The Feminist Scholars Fellows for 2022-2023 have been chosen. Dr. Sandra Adell, Evjue Bascom Professor, of Afro-American Studies, and Dr. Sami Schalk, Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies will be released from teaching to spend a semester focusing on their respective feminist research projects.
Dr. Adell will spend the Fall 2022 semester completing her book Black Women Speak Out About Casino Gambling. This project, the first scholarly research on the topic, grows out of Dr. Adell’s interest and research on casino gambling and its negative impacts on vulnerable communities. She describes the project as “literary autoethnography,” framing the stories of twelve real-life African American women who self-identify as problem/compulsive gamblers, alongside portrayals of Black women gamblers in African American literature.
In Spring 2023, Dr. Schalk will research pleasure activism as part of her next major research project. This project takes cues from Black feminist organizer adrienne maree brown’s book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. Since Fall 2021, Dr. Schalk has been studying the creation, maintenance, and effects of pleasure spaces for multiply marginalized people (groups of people with two or more shared marginalized racial, gender, sexuality, class, or (dis)ability identities).
As part of the Fellowship, both Drs. Adell and Schalk will present their research for the Gender & Women’s Studies Colloquium Series near the end of their semester of research, so stay tuned for future colloquia to learn more about these exciting studies. Congrats to both Feminist Scholars Fellows, and best of luck in your research!