoon. After the screening and discussion, Chellis “Three or four of them came up and shook House hosted a reception where some attendees my hand, and they were really receptive,” Keith continued to talk about the implications of what said. Keith called Trump’s “wakeup call” candidacy. In his introduction to his film, Keith ad- dressed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Navigating the to improve gender equity in filmmaking. Vimeo is pursuing this initiative by investing directly Corporate Feminist in female filmmakers, as well as by providing funds for education and networking for female Sphere: A Talk by filmmakers. Vimeo is currently producing three different projects of original content that center August Laska on female filmmakers and female protagonists: Darby Forever with SNL’s Aidy Bryant, Garfun- By Rebecca Coates-Finke ’17.5 kel and Oates: Trying to Be Special, and Ava’s Impossible Things. Last October, August Laska ’17, a senior Film and Media Culture and Gender, Sexuality, and Femi- nist Studies minor, gave a talk on his experience working at the video-sharing website Vimeo last summer. Laska worked as an intern in the Social and Content Marketing Department. In this po- sition, he worked on creating and editing images associated with the Vimeo brand and analyzing Vimeo’s social content. He provided examples of what this would look like through the multiple platforms and mechanisms Vimeo uses to mar- ket itself. While acknowledging that Vimeo is a corporate enterprise, Laska’s focus was mostly on the ways that Vimeo sought to interact with the world in a socially conscious manner. It was this approach that encouraged him to work with Vimeo in the first place. He argued that the com- pany has created a “deeply engaged community of filmmakers and creators,” and emphasized the mechanisms in place at Vimeo to help filmmakers make their projects profitable. Laska introduced us to “Share the Screen,” August Laska Vimeo’s initiative that seeks to encourage, recruit, and train female filmmakers and creators in order 6 Madeleine Kunin at Vermont State Representative, Lieutenant Gover- nor, and Vermont’s first (and only) female Gov- Middlebury ernor, Kunin played a major role in Vermont’s progressive policies throughout the 70’s and into By Katie Preston ’17 the 90’s. She established Vermont’s family court system, protected parents choosing to take fam- On October 24, 2016, Feminist Action at Mid- ily leave from employer retribution, and passed dlebury hosted former Vermont governor Mad- a law that put women’s names in phone books eleine Kunin to talk about her experiences in the alongside their male partners. After leaving Ver- male-dominated world of politics. mont politics in 1990, Kunin served as U.S. Am- The feminist revolution of the 60s and 70s bassador to her native Switzerland and as Deputy was a catalyst for Kunin’s political career. Betty Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administra- Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique changed tion. Kunin’s life and the lives of many other white, college-educated women who had stayed at home raising children. Together with the women in her book club, Kunin re-entered the workforce with a vengeance. When she entered politics, Kunin dis- covered that much work remained to be done for feminism. In her words, “the women’s movement tried to change people to get women involved in the workplace; the next step is to change the workplace.” Governor Kunin recounted the discrim- Sara Kunin, Madeleine Kunin, Hannah Patterson, ination she experienced in the Vermont State and Brenna Christensen Legislature as the only woman committee chair. In regards to the new presidency, Kunin She explained her strategies for dealing with in- emphasized that the next generation must ac- appropriate co-workers to students anxious about tively oppose misogyny and bullying in politics. entering male-dominated industries. The key skill Kunin is involved with Emerge Vermont, an ad- she highlighted was “knowing when to fight and vocacy group that trains young women to run for when to laugh it off.” political office. She hopes to train the next gener- While fighting discrimination in her own ation of feminist leaders in Vermont and beyond workplace, Kunin used her position to better the to oppose a new wave of misogyny. lives of women and families across the state. As a continued from page 1 may not have the first woman President of the U.S. and the future may not be female, but the fu- that our opponents are stupid. They are not. This ture is feminist because without feminism, there new Global Right understands that feminism is, is no future. in fact, a threat to the sort of hyper-patriarchal So please join us in connecting with one and racially divisive vision of nation and citizen another as scholars and activists, thinkers and that their movements represent. doers. Take a class with us, send a note of sup- And so, we must move onto my fifth and port, or come to one of our many events. We final point: now more than ever feminist knowl- need to take the time to create community and to edge and feminist community are vital to our listen, carefully, for that feminist world that is out survival. Feminism is central to making another there, still, despite the raging storms. world. As both an academic project and a project of citizenship—local, national and global citizen- ship—feminism allows us to think critically, act bodily, and ultimately create another world. We Laurie Essig, Director of the Program in GSFS 7 Middlebury at the Women’s March on Washington On January 21, the day after Donald Trump’s causes. A coalition of student leaders, includ- inauguration, Middlebury students, faculty, and ing members of Feminist Action at Middlebury staff joined the Women’s March on Washington (FAM), the College Democrats, and Sunday Night to demonstrate for equality, women’s rights, an Group (SNG), organized transportation and end to police brutality, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal lodging for about thirty students, and many more justice reform, immigrant rights, the environ- Middlebury community members converged on ment, the rights of Muslims and members of the capital independently. A large group of stu- other religious minorities, and numerous other dents also joined the march in Montpelier, VT. 8 Gabby Valdivieso Garners 2017 Fraker Prize Association and considered a political subver- sion by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. In her essay, Gabby highlights the cinematic devices used to emphasize the isola- tion of its protagonists: “Haynes frames scenes through doors, windows, and mirrors, looking at Carol and Therese askance to convey that they are skewed and misrecognized through the lens of the dominant culture.” These framing devices disap- pear when the couple is alone, finally freed from the confines of society. Gabby describes the two women’s agency and unashamed stance in spite of societal pressures, yet also criticizes the film for “not addressing the intersections of race and class with gender and sexual identity.” This year, the Fraker Prize committee also gave out two honorable mentions: Becca Brown Gabby Valdivieso learns she has won the Fraker Prize was honored for her paper “Lhakpa Sherpa: Disrupting the Male Gaze, the Postcolonial Gaze, On March 7, a day before International Women’s and the Tourist Gaze in the Climbing World.” Day, 50 students and faculty members gathered Imogen Arzt-Jones ’18, Miranda Max de Beer ’19, in Coltrane Lounge for the Fraker Prize Award Mika Morton ’19, and Hannah Redmon ’20 gar- Ceremony. Established in 1990 by Drue Cortell nered another honorable mention for their group Gensler ’57 and named after Alison Gwen Fraker project “Steps Towards Reproductive Justice” for ’89, a much-beloved, vocally feminist student, Carly Thomsen’s class “The Politics of Reproduc- whose life was cut short in a car accident a few tion.” Last November, the group organized a 5K weeks before her graduation, the prize is awarded run on which participants learned important facts to a student or a group of students whose essay or about reproductive rights and justice. project on a topic in the field of gender, sexuality, and feminist studies is judged the best. This year, Gabby Valdivieso ’20 garnered the prize for her paper “The Lesbian Gaze in Carol,” which she wrote for Sujata Moorti’s class “Foundations in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies.” In her paper, Gabby traces the lesbian relationship in the 2015 film Carol, which was directed by Todd Haynes and featured Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in the lead roles. Carol depicts the perva- sive heteronormativity of the 1950s, a time when homosexuality was classified as “a sociopathic person- Students and Faculty celebrate at the Award Cermony ality disturbance” by the American Psychiatric 9 Middlebury’s First Feminist Retreat On the last sunny and warm weekend in Novem- of Brooklyn with a chance at low-stakes property ber, three days before the presidential election, 17 investments. alums who specialized in Feminist Studies under Jullie Synder Rains ’97, Alexandra Strott all its various designations congregated for the ’14.5., and Ryan Taurianen ’08 shared their first-ever Feminist Alumnx Retreat at Middlebury thoughts on “Feminist Education”. All of them College. This uplifting event was made possible work in K-12 schools. Jullie, a middle school because of trustee emerita Drue Gensler’s contin- science teacher, highlighted the importance of ued generous support. Representing graduation bringing an ally space to her school and teaching years from 1992 to 2015, the group of alums first children about women’s scientific achievements. met for a dinner reception at Chellis House on Ryan stressed that his undergraduate leadership Friday, November 4. Old friends reconnected and positions in the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance new friendships were formed. The alums filled and the Queer Studies Academic Interest House, the house with laughter and spirited conversa- for whose foundation he advocated together with tions, just like in their student days. Christine Bachman ’09 and Molli Freeman-Lynde On Saturday, they reflected on how their ’08, provided him with important tools to become feminist education has influenced their profes- an advocate for children. Last year, he served sional life beyond Middlebury. Listeners were as the principal of the AppleTree Institute Early impressed by the wide variety of ways this their Learning Public Charter School, where he turned awareness of gender studies plays out in their the conversation from “why do urban children careers and personal lives. Speaking about in Washington, D.C. fail in school?” to “why do “Feminist Law”, Ashley Guzman ’13, Molli Free- schools fail children in urban areas?” Alexandra man-Lynde ’08, Jackie Park ’15, and Katie Perek- Strott, a high school English teacher in Baltimore slis ’06 demonstrated how they apply a feminist stressed how important it was for her to find role lens to the legal field. Katie Perekslis works as a models in her GSFS teachers at Middlebury. Fol- senior director of project management for legal lowing their example, she now tries to be a role solutions at Transperfect. Molli Freeman-Linde model to her students. just graduated from law school and has chosen to On a panel dedicated to “Feminist Ac- devote herself to immigration law, a battleground ademe,” Kolbe Franklin ’08, Christine Bach- field in this day and age. Both Ashley Guzman man-Sanders ’09, and Vincent Jones ’12 talked and Jackie Park have positions as paralegals at about how they decided to further their feminist the Bronx Defenders and the non-governmental education in Ph.D. programs. Kolbe is pursuing Los Angeles Legal Aid Society, respectively. Ash- a Ph.D. in sociology at SUNY Albany. She spe- ley Guzman encapsulated this panel’s continuing cifically chose this program because it offered a engagement with feminist scholarship and activ- Women’s Studies master’s degree combined with ism when she spoke about her involvement in a a Ph.D. She is now writing her dissertation on work group that takes feminist knowledge direct- women’s sexual fluidity, challenging linear no- ly to the community, by briefing police officers tions of sexual development. Christine is pursu- about trans rights. ing a doctoral degree in American Studies at the On a panel dedicated to “Feminist Com- University of Minnesota in close alignment with munity Building,” Justine Jackson ’10, founder of the Feminist Studies Program. She is current- the art gallery Northern Daughters spoke about ly applying a gender lens to the topic of bicycle how her gallery serves as a forum for spread- tourism in the late 19th century. After completing ing feminist awareness in Addison County. The a master’s degree in education policy at Columbia gallery hosted Abby Chick’s ’17.5 sex education University’s Teachers’ College, Vincent worked workshop last January, for example. Aifuwa at Choate Rosemary Hall where he developed the Ehigiator ’08 spoke about his equity crowdfund- first gender and feminist studies curriculum and ing project “Our Street”, which, after its launch, directed the summer service learning program will provide low- and middle-income residents in which he led students to critically examine 10