News for Students in GWS and LGBTQ+ Studies

How do bodies inform lived experience? How are bodies situated in matrices of privilege and oppression? What are the politics of the body? This course explores the social, cultural, and political construction of bodies of women and girls in global perspective. We consider specifically the bodies of women and girls, bodies that identify and are identified as female, as bodies that have historically and traditionally been sites of political contention, of societal meaning making, of cultural symbolism, and active resistance.

In this course we seek to challenge what we think we know about bodies, challenging tacit knowledge and investigating how normative discourses of the female body are formed across cultures, around the world. We will consider the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, neoliberalism, “global” feminism, imperialism, capitalism and other economic systems, and human rights movements, on cultural conceptions of health, ability, beauty, and the “value” of female bodies.

“Queer” is a word that does different things for different people. For some, it names an identity or a community—sexy or subversive, a kind of shelter or a somewhere over the rainbow. For others, it’s none of those things—anti-identity, or outdated, or too complicit with systems of oppression. We can hear such people asking, arms folded, “Is ‘queer’ over?” With an eye toward these disagreements, this course invites students to explore what queerness is and does through an engagement with both the field of queer theory and the repertoire of queer performance. Throughout the semester, students will grapple with concepts including but not limited to the closet, the binary, intersectionality, performativity, temporality, attachment, desire, stigma, and worldmaking. We will strive, while moving through various moments in queer history (the early AIDS crisis, marriage equality, etc.), to articulate gender and sexuality to race, (dis)ability, nation, class, and other categories of otherness. Ultimately, always, and at a minimum, this course will ask the following questions: How is queerness performed? How is it theorized? How or what does queer theory perform? How or what does queer performance theorize?

This course is on twentieth-century literature that portrays women who write and women who are creative. This course also includes visual art by women to compliment and complicate themes in literature about women’s creativity. We will look at how authors use female characters to address women’s artistic status in society. We will also examine different forms of creativity and different access to the creative realm among women in literature.

Throughout the semester, this course engages the following questions:

• How does the portrayal of writerly and creative female characters vary based on their author’s identity politics?
• How do female characters’ gender, race, sexuality, and locationality shape their creativity?
• What historical, institutional, and systemic obstacles have shaped what women write and which women write?
• How does visual art of and by women expand or re-see literary theories of creativity?

Readings consist of fiction written by women, nonfiction articles by women directly addressing artistry, and fiction by men on this topic. Visual art includes films, theater performance, art installations, and textiles.

Afrofuturism is a new and rapidly developing interdisciplinary genre. It is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that addresses the developing intersection of African cultural expressivities and performances with technology. One key question will guide this course: How does the Afrofuturist genre (re)imagine gender norms and sexual identities on the continent and in the diaspora?Students will be encouraged to think critically about how Afrofuturism should be put into practice.

The coursework includes readings and written critical responses. The course’s one major paper will require interdisciplinary research on gender and sexuality in Afrofuturism.

Because Afrofuturism is a developing interdisciplinary genre, course materials will draw from diverse disciplines and sources including films, music, podcasts, documentaries, street art, dance, photography, Instagram, and clothing practices as well as scholarly texts. Readings include Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness (2015) edited by Reynaldo Anderson and Charles E. Jones, Children of Blood and Bone (2018) by Tomi Adeyemi, How Long ‘til Black Future Month? (2018) by N. K. Jemisin, and World of Wakanda (2016) by Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey, the first black women to author a series for Marvel Comics.

Where have we come from and where are we going? This class is designed to take us on a journey and tell stories of knowledge building over time. Exploring feminist theories from a broad array of disciplines and perspectives, we will begin in the significance of the Second Wave, consciousness raising, political pamphlets, personal manifestos, and the emerging feminist ideology of the “personal is political.” As we continue on through the course, we will read renowned work in the scholarly arenas of Black feminist thought, psychoanalytic feminism, queer theory, theory from disability studies, fat studies, ecofeminism, and transnational and global feminisms. A central aim of this course is to identify and address crucial areas of contestation that punctuate the dynamic relationships among texts from past and present —the arrivals, departures, and returns —in feminist theory. Together, we will listen to voices that align, and voices that dissent. We will engage with the work of writers and thinkers from the past, and bring these ideas to our current cultural configurations and conceptualizations of feminism(s) and feminist movement(s).

Stay tuned for the GWS 533 course title and description….

HCET Wisconsin provides comprehensive program development, education, and training to improve reproductive and sexual health outcomes. Find details about the internship and how to apply on the HCET internship information page.

Cover letter and resume due April 19, 2019.

Are you looking for an internship this summer? Consider working with Girls, Inc., a national organization with local chapters that build mentoring relationships with girls. Girls, Inc. programs encourage wellness, academic enrichment, professional development, and leadership.

Look over the Girls Inc. summer position details including information about how to apply.

WI HealthCorps is recruiting graduating students interested in learning more about health care in Wisconsin. During a year of service WI HealthCorps members are placed in Community Health Centers, Public Health Departments, and Health-Focused Non-profits to serve our state’s most vulnerable populations.

Browse open positions and the WI HealthCorps brochure.

The Office of the Governor is looking for energetic, responsible, and passionate students. Interns will be an integral part of the work of the Governor’s office helping in either the constituent services, proclamations, appointments, policy, communications, or legislative affairs departments.

Learn more about the internship with the Office of the Governor and apply with this survey link.

Are you interested in public policy? State Senator Jeff Smith, representing the 31st district (northwestern WI), is looking for students interested in an unpaid internship. Interns typically conduct policy research, summarize legislation, and respond to constituent inquiries. L&S offers scholarships to support unpaid internships (due March 31).

The WI in Washington Program offers students the opportunity to earn course credit as an intern with a federal agency, an NGO, or a DC non-profit. This is like study abroad in DC (which is much, much warmer than WI).

Applications due this March for spring 2020. 

Are you interested in spending time abroad during summer? Consider the International Internship Program (IIP). There are often internships with a focus on gender and economic development, education, or communications. IIP hosts drop-ins every Friday from 10 am to 1 pm in 259 Bascom.

Join us for lunch and conversation with GWS alum, Erica Koepsel. Erica is the Program Implementation Manager for the PATCH Program (Providers and Teens Communicating for Health). PATCH prioritizes raising the voices of young people to build young advocates and improve health care communication and access.

Erica supervises a diverse group of high school students who help improve communication about a variety of health-related topics including sexual health, mental health, alcohol and drug use, and LGBTQ+ health.

Wednesday, February 1 from 12 to 1 pm in 3401 Sterling Hall

Join Kate Phelps for a conversation about what it is like to apply to, and survive, a PhD program. Kate Phelps is completing a PhD in Sociology this semester and teaches the wildly popular GWS 320: “The Female Body in the World: Gender and Body Politics in Cross-Cultural Perspective.”

Tuesday, February 19 from 12 to 1 pm in 3401 Sterling.

Are you interested in doing gender studies research? A senior thesis? Hear from GWS students who are working on year-long projects.

GWS majors Ashley Annis, Melady Elifritz, and Emma Morales Leslie are completing senior thesis projects this semester. Susan Maloney (GWS) and Abigail Sann (Community and Environmental Sociology/Legal Studies) are completing a Wisconsin Idea Fellowship on food insecurity at Madison College.

All of them will share their experiences and practical advice about how they got to their topics and what the research process has been like this year.

Wednesday, March 6 from 12 to 1 pm in 3401 Sterling Hall.

This is an opportunity to work together to build a more effective resume as you apply to summer internships and/or jobs after graduation. We will play with different formats and practice writing strong experience descriptions. Please sign up so we know what questions you have.

There will be snacks including gf and vegan options.

Wednesday, March 27 from 12:15 to 1:30 pm in 3425 Sterling Hall.