2021 C S W S A N N UA L R E V I E W REFLECTIONS Women of Color Books in Print Series CAMPAIGN FOR CAREGIVERS I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E The 2020-21 academic year at University of Oregon was like no other. With campus shut down due to COVID-19, faculty, staff, and students with families juggled caregiving responsibilities alongside working from home. With travel curtailed or impossible, researchers postponed or changed their projects to suit our new pandemic reality. The 2021 Annual Review reflects these changed conditions and the impacts they have had on the life of our community. Law professor Michelle McKinley opens the issue with “A Year In Review,” which marks her final report as CSWS director after five years of service. Interim Director Sangita Gopal, associate professor of cinema studies, discusses in an interview her goals for CSWS during this transition year. Rather than investing in programming while pandemic conditions make in-person gatherings uncertain, Gopal will focus on strengthening the Center’s Cover: As part of the CSWS Lorwin Lecture series, Duke infrastructure for the next director and starting the first stages of planning for our 50th Anniversary in 2023. University professor emerita Karla Holloway spoke on capus just before the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 202o / Two feature stories explore some of the Center’s activities over the last year. The first story dives photo by Jack Liu. deeper into the origins and outcomes of the Caregiver Campaign, a CSWS advocacy project seeking policy changes to ameliorate impacts of the pandemic for caregivers in the UO community. Beginning with an open letter to UO leadership in June 2020, the campaign helped to increase awareness of how institutional CSWS ANNUAL REVIEW October 2021 Center for the Study of Women in Society practices have historically rendered certain labor invisible and left women and minorities more vulnerable. 1201 University of Oregon The second story focuses on our 2021 Women of Color Books in Print virtual event series and features Eugene, OR 97403-1201 reflections from our graduate students. Anthropology PhD candidate Polet Campos-Melchor shares how (541) 346-5015 she was moved by Ana-Maurine Lara’s discussion of Black feminist practice in her work and life during csws@uoregon.edu the Jan. 29 book event for Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic and Queer csws.uoregon.edu Freedom : Black Sovereignty. Anthropology student Kiana Nadonza discusses her increased confidence in OUR MISSION her beauty pageantry research because of Oluwakemi Balogun’s work and the Mar. 5 discussion of Beauty Generating, supporting, and disseminating research on the Diplomacy: Embodying an Emerging Nation. Education PhD student Roshelle Weiser-Nieto appreciates complexity of women’s lives and the intersecting nature of gender identities and inequalities. the practical tools for culturally relevant teaching in Leilani Sabzalian’s Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public Schools, featured April 23 in the virtual book event series. Finally, English PhD candidate Teresa Faculty and students affiliated with CSWS generate and Hernández reflects on her own relationship to digital game play and its racial discourse after listening share research with other scholars and educators, the public, policymakers, and activists. CSWS researchers come from a to a May 7 discussion of Tara Fickle’s The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities. In a broad range of fields in arts and humanities, law and policy, related story, we also introduce our new WOC Project convenor, anthropology professor Gyoung-Ah Lee. social sciences, physical and life sciences, and the professional While many of our recent research grant recipients have had to delay their research due to the schools. pandemic, we include in this issue reports from two faculty who were able to continue work last year. DIRECTOR Sangita Gopal, Associate Professor, Cinema Studies Judith Raiskin, associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, gives us an update on the WOC PROJECT DIRECTOR Gyoung-Ah Lee, Professor, Eugene Lesbian History Project website, Outliers and Outlaws, and how the digital humanities project Anthropology came into being. Also, sociology professor Ellen Scott shares her research team’s co-authored report, RESEARCH DISSEMINATION SPECIALIST Jenée Wilde “#ForeverEssential: What Does it Mean to be a Low-wage Essential Worker in the Age of COVID-19?” BUSINESS MANAGER Angela Hopkins ADVISORY BOARD Seven graduate students report on their research progress and the impacts of the pandemic on their Stacy Alaimo, Professor, English projects. Jane Grant Fellowship winner Cristina Faiver-Serna, geography, explains the origins of her PhD Kemi Balogun, Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender, and dissertation and how the pandemic changed her approach in “M(other)work of Survival and the Pandemic Sexuality Studies as Teacher.” Doctoral candidate Parichehr Kazemi, political science, describes her online research into Faith Barter, Assistant Professor, English Iranian women and girls who are defying the nation’s strict hijab mandate by posting publicly unveiled Ulrick Casimir, Career Instructor, English images of themselves in “‘My Stealthy Freedom’: Feminist Resistance through Social Media in Iran.” Tannaz Farsi, Professor, School of Art + Design Doctoral candidate Molly McBride, anthropology, tells how her research with a Michigan women’s chorus Jon Jaramillo, Jane Grant Dissertation Fellow, Romance unfolded in surprising ways over the past year in “Tempos of Zoom Ethnography: Singing with a Women’s Languages Chorus in the Pandemic.” Doctoral candidate Stephanie Gyoung-Ah Lee, Professor, Anthropology Gabriela Martínez, Professor, School of Journalism and Mastroefano, English, describes her research into the role Communication of women in the unionization of animation workers and Alaí Reyes-Santos, Associate Director, PNW Just Futures the 1941 Disney Studio strike in “Breaking the Celluloid Institute for Climate and Racial Justice Frame: The Women at the Margins of Disney Animation.” Priscilla Yamin, Associate Professor, Political Science Doctoral candidate Lara Boyero Agudo, Romance CSWS Annual Review is published yearly by the Center for languages, describes how her research shows Spanish- the Study of Women in Society. While CSWS is responsible speaking immigrant women are exposed to more racial for the content of the CSWS Annual Review, the viewpoints discrimination in Oregon in “Soy mujer, inmigrante y latina: expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the An Intersectional Study of Linguistic Capital among Latina organization. Women Immigrants in Oregon.” Doctoral candidate Polet MANAGING EDITOR Jenée Wilde Campos-Melchor, anthropology, discusses her research on how trans asylum seekers in Ciudad Juarez look out The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the for each other in “El Noa Noa: Strategies of Love and Care Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in at the U.S.–México border.” Finally, doctoral candidate accessible formats upon request. Katherine M. Huber, English, reflects on how the pandemic ©2021 University of Oregon and racial injustice protests influenced her research on Ireland’s complex history as a colonized nation in “Urgent Pauses: A Reflection on My Renewed Commitment to 0 1o iiEaoN Rigorous Research.” ■ — Jenée Wilde, Managing Editor Jenée Wilde C O N T E N T S A Letter from the Past Director 3 by Michelle McKinley, Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law New Special Project Advocates for Institutional Change 4 by Jenée Wilde, Dissemination Specialist, CSWS Spotlight on CSWS Affiliate Major Field Awards 7 Gyoung-Ah Lee to Lead WOC Project 8 by Jenée Wilde, Dissemination Specialist, CSWS An Interview with Sangita Gopal 9 by Jenée Wilde, Dissemination Specialist, CSWS Reflections: UO Graduate Students Share How Works by WOC Faculty Changed Them 12 Faculty Research Oral History Website Preserves Stories from Eugene's Lesbian Community 16 by Judith Raiskin, Associate Professor, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Former CSWS Director Michelle McKinley / photo by Jack Liu. #ForeverEssential: What Does it Mean to be a Low- "Soy mujer, latina e inmigrante": An Intersectional wage Essential Worker in the Age of COVID-19? 18 Study of Linguistic Capital among Latina Women by Lina Stepick, Lola Loustaunau, Larissa Petrucci, and Immigrants in Oregon 26 Ellen Scott by Lara Boyero Agudo, PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages Graduate Student Research M(other)work of Survival and the Pandemic as Teacher 20 El Noa Noa: Strategies of Love and Care at the U.S.– by Cristina Faiver-Serna, Jane Grant Fellow, Department México Border 27 of Geography by Polet Campos-Melchor, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology "My Stealthy Freedom": Feminist Resistance through Social Media in Iran 22 Urgent Pauses: A Reflection on My Renewed by Parichehr Kazemi, PhD Candidate, Department of Commitment to Rigorous Research 28 Political Science by Katherine M. Huber, PhD Candidate, Department of English Tempos of Zoom Ethnography: Singing with a Women's Chorus in the Pandemic 23 Highlights from the Academic Year by Molly McBride, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology News & Updates 30 2021-22 CSWS Research Grant Award Winners 31 Breaking the Celluloid Frame: The Women at the Margins of Disney Animation 24 Charise Cheney Named Black Studies Director 33 by Stephanie Mastrostefano, PhD Candidate, Thank You to CSWS Donors 35 Department of English Looking at Books 36 csws.uoregon.edu 1 2 October 2021 A LETTER FROM OUR PAST DIRECTOR Dear Friends, As a historian of gender and slavery, I spend much of my professional life looking for archival evidence to piece together how women survived in situations of bondage that were inimical to their agency and self-care. When it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic had become a way of marking time, and a way of articulating grief and vulnerability, I turned again to the archive to see how the UO community had dealt with the influenza epidemic of 1918. As the May 2015 Oregon Quarterly documents, Susan Campbell—the president’s wife—personally cared for sick students, helped to organize campus infirmaries, and kept anxious parents informed of the state of their children. Despite the deter- mined effort to check these pandemics, I am reminded of the strength of our com- munity and how we need each other to make sense of this time. Every director of a feminist, social justice center has struggled to write a ret- rospective year in review that strikes the right balance between the ravaged emo- tional turbulence of COVID time and the present moment. I believe in optimism and the proverbial half-full glass. But we must also acknowledge those who we lost and reflect on what COVID-19 revealed about our community, our campus, our state, and our world. Last time I wrote to you, RBG was alive and the Pacific northwest had not yet experienced the fires that now define our climate real- ity. Today, poor women’s reproductive rights are under attack. We have a new President and Vice President. We have an effective vaccine that protects us from the ravages of COVID-19. The before and after list could go on, but we are indel- ibly stamped by COVID time, and how we emerge from it will determine how we handle social vulnerability, racial injustice, and climate equity. What did we do as a community during COVID time? It became immediately clear that the impact of caregiving while sheltering in place, remote working, and unstable employment would be borne by women and contingent labor. Feminists have long pointed out that academic labor cannot exist without caregivers. We launched our Caregiver Campaign to serve as a clearinghouse for our colleagues here and at other universities to amplify the disproportionate impact of the pan- demic on research, teaching, and service and to demand equitable accommoda- tions. We diverted most of our programming budget to research support for gradu- ate students and faculty. We supported three new RIGs (Research Interest Groups) on Black Feminist Ecologies, Wellbeing, and Care, Equity, and Social Justice. Our continued support for the Inclusive Pedagogies RIG was all the more pressing as we struggled with the virtual format for instruction and pedagogy. We hosted a virtual “books in print” series to celebrate the publications of our esteemed and cherished colleagues. We produced a podcast with four brilliant feminist thinkers as we struggled to make sense of COVID time. Every upbeat communication celebrated our ability to pivot. Despairing of this acrobatic metaphor, I prefer to think of COVID time as a time of grace, balance, and strength. Now as CSWS approaches our 50th anniversary, of course we will use the celebration to highlight our past, but it is our future as fierce feminists that we must imagine and celebrate. This year’s Annual Review showcases the year that was, and also calls our attention to transitions. As I step down from the directorship, I am confident that Sangita Gopal’s leadership will usher in the next decade of fierce feminism. And we will all be here and gather to celebrate again in person when we can safely hold each other close. It has been such an honor and a delight to direct CSWS over the past five years, and to have learned from such an incredible community of scholars and friends. My best to you all, Michelle Impacts of COVID-19 Shanikia Johnson, a three-year-olds teacher, helps Magjor Jones clean up a puzzle at Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland on Jan. 12, 2021. Crystal Hardy-Flowers, owner and founder of the center, died from COVID-19 complications Dec. 31. She was 55 / Photo by Matt Roth for The Washington Post via Getty Images. csws.uoregon.edu 3 Caregiver Campaign New Special Project Advocates for Institutional Change CSWS leads an effort to redress pandemic impacts for faculty who are caregivers by Jenée Wilde, Senior Instructor Department of English CSWS Dissemination Specialist Law professor and former CSWS director Michelle McKinley started the Caregiver Campaign in response to community need / photo by Jenée Wilde. Last year, in the early stages of pan- In their conversations, the three friends enabling the expansion and development demic lockdown, then-CSWS director realized that CSWS could house efforts to of ongoing research that linked theoreti-and law professor Michelle McKinley address the University of Oregon’s caregiv- cal, substantive, and policy concerns about began receiving panicked emails from fac- ing crisis by proposing needed changes to women, work, families, economic structur- ulty friends and Center affiliates who are the administration. ing, social policy, politics, and the law. caregivers. With 4J schools and childcare “As Maria and I talked about this,” “CSWS has always been around women facilities shut down, as well as shortages Stephen said, “it popped into my head, and work and carework—that’s our legacy,” in long-term elder care services, how were ‘Wow, this is something where CSWS could McKinley said. “If we had walked away they supposed to fulfill their teaching and really make a difference.’” from this [caregiver crisis], Joan would have research commitments at the university while also meeting the labor-intensive care “This gave me an outlet, a way to deal turned over in her grave.” needs of others? with the angst,” Escallón said. “We spent a “We agreed that it was huge and there lot of fiery chats brainstorming ideas. It was was no communication about it,” Stephen “It became a long email chain, filled with a moment where I could transition the worry said. “We didn’t know if it was on people’s despair,” McKinley said. of ‘what am I going to do?’ into intellectual radar.” “I remember those emails,” said Maria action that could change something.” In June 2020, CSWS launched the Fernanda Escallón, assistant professor of CSWS has a long history of supporting Caregiver Campaign with an open letter to anthropology, who at the time was caring research on women and work in Oregon. In university leadership, the Senate, deans, for her three-year-old daughter while also 1992, the Center began the Women in the department heads, and United Academics teaching and revising her first book for ten- Northwest Initiative, originally envisioned urgently requesting policy changes to ame- ure. “I remember saying, ‘I’m done. I can’t by lead researchers Joan Acker, co-founder liorate impacts of the pandemic for care- keep doing this. This is just too intense.’” of the Center, and then-director Sandra givers in the UO community. The letter Escallón sought advice and support from Morgen, as a five-year project to promote suggested implementing six steps: waive all two of her mentors, McKinley and anthro- and spotlight women’s lives in the Pacific non-essential service; suspend “on track” pology professor Lynn Stephen, who also Northwest. In 1997, a large private gift standards for research productivity; develop has a long history of leadership in the Center. from Mazie Giustina endowed the initiative, a research accommodation opt-in policy like 4 October 2021 Along with McKinley, anthropology professor Lynn Stephen, left, and assistant professor Maria Fernanda Escallón developed policy recommendations for university leadership aimed at assisting faculty and graduate students who are caregivers and whose research has been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic / photos by Jenée Wilde. the tenure clock extension; instruct depart- testimonials; and gathered new research and its potential for “tanking” tenure track. ment heads and deans to evaluate teach- and campaign materials from other univer- “I was able to intellectualize it,” she said ing loads and grant teaching relief and GE sities that address the caregiving crisis in about the Times interview, “to find the assistance to those with heavier caretaking academia at large, which are available on the words to speak about it—not just as a mom responsibilities; identify essential strategies CSWS website. Responses to our Caregiver and how exhausted I am but also as an issue of caring such as caregiver support networks Campaign reinforce what research studies for diversity and inclusion. It’s really big.” and sick-day banks; and repurpose resources published so far have revealed—that the Big enough, it turns out, to inspire her allotted for faculty research accounts (ASAs) pandemic exposes how institutional prac- next research project. In fall 2020, the UO’s and other funds to support caregiving. tices have historically rendered certain labor Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics In July 2020, McKinley and Stephen met invisible and left women and minorities issued an open call for their 2021-2023 with UO and UA leadership to advocate for more vulnerable. theme, “Making Work Work.” The theme the urgency of these policy changes. In a sec- “I certainly didn’t realize how profound explores “the social and economic organiza- ond, updated letter to university leadership, this was going to be,” McKinley said. “This tion of work and its transformation, with McKinley and Stephen added a request year, I don’t know how people are going to a focus on vulnerable workers and an eye that UO pause the use of student teaching recoup the loss in research productivity. We toward policy changes that better protect evaluations for the duration of the crisis just went from crisis mode to crisis mode. individuals and families.” The timing was and looked for assurances that caregivers— I think the real telling of how hard this is perfect for Escallón, who was in the final particularly women with young children or going to be on women in academic careers— stages of her book and looking for ways to care responsibilities for seniors and others— we’re going to find out this data maybe three continue researching how institutions struc- would be represented on decision-making or four years from now.” turally deal with long-term inequities exac- bodies regarding these issues. After confer- In an October 6, 2020, article for the New erbated by the pandemic. She applied for— ring with stakeholders, the administration York Times, Escallón discussed how the and received—one of two 2021-22 Resident enacted—more or less—all of CSWS’s initial pandemic has laid bare gender inequities Scholar positions at the Center. recommendations, with the exception of for women in academia. “I hope the admin- Escallón’s research project, “COVID- repurposing faculty ASAs funds for care- istration realizes that anything they do now 19, Faculty Activism, and the Future of a giving needs. However, additional policy to alleviate this issue for caregivers will Carework Policy in Academia,” involves “a recommendations in the second letter were directly impact how the professoriate will comparative analysis of five U.S.-based uni- met with little institutional will. look five to 10 years from now—how diverse versities that will examine both the caregiv- Meanwhile, CSWS staff and affiliates it will be, and how many women will be in ing policies that faculty have proposed and working on the Caregiver Campaign began positions of power within academia,” she institutional responses to them. The goal is networking with feminist researchers said. to analyze universities’ plans, priorities, and around the U.S.; launched a petition in In preparing for her interview with the limitations in addressing the carework crisis support of our suggested policy changes; Times, Escallón began thinking about the in order to effectively narrow the academic surveyed UO faculty members and graduate broader implications of the pandemic—not equity gaps exacerbated by COVID-19.” students about their experiences; collected just for women but also as an equity issue McKinley is very happy that the advo- csws.uoregon.edu 5 Caregiver Campaign cacy work they began in the Caregiver Campaign has inspired broader research. “Like the metaphor of Sisyphus rolling the “I didn’t think there was going to be an academic project in this way, at that time,” boulder uphill, this is our task, and the only McKinley said, “but what was coming to way to move it is through more people helping. me from all around the country were two things: Every university was trying to deal The weight of gravity of all institutions is not to with this crisis, and it wasn’t a money issue—it was a political will issue on the recognize or take into account the demands— part of administrations. Maria’s project is institutional, and it’s something that’s outside of the classroom, lab, and walls of germane to our industry. How we struc- ture policies for caregivers has never been the university—on the community. We want thought through in academic institutions. The only thing we’ve had is FMLA [Family permanent cultural and structural changes— Medical Leave Act].” that’s the boulder.” —Michelle McKinley McKinley believes the campaign’s ongo- ing advocacy also has contributed to greater awareness of and support for caregivers in the UO community. In addition to high- color. This is especially concerning for pre- departmental and unit cultures around this, lighting caregiver resources on the Covid-19 tenure faculty because of the potential career and it’s very hard to mandate that,” she said. Resources for Faculty and Staff webpage, impact of the tenure process itself.” “The administration put out guidance about Human Resources’ August issue of Wellness Made possible through a philanthrop- how to communicate with and support Connection focused on insights and resourc- people in departments. In some units that es for caregivers by highlighting national sta- ic gift, the new pandemic relief program had traction, but in others—nothing. They tistics on the issue, summarizing wellness allows eligible junior faculty to receive a course release for one term “so that they can were suggestions and not required, so there resources available to caregivers at UO, and focus solely on advancing their scholarship was no accountability.”explaining how to access services through HR’s employee assistance program. and creative practice that term,” Schill and The Caregiver Campaign has now been Phillips stated in their announcement. “We designated a CSWS special project, giving it “I think this HR intervention is also recognize that this is not all things to all life beyond its initial emergency status dur- a direct result of our meetings last year,” people who have been impacted over the ing the pandemic. McKinley said. “Mark Schmelz, Chief Human last year. However, it is an opportunity to Resources Officer, was on a few of our zoom “Institutionalizing it through CSWS support the success of faculty whose career calls. His consciousness was raised!” makes sense,” says Stephen, who has led paths could be irrevocably damaged. In other Center projects that have evolved into In addition, the Provost’s Office has this way, this program is an investment in larger initiatives. “It might also be a way to announced a new pandemic relief program the long-term future of the university as a connect other research projects funded by targeting junior faculty who had primary whole.” CSWS or to have a symposium when we can caregiving responsibilities for a close fam- In terms of the UO’s response to caregiv- take a breath to look at the situation. There ily member during the pandemic, or whose ing issues, the campaign leaders agree that, are a lot of lessons here to consider with research productivity was otherwise directly while good progress has been made, the hindsight. These issues won’t go away with impacted by Covid-19. university still has a way to go. the pandemic.” “National data and a recent campus sur- “In terms of satisfaction, I want to “Like the metaphor of Sisyphus roll- vey suggest a significant negative impact on acknowledge there were some things that ing the boulder uphill, this is our task,” faculty research and productivity during happened and we appreciate that,” Stephen McKinley said, “and the only way to move it the pandemic,” stated President Michael said. “But if a culture evolves that pretends is through more people helping. The weight H. Schill and Provost Patrick Phillips in a that nothing like this is going on, then it’s of gravity of all institutions is not to recog- June announcement about the relief pro- hard to change that in two months.” nize or take into account the demands—out- gram. “While factors such as childcare, remote teaching, and travel restrictions have Stephen also noted that it is difficult to side of the classroom, lab, and walls of the create blanket policies when inequities by university—on the community. We want impacted all scholars, a number of studies gender, age, race, and more are endemic in permanent cultural and structural changes—also suggest that there have been disparate that’s the boulder.” ■ impacts on research productivity among an institution’s culture. —Jenée Wilde is a senior instructor of English and a faculty, particularly caregivers and faculty of “I think the hardest challenge is changing research dissemination specialist for CSWS. 6 October 2021 SPOTLIGHT ON CSWS AFFILIATE MAJOR FIELD AWARDS Shabnam Akhtari wins Michler Memorial Prize Associate professor of mathematics Shabnam Akhtari has been awarded the 2021–22 Ruth I. Michler Memorial Prize from the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and Cornell University. Akhtari was selected to receive the Michler Prize to pursue her proposed research on classical Diophantine equations, in particular to study index form equations and their applications to understanding the structure of rings in algebraic number fields. The prize grants a mid-career mathematician a residential fellowship in the Cornell University Mathematics Department without teaching obligations. ■ Shabnam Akhtari Camisha Russell wins the Baruch A. Brody Award and Lecture in Bioethics Camisha Russell, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and a co-editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, has been named as the winner of the 2020–21 Baruch A. Brody Award and Lecture in Bioethics by the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Houston Methodist, and the Rice University Department of Philosophy. Selected by a cross-disciplinary committee from across our three institutions, Russell won for her significant contributions to the field in research and scholarship on the topics of bioethics, critical philosophy of race, and feminist philosophy. According to the press release, her work has been highly influential in ethics, law, and race theory over the past few years, and her focus on the concept of race as a technology embodies Baruch’s commitment to racial equality and social justice and helps inspire positive change. ■ Camisha Russell Tien-Tien Yu wins New Horizons in Physics Prize Assistant professor of theoretical physics Tien-Tien Yu has received the 2020–21 New Horizons in Physics award for her collaborative work with an international research team and their contributions to the field of “light dark matter.” The New Horizons prize recognizes early-career scientists who have already made a substantial impact on their fields. Part of the prestigious Breakthrough Prizes, Yu’s New Horizons award is one of six accolades handed out for early-career achievement in physics and math. Known as the “Oscars of science,” the Breakthrough Prizes are a relatively new cluster of awards funded by top Silicon Valley executives including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Prior to joining the UO in 2018, Yu served as a fellow in the theoretical physics group at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a postdoctoral associate at the Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University. ■ Tien-Tien Yu csws.uoregon.edu 7 Gyoung-Ah Lee to Lead WOC Project Special initiative enters 16th year of supporting women of color faculty by Jenée Wilde, Senior Instructor, Department of English, CSWS Dissemination Specialist Anthropology professor Gyoung-Ah mentorship from other WOC members reach to WOC graduate students.Lee has stepped up to lead the have helped to broaden her thinking about “WOC has been a role model and men-Women of Color (WOC) Project at gender in her research. tor for graduate students, so I’d like to CSWS—a role formerly held by Interim “WOC helped me to see how gender discuss with members how we can further Director Sangita Gopal, associate professor roles, bias, and preconceptions can limit involve, guide, and listen to them in many of cinema studies. actual reality and potential, and ever since different sectors,” she said. Lee has been a faculty member at I’ve been thinking on the data,” Lee said. The Women of Color Project has been University of Oregon since 2007. According “Since I was young, as a graduate and a special initiative under the auspices of to her bio, as an archaeologist Lee exam- PhD student, I thought science is science, CSWS since 2005. The program is com- ines “human-environmental interactions data is data. In WOC, I learn more and prised of tenure-track women faculty in terms of cultural resilience and social more with reading other people’s work representing all the colleges and schools complexity in East Asia, a core area where about gender and sexuality, though I don’t within the UO. It was initially formed to several economically important plants work on that directly. I learn how gender foster WOC in leadership positions in UO were first domesticated, influencing social assumptions can limit our thinking about administration. and economic relations to this day.” the past and how humans lived through “The goal of my work is to document ten-thousand years.” “It evolved over the years into a vital research, mentoring, and support network and understand the transition from hunt- As WOC convenor, Lee plans to engage for WOC faculty who often find that they ing-gathering-fishing to farming, the role in collective decision-making about the are the only one of their kind in their aca- of agriculture in the development of social direction of the group moving forward. Of demic units and seek both mentorship and complexity, and the domestication of East concern for her is WOC faculty wellbeing, community from fellow colleagues,” Gopal Asian crops,” Lee says. “To accomplish both academically and personally, as well said. “We have also functioned, informally, these goals, I have conducted fieldwork in as WOC representation at UO. as a clearing-house for archiving the par- several regions in Korea, China, Indonesia, “UO has been improving, but diversity ticular structural and interpersonal chal- and Vietnam.” She takes an interdisciplin- and representation has been an ongoing lenges that WOC face in their research, ary approach to her work that includes issue,” Lee says. “Happily, a lot of diverse teaching, and service in a predominantly archaeology, cultural anthropology, his- groups are joining UO, and faculty are white University.” tory, genetics, and environmental sciences. going through the stages of promotion. I “I’ve very humbled, honored, and excit- Lee has been a member of the WOC hope WOC can help them in many ways.” ed to work further with the WOC,” Lee Project since 2017, where support and Lee would also like to see more out- said. ■ 8 October 2021 Gyoung-Ah Lee / photo provided by Lee. An Interview with Sangita Gopal Interim director seeks to strengthen CSWS infrastructure Interview by Jenée Wilde, Senior Instructor, Department of English, CSWS Dissemination Specialist With a background in compara- structures, particularly regarding gender. movement and to barriers for women in tive media studies and postcolo- Her first book, Conjugations: Marriage the filmmaking industry, Gopal’s interest nial theory, Associate Professor and Form in New Bollywood Cinema is in understanding the ways in which gen- Sangita Gopal came to the University of (University of Chicago Press, 2011) looked der as a focus of social attention enabled Oregon in 2004 to teach cinema studies at how the thematization of marriage women filmmakers to take advantage of in the Department of English. Over time shifted in Indian cinema during a certain lower barriers into new media—specifi- she saw the popular program grow from moment of social, cultural, and industrial cally, television media across terrestrial, an English concentration into a unique transformation in the 1990s. cable, and satellite platforms. The book tri-school major, then into its own depart- Supported by two CSWS faculty explores how Indian women filmmakers ment housed in the College of Arts and research grants, Gopal is completing her negotiated certain industrial and media Sciences. second book, tentatively titled Mixed environments that bring a prominence Gopal’s research centers in media’s Media: Women’s Filmmaking in India to them because the women’s question social dynamics, especially on questions in the 1980s. During this period, more is being discussed more broadly. Her pri- of gender and sexuality. More specifi- women filmmakers came to the fore across mary interest lies not in social and indus- cally, her research combines the sociol- language cinemas and genres, as well trial conditions that prevented women ogy of media with industrial studies in as into the mainstream. While the tradi- from getting their work done, but rather order to understand how the two interact tional approach has been to link women in the conditions at the time that enabled and create certain narratives and generic filmmakers in this period to the women’s women to pursue their creative work. csws.uoregon.edu 9 Sangita Gopal / photo by Jack Liu. Interview I spoke with Sangita in August as she Sandi was really interested in including from just leadership to promoting and was working on her book, negotiating this new research and these approaches supporting a cohort in research, reten- summer childcare for her twelve-year-old into CSWS, and so it was a really vibrant tion, et cetera. daughter, and gearing up for her new role community. I feel very fortunate that I For some reason, while we were a very as interim director of CSWS: came in at that time with that cohort. active, engaged, and energetic group, our Jenée Wilde: When do you expect to The second year of being here, I was abilities to build on our agenda turned finish your book? invited to serve as an evaluator for gradu- out to be quite limited, in terms of not Sangita Gopal: Next March is my goal, ate student grants, and that really gave me having that much success with retention and it’s a goal because the pandemic dis- a very intimate look into the inner work- or even recruitment at that time. I think ruptions make such targets really hard. ings of the Center, especially as it related a part of that was the broader institution This month, my daughter was supposed to supporting student research. It was a did not take this on as a priority, so we to be in camp the whole month, and then very good experience working with my were working in silo fashion. What the they cancelled. So you go from a situation senior colleagues, for the first time really, Women of Color Project became—and of imagining where you can work all day looking at all this wonderful research. this is really important—it became a very to, what should I do now? The next year, Sandi invited Lamia vital cohort and team-building initia- JW: You came to the university in Karim and I to put on a conference called tive for us to really feel like a group that 2004. When did you start getting involved Empire. It was really a massive undertak- supported each other both intellectually with CSWS? ing, and I feel as a junior faculty member I as well as in terms of providing mentor- never should have done it because it was ship, helping younger faculty members SG: Pretty much right away. I was told very time-consuming. So that’s the piece get acclimatized, et cetera. about CSWS during the campus visit of advice I would give if I were mentor- When Michael Hames Garcia became since I have a research interest in gender. ing anyone: Don’t put on a conference in the director, there was an opening for an As soon as I got here, I was invited to your third year of tenure track. But the associate director. I got the position and some kind of reception or social event. upside was that it was a fantastic confer- decided to restart the Women of Color The director of CSWS was Sandi Morgen ence, and I made so many contacts—such Project, partly because I was at an event and I felt really welcomed right away. a rich network opened up before me. I felt around 2014 and I realized, oh my God, At the time, Sandi had done so much deeply connected to the Center as a result there were only two woman of color full interesting work on issues around gen- of having done that. professors at the university—one who der and labor. When I was hired, several others in my cohort also had interests Soon after, my work with the Center actively came to events and one who didn’t. I thought, this is really ridiculous in gender—people like Pricilla Ovalle, began to shift gears into the Women of Color Project, which took off in 2007. We and we really have to work harder to do Cecillia Rangel, Gabriella Martinez, and something about this. Michelle McKinley. We all had more received a Ford Foundation grant and global and international interests but also Lynn Fujiwara came out of sabbatical CSWS’s funding for the Women of in issues concerning women of color. to lead that project because there were Color Project was lapsing, and the direc- no other tenured women of color fac- tor at the time felt it wasn’t something the ulty. That original Center could continue to support at those Ford Foundation levels. So we approached the president I really see the next year as being one grant was to encour- and received a three-year grant, which age women of color has since been renewed. I served as the where we hopefully transition out from leadership within convenor for that project for five years, the pandemic more than last year—I say the university. From and I think we had quite a good ride. hopefully because who knows how long then on, my major I agreed to step in as interim direc-involvement has it will take. But I have three goals, really: tor when Michelle, who had worked been, up to now, incredibly hard as director for the Center, to help make that transition as smooth with that Women of needed to go on sabbatical. I felt like this Color Project, which as possible; to think about the internal would be something that I could do for has gone through a year to support Michelle. It was also structure of the Center and if our various cycles. Lynn during the pandemic, and it seemed like led it for a few years current levels of staffing are adequate; searching for a new director would be until the grant was quite challenging, given all the other con- and to plan for the 50th Anniversary spent. Then CSWS straints. Given my long association with celebrations coming up in 2023. took it on as a spe- the Center, I felt up to the task of doing cial project and the it for a year. brief broadened 10 October 2021 JW: What are you thinking about doing for this period while you are interim director? What are your goals? Do you have anything specific you want to see happen in terms of preparing for someone coming in long-term? SG: Going in, I really see the next year as being one where we hopefully transition out from the pandemic more than last year—I say hopefully because who knows how long it will take. But I have three goals, really: to help make that transition as smooth as possible; to think about the internal structure of the Center and if our current levels of staff- ing are adequate; and to plan for the 50th Anniversary celebrations coming up in 2023. My impression is that people at the Center work incredibly hard and we don’t have enough staff to get done what we need to get done, so it makes it very burdensome on the people who are there. I see my second goal as to address that staffing issue and to get us more staff and Cinema studies associate professor Sangita Gopal has been deeply involved with CSWS events and support so whomever comes into this special projects for many years / photo by Jack Liu. position next has a full house adminis- tratively. I also realize I’m coming in at ebrations. A lot of in-house things I imag- departments and supervisors, to make a time when—owing to the pandemic ine will be happening this coming year. sure that what is by now clearly demon- and all the disruptions, as well as the JW: Thinking about the Center, our strated in multiple studies—that there are new models of administrative staff sup- affiliates, and the impact of the pan- unequal, gendered impacts of the pan- port that have been proposed across the demic on what we’ve been able to do demic not only on women but on women university—everything is up in the air. during this period, do you have any of color particularly—that we continue to I’m going to see how the Center’s need last thoughts about our role and how make this a priority as we move forward. for staffing and smooth operations can we’ve been able to support our affiliates The act of documentation I see to be a be best articulated with wider develop- through this crisis? What do you see hap- really important and continued focus—of ments in the university so we retain the pening moving forward? documenting what that research impact autonomy that we absolutely need as has been through accounts from our affili- an endowed center with a very specific SG: I think the Center has really been ates and bringing it to the attention of project that doesn’t really align with any- a great resource for support because of the university community as well as the thing else on campus. I see my main task the Caregiver Campaign as well as all the university administration more broadly. this year as trying to preserve that vision special projects we’ve been able to initi- and providing the kind of staffing that ate and support around that. At the same Even for that purpose, our infrastruc- time, I don’t see the need for support end- ture is really slim. The very fact that we will allow that vision to be preserved. I’m took the Caregiver Campaign on volun- fully aware that there are broader struc- ing anytime soon. Whatever the pandemic tural changes at work, and how to have being “over” means, the research impact tarily, even though we had very little ability to do so, is precisely the problem. CSWS come out best from that is going to on our affiliates is going to last several be a big part of my focus. years. So even in the best-case scenario Being CSWS, we have exactly the same of the pandemic being effectively over symptoms of women faculty everywhere, As interim, I don’t want to make any in the coming year, which doesn’t seem which is that we do too much for too brand-new programs or create new proj- likely right now, we’re looking at two or little. I feel like the Center should try to ects because that will be for the next three more years of research impact. reverse that pattern of having an undue director to do. I definitely see that this share of labor fall on women and to look year is one of transitioning out of the pan- I see the Center continuing to do at this issue both internally and more demic and making sure that the Center’s the incredible advocacy and information- broadly. ■ operations are strengthened as we start gathering work it has done to make sure —Jenée Wilde is a senior instructor of English and planning for the 50th Anniversary cel- this issue stays on the radar for units and research dissemination specialist for CSWS. csws.uoregon.edu 11 Women of Color Books in Print Series Reflections UO graduate students share how works by WOC faculty changed them Ana-Maurine Lara, Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic and Queer Freedom : Black Sovereignty CSWS events have always served as informal sites Reflection by Polet Campos-Melchorfor networking, support, and mentorship among ntricately woven, Ana-women faculty and graduate students across Maurine Lara’s book talk on campus. When the pandemic shut down our regular IJan. 29, 2021, was a double programming last year, the Women of Color (WOC) celebration of her twin books, Project filled this need with a virtual books-in-print Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives event series celebrating recent monographs by WOC and Protest in the Dominican Republic (Rutgers University faculty affiliates. Press, 2020) and Queer The WOC Project has been a special project under Freedom : Black Sovereignty the auspices of CSWS since 2005. Over the years it has (SUNY Press, 2020, winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize evolved as a vital research, mentoring, and support net- of the Association for Queer work for WOC faculty who often find that they are the Anthropology, a section of the only one of their kind in their academic units and are American Anthropological seeking both mentorship and community from fellow Association). Drawing on the colleagues. Activities include writing workshops for ten- Caribbean concept of sacred ure and post-tenure research, grant-writing workshops twins, these books show the implicit connections between with expert consultants, small grants for individual Black and LGBTQ people glob- projects and events, and a fellowship competition for ally and calls on readers to summer research support. imagine, witness, and work toward freedom. During a pan- Affiliate faculty also have been sought out by gradu- demic that has disproportion- ate and undergraduate WOC who want to emulate the ately affected Black, Latinx, group and be mentored by WOC faculty as they build and migrant communities, their own networks for professional success. these books serve as remind- ers to honor our communities The WOC Books in Print series featured four faculty— without forgetting ancestors Ana-Maurine Lara, Kemi Balogun, Leilani Sabzalian, and who also carved paths and Tara Fickle—who have been mentored through the WOC teachings as lessons for our Project and who, in turn, have mentored WOC gradu- own journeys. ate students in their fields. Below are some personal As I listened to Dr. Lara’s reflections by current graduate students who have been reflection on her research in impacted by the work and words of these faculty. the Dominican Republic and life in the U.S., I was moved by how her work expands 12 October 2021 Polet Campos-Melchor Kiana Nadonza on the concept of “reading” as a queer and ontological we met, I was nervous to talk with an established scholar undertaking that she engages to weave in, out, and through whose work I read and admired. At one point, I asked, “Do her many roles as teacher, scholar, artist, and healer. you ever feel some people do not take our research seri- Throughout her texts and in her talks, she refers to the ously?” Kemi’s quick, knowing smile broke the ice, and past, present, and future as always being in conversation. her reaction made me feel relieved and understood. I left This reference is a Black feminist practice and a tool she Kemi’s office that day feeling much more confident, for mobilizes for her readers to use in reading how and who we although not everyone might immediately understand why hold and carry with us in our work, daily life, and prayer. our work is significant, what matters is the voices of the Dr. Lara has taught me and continues to teach me new pos- communities we work with and our commitment to stand- sibilities for living, writing, and teaching as a whole person. ing by our research. She has taught me that I am a vessel for the knowledges of As my knowledge of beauty pageantry scholarship deep- my relatives, teachers, and ancestors. The people, work, ens, I appreciate Kemi’s contributions to the field even more. and prayers that I carry with me are for my protection, and She is one of the few scholars producing contemporary stud- are also my responsibility. She has taught me to weave my ies on beauty pageantry in such nuanced manners, wherein life and stories as she shares tools for doing such work. ■ pageantry cannot be confined to the hegemonic realm of —Polet Campos-Melchor, PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology academic discourse that dismisses beauty as inherently frivolous, or predicated solely upon the universal subjugation of women’s bodies. Rather, Oluwakemi Balogun, Beauty Diplomacy: Embodying an Beauty Diplomacy empha- Emerging Nation sizes the complexities and Reflection by Kiana Nadonza disjunctures of beauty pag- As part of the CSWS Women of Color Books in Print eantry, the material realities Project, we gathered Mar. 5, 2021, via Zoom to cele- Beauty Diplomacy it produces, and its political brate Dr. Oluwakemi “Kemi” Balogun’s book, Beauty ........ ,. . ,., .., ... ,.. "' ·- implications within Nigeria. Diplomacy: Embodying an Emerging Nation (Stanford As Dr. Saraswati (University University Press, 2020). Dr. Balogun is a professor of of Hawai‘i at MÐnoa) astute- Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Sociology at ly pointed out during the the University of Oregon. book panel discussion, Kemi I am grateful to have met Kemi in my first year of gradu- “dares to ask bigger ques- ate school. As a nascent scholar of beauty pageantry, I tions.” Beauty Diplomacy quickly realized that my research received visceral reac- challenges us to re-envision tions of intrigue, confusion, and most surprising to me, dis- how we conceptualize the missiveness. Not everyone seemed receptive to pageantry relationship between beauty, as a serious mode of scholarship, or the magnitude of the power, and global politics. ■c>1 ..... L:, ■, lens through which it offers a gateway into understanding a —Kiana Nadonza, PhD student, community’s politics and cultural practices. The first time Department of Anthropology csws.uoregon.edu 13 Women of Color Books in Print Series Roshelle Weiser-Nieto Teresa Hernández Leilani Sabzalian, Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public act that may cause that person ‘anguish’ by thrusting that Schools person into ‘periods of intense critical self-examination.’ Reflection by Roshelle Weiser-Nieto Historical tales are valuable. They ‘make you think hard Often when presenting professional development about your life’ and often, if a story goes to work on some-around equity, culturally relevant teaching, and eth- one, the individual emerges more ‘determined to “live nic studies/Indigenous themes, the teachers ask for right”’ (Basso, 1984, p. 43).” By exposing the “persistent tools they can use to put the work into practice. What do threat of colonialism and Indigenous erasure,” the goal I actually do? What tools can I use? These are hard ques- is not just “to tell educators what to think or feel,” Dr. tions to answer because the work isn’t something you can Sabzalian wrote the stories to give educators “‘the space walk into a classroom and do. It requires a shift in the lens to think and feel’ (as cited by Archibald, 2008, p. 134)” through which we are looking at the classroom, curriculum, (p. 200). However, she also asserts, “These stories are not and the world. For anyone asking these questions, I love intended to provoke empathy or apologies. Rather my hope recommending Dr. Leilani Sabzalian’s book, Indigenous is that they provoke discomfort, indignation, and a sense Children’s Survivance in Public Schools (Routledge, 2019, of urgency and responsibility, here defined as a commit- winner of the Outstanding Book Award from the American ment to disrupting colonialism and teaching in service of Educational Research Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty” (p. xviii). Association). She wrote This is the power of this very important book, by reading this book as an offering to the survivance stories within the pages, I hope each educa- all who work in the realm tor leans into the messages within and lets the stories reso- of education to capture nate and impact their future teaching decisions. ■ lived experiences of Native —Roshelle Weiser-Nieto, PhD student, Critical and Socio-Cultural Studies in students, families, and Education community and to offer interventions through sur- Tara Fickle, The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model vivance storytelling. Minorities Reflection by Teresa Hernández To describe the storytell- ing process as a mode of n May 7, 2021—at the beginning of Asian American education, she cites a story Oand Pacific Islander Heritage month—Tara Fickle told by Nick Thompson presented a discussion of her monograph, The Race as cited in Basso: “When Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities (NYU an individual isn’t acting Press, 2019, winner of the American Book Award from the right, he said, someone Before Columbus Foundation). In her project, Fickle brings stalks them with a story, an together a number of fields including queer game studies 14 October 2021 WOC Books in Print Series and Asian American studies in her consideration of how in the U.S. on Asians and Asian Americans since the start gaming and gaming technologies utilize racial fictions to of the pandemic in 2019. Fickle’s work shows that while craft Asian American racializations and representations. these attacks may feel rela- By introducing “ludo-Orientalism” as a theoretical concept tively new, they are reflec- to engage “play,” she offers an analysis of Asian American tive of a lengthy historical identity in relation to games like Pokémon Go, poker, and and political Western pro- mahjong. cess that situates Asian and As a woman of color, I had not deeply considered my Asian American subjects own relationship to digital game play and its racial dis- within the violent rhetorics course. I came to Pokémon Go quite late, since its 2016 of myths like the “Model launch when my daughter and I started playing avidly dur- Minority.” The Race Card ing our afternoon walks last summer. Quickly we began to brings us to urgently consid- befriend gamers from East to West and to send gifts with er how BIPOC move—even in-game resources. However, the game also made evident digitally—across racialized the ways in which my own brown body was constantly geographies, which reflect surveilled in outdoor spaces and neighborhoods. To play, as much about our histo- I had to be hyperaware of our environment and gendered ry as it does our collective positionings in a predominantly white space like Oregon. futurity. ■ At the end of the talk, a number of panelists drew con- —Teresa Hernández, PhD candi-date, Department of English nections between The Race Card and the increased violence csws.uoregon.edu 15 CSWS Faculty Research The Outliers and Outlaws website provides open access to filmed interviews with 83 women who helped to develop Eugene's vibrant lesbian community from the 1960s-90s. The website project received 2020 grant funding from the CSWS Mazie Giustina Fund for Women in the Northwest / photo provided by Judith Raiskin. Oral History Website Preserves Stories from Eugene's Lesbian Community by Judith Raiskin, Associate Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies The Eugene Lesbian History Project is a community-based, in anti-war and civil rights protests. The lesbian-identified digital humanities project that preserves and shares the women who came founded cornerstone organizations central unique history of the lesbian community in Eugene, to Eugene’s history and influenced Oregon’s political land- Oregon. The project includes filmed oral histories with 83 scape. These women worked in collective businesses that narrators, searchable transcriptions, a digital exhibit that were typically considered to be in the male domain, ran print- curates and contextualizes the interviews, and a forthcom- ing presses, were the leaders of Eugene community service ing documentary film. I am grateful to CSWS for funding the agencies, worked in City and State government positions, and website Outliers and Outlaws that serves as a landing page for produced and disseminated lesbian magazines, photographs, all the aspects of this project. It will also soon offer an exten- music, films, theater, and art. A number were plaintiffs on key sive digital exhibit funded by a Williams Grant and links to a lawsuits that overturned discriminatory Oregon statutes. documentary funded by The Oregon Cultural Trust (https:// Linda Long, Curator of Manuscripts at the University of outliersoutlaws.uoregon.edu/). Oregon Special Collections and University Archives, and I I arrived in Eugene, Oregon, in 1988 in the middle of a story. had talked for years about documenting and preserving the It wasn’t until three decades later that I had the opportunity to unique history of lesbian Eugene. Linda had already created hear 83 versions of that story and could make out its arc and many magnificent collections that were relevant to the history significance. In the 1960s-90s Eugene was known as a “lesbian of Eugene lesbians and important to lesbian history in general. mecca,” drawing hundreds of young women from across the We thought we would be a good pair for such a project: I am United States. Many came as part of the counterculture west- a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a ward migration, identified as feminists, and had been involved Ph.D. in literature who teaches LGBTQ history and culture and 16 October 2021 loves to hear life-stories and interpret narratives. Linda has they think about aging. We asked them to try to paint a picture spent her career building collections and has the archival with their descriptions and sometimes followed up with clari- skills, the passion for history, and the phenomenal memory fying questions about dates and locations. necessary to organizing such a project. As they described the neighborhoods they lived in and This project fills in a gap of important history. Much LGBTQ located the businesses and bars they built and frequented, history has been suppressed by the imperatives of the closet and Eugene began to look different to us: “The Riv Room is where rendered invisible by cataloging traditions embedded in sys- the Actors Cabaret Annex now is. Mother Kali’s Books was temic homophobia and heterosexism. As the artist Tee Corinne first on Lawrence, then at 5th and Adams, then on Franklin. wrote, “The lack of a publicly accessible history is a devastating Mama’s Home Fried Truck Stop is where Pegasus Pizza now form of oppression; lesbians face it constantly.” These digitally is. Jackrabbit Press was above the Grower’s Market.” While archived interviews and the website preserve this lesbian his- lesbian Eugene is still here, there is a faint trace all around the tory and make it publicly accessible for classroom use. Ideally, city of where it had been. this project is an intergenerational experience where students These oral histories bring those traces into sharp focus and can watch and listen to “real people” discuss the LGBTQ his- connect the Eugene lesbian past with the present. Looking tory they lived. My students have appreciated watching these back over 25-50 years, the interviewees reflect on the tremen- videos because they have not had the opportunity to listen to dous political gains and the poignant communal losses as they people 50 years older than themselves talk about experiences battled homophobia and assimilated into the wider commu- they had when they were roughly the students’ age. Students nity that they transformed. Their original radical commitment are surprised and challenged by the shifting understandings of to non-monogamy, separatist businesses, collective ownership, sexual and gender identity over the last half-century. and communal living offers us a remarkable model of lives courageously envisioned and lived. Many of the narrators are The Interviews retired and they continue to create, protest, and contribute to When Linda and I sent out word that we were interested in artistic and civic projects. Having lived in communal spaces interviewing anyone who participated in the lesbian migration when they were young, many fantasize about coming back to Eugene in the 1960s-90s, we were inspired by the enthusias- together either by taking over the top two floors of a downtown tic response of the women who crowded into our orientation retirement home or building a co-housing community. If any- meetings and brought with them boxes of business records, one can imagine better ways of living into old age, it would be diaries, letters, photographs, buttons, and T-shirts they had these innovative and brave women. ■ been saving, each knowing that what they built in Eugene was historically important. Some came from out of state to be —Judith Raiskin is an associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality stud- interviewed. I experienced the interviews as mutual invita- ies at UO. The Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project is the recipient of the 2021 tions: We asked the narrators to come answer our questions Oregon Heritage Excellence Award. and tell us their stories and they invited us to appreciate their struggles, joys, and inspir- ing accomplishments. By making their interviews public, the narrators gen- erously extend this invi- tation to you, too. This website allows that virtual meeting to happen that much more easily. Oral history projects often have specific inter- ests but they allow nar- rators to bring their own goals to the interviews as well. Our questions were fairly open-ended, allow- ing the narrators to create their own paths. We began to see that our role was to help form whatever story arc the narrator was creat- ing. We asked most of the narrators how they under- stood their sexual iden- tity, what brought them to Eugene, what memories they have of the lesbian community, what work Judith Raiskin, left, and Linda Long interview a participant for the Eugene Lesbian History Project. Raiskin and Long they did here, and how received the 2021 Oregon Heritage Excellence award for their project / photo provided by Judith Raiskin. csws.uoregon.edu 17 CSWS Faculty Research #ForeverEssential What does it mean to be a low-wage essential worker in the age of COVID-19? by Lina Stepick, Lola Loustaunau, Larissa Petrucci, and Ellen Scott Despite the continuing threat of workers in the last two weeks of April stable schedules. However, workers still COVID-19, and after token efforts 2020 to ask: What does it mean to be an face precarity: Additional hours were not such as “hazard pay” to recognize essential low-wage worker in this con- permanent; work requirements shifted the threat to frontline workers, life in gro- text? and intensified; work locations changed cery and other retail stores has returned with the closing of some stores; and to a new normal of work during a pan- No Choice but to Be Essential workers’ physical and emotional health demic. Work continues to be dangerous Most of these workers have no safety was compromised. Workers found them- for “essential workers.” net. They have little choice about wheth- selves in new stores, new departments, In April 2020, we interviewed work- er to work. A Latina food services worker with new shifts, and new requirements ers on the front lines to find out what with asthma told us that her eleven- to clean and stock. Others were laid off they were facing in those terrifying early year-old daughter asks her to stay home, when businesses closed and workers weeks of the pandemic. This is the report saying, “Mami, why do you have to go did not know when they would return we produced during the summer to alert to work now?” Hers is the only income to work. the public to the drastic conditions of in her household so she has to continue work for “essential workers.” working. Customers Endanger Workers’ Physical and Very few reported having sufficient Emotional HealthWe found that those in retail and food services, who often do not choose this paid sick time. Even those who tested For workers who were left at stores, they had to contend with customers work, made then and continue to make positive for COVID-19 felt pressured to impossible choices between putting their return to work as soon as they were flooding stores, panic-buying toilet paper and their family members’ lives at risk or cleared by a doctor, even if they had not and other goods. Workers reported that being unable to pay their bills. Hashtags fully recovered, because they had used customers were anxious and angry; inter- #AlwaysAHero and #ForeverEssential up their paid sick time. actions became emotionally charged. Workers felt persistent anxiety about underscored how the sacrifices workers A grocery worker said: “We were told customer harassment and potential infec- are making have not abated and that low- we were allowed to go home if we didn’t tion. They described the emotional labor wage work has always been essential. feel safe. We were told that we have a they performed to reassure anxious and When asked what she would want poli- choice. Do we have a choice, though, lonely customers, while also experienc- cymakers to know about being a retail if that means that if we stay home for ing increased stress, anxiety, and new worker in the time of COVID-19, a retail fear of our health? We won’t be able to levels of emotional exhaustion at the end worker replied, “Some of us don’t really pay our rent, and we won’t be able to of the day. have a choice. And the idea that we’re purchase food. If we live paycheck to still showing up and putting ourselves paycheck, like many of us do, we don’t Workers found themselves having to essentially in harm’s way…It’s a lot more really have a choice.” combine “good customer service” with than the job that we signed up for.” management of uncooperative custom- ers. A Latina food services worker noted, When the COVID-19 crisis hit Oregon, More Hours, More Risk, More Instability “We are all cooped up like parakeets our Fair Scheduling Law Study research Workers in retail, food services, and because it has been so much time. And team reached out to our statewide sample hospitality typically experience highly that upsets people, so customers shout of rural and urban, union and nonunion unstable schedules and lack of guar- at you and that can make you scared.” retail, food services, and hospitality anteed hours. Suddenly recognized Workers of color were particularly vul- workers we had previously interviewed as essential workers in the context of nerable, having experienced increased and conducted over 50 interviews with COVID-19, some got more hours and racial harassment from customers in the 18 October 2021 “We were told we were allowed to go home if we didn't feel safe. We were told that we have a choice. Do we have a choice, though, if that means that if we stay home for fear of our health? We won't be able to pay our rent, and we won't be able to purchase food. If we live paycheck to paycheck, like many of us do, we don't really have a choice.” With funding from CSWS, the Fair Scheduling Law Study research team reached out to retail, food Some workers discussed protections service, and hospitality workers across Oregon to learn how pandemic conditions affected their work for the right to organize. Workers at choices / photo provided by Ellen Scott. unionized stores shared that having the protection of a union helps them feel context of heightened xenophobia dur- tural change. Many discussed the need they can speak up about safety issues ing COVID-19. Another Latina food ser- for universal health care, arguing that without fearing retaliation. In contrast, vices worker said that customers, “ask employer-provided coverage is expen- some nonunion retail workers have been me things like, ‘Why are you here? You sive and inadequate. Some suggested subjected to captive-audience, anti-union almost don’t speak the language.’ It seems extending and expanding direct pay- meetings and some have been fired for to me like there is more racism now.” ments to workers (including migrant organizing for safety measures. workers), unemployment benefits, and Overall, employers have placed the Variable Levels of Workplace Safety the need for a universal basic income. burden on workers as individuals to keep Lack of clear governmental guidelines Many highlighted the importance of themselves and the public safe, but work- to protect essential workers, especially expanded paid sick leave so that workers ers stressed that structural changes and during the initial weeks of the pandemic, could make the decision to stay home. collective action are particularly neces- created a situation where workers have Within the workplace, employees sary in this moment. ■ been subject to highly variable responses recommended expanded and extended —Sociology professor Ellen Scott received 2020 by employers and varying degrees of hazard pay, PPE provided for them, and grant funding from CSWS’s Mazie Giustina Fund for exposure to health risks. More protec- enforced standardized procedures for Women in the Northwest for a comprehensive study tive measures included requiring work- social distancing. For temporarily unem- of the effects of Oregon’s Fair Scheduling Legislation. ers to wear masks, installing protective ployed workers, the right to return and shields at checkstands, and establishing worker-retention policies with earned additional cleaning and social-distancing seniority could mitigate workers’ anxi- READ MORE procedures. Workers had their tempera- eties by ensuring they will have jobs to Alvarez, Camila. H., Loustaunau, Lola, Petrucci, tures taken upon arriving at work, and return to when business resumes. Larissa, and Scott, Ellen. 2019. “Impossible Choices: they were offered the option of 6 weeks How Workers Manage Unpredictable Scheduling paid leave. In less proactive businesses, Several workers argued that if they are essential workers pressured to work Practices.” Labor Studies Journal, 45 (2): 186–213.workers waited weeks to receive PPE, social distancing was not enforced, and through a pandemic, then government Loustaunau, Lola, Larissa Petrucci, Ellen Scott, and COVID-19-specific paid sick leave was officials and companies should mandate Lina Stepick. 2020. “Assessing the Initial Impacts only available for workers who tested that consumers come into stores only for of the First Statewide Predictive Scheduling Law.” positive for the virus, and not for others essential goods, and limit shopping trips. Policy Research Brief prepared for Center for with underlying health conditions. They argued it was unfair for workers to Popular Democracy, University of Oregon. endanger their own lives so that custom- ers could have an outing and buy non- Lola Loustaunau, Lina Stepick, Ellen Scott, Larissa Worker Recommendations essential items. Workers also suggested Petrucci, and Miriam Henifin. Forthcoming. “No When asked what recommendations that there ought to be clear governmental Choice but to Be Essential: Expanding Dimensions they would have for policymakers, guidelines to limit the number of custom- of Precarity During COVID-19.” Sociological workers stressed the need for struc- ers in stores. Perspectives. csws.uoregon.edu 19 Jane Grant Fellowship MWM (@o 1tt hDTeI@rr)r] \wWI@o rr k[k{ o@fif S~ ullil r[FvW ifl wva~ l~ a~ n[fi)@dJ 1th hDTIe@ PLIDa~[nfi)@dJ@emm iflc~ a~~s 1TFe@a~~cDhTeI@rr by Cristina Faiver-Serna, MPH, PhD, Department of Geography One spring morning in 2011, I left my would work with families one-by-one to an intervention that emphasizes personal home in the Los Angeles Harbor teach them how to manage their child’s responsibility yet fails to acknowledge the region to drive to a community asthma. Asthma that, it was no secret, spatiality of racism, sexism, and injustice. meeting in Long Beach, California. I was was caused by the concentration of Port However, I also contend that promotoras to present on the “Bridge to Health” pro- pollution in parts of Long Beach and sur- enact geographies of care that exceed the gram, a promotora de salud-led asthma rounding communities that were majority state’s logics. They hold emotional and education program funded by the Port of Mexican and Central American, as well physical space for families, especially for Long Beach. Merging onto the 710 free- as Cambodian and African American. the mothers of children with asthma with way my car became sandwiched between As I sat in traffic, I listed all of the good whom they most often work. They meet big-rig diesel trucks hauling cargo from that this money was going to do: allevi- people in their homes and out in the the Port of Long Beach. The 710 freeway ate fear of “unknowing” and educate community, where their education and is the main truck route from the Port parents about their child’s illness; help community-building efforts rebuff toxic to inland distribution centers in San kids breathe easier, less painfully; fewer geographies and serve as critical resistance Bernardino County. Together, with the missed school days; fewer missed work to state-sanctioned (slow) violence of envi- Port of Los Angeles, more than 40 percent days; fewer trips to the emergency room; ronmental racism. of goods imported into the continental less financial stress; and help parents This project was initiated by my pro- U.S. come by way of the Los Angeles sleep better at night, less worried their fessional experience working alongside Harbor. As I crawled along the freeway, child might stop breathing. The promo- promotoras de salud who had come to the I took renewed notice of the landscape. I toras were making a big difference in so work due to their own experience moth- observed the sound walls blocking views many aspects of people’s lives. But, yes, ering children with asthma. While the of neighborhoods where I knew lived it was “blood money.” original vision for the dissertation project families who were enrolled in our pro- My dissertation, “‘Survival First, Health included fieldwork, both the pandemic gram. I watched diesel exhaust mix with Second’: Geographies of Environmental and my own experience of becoming a the heat radiating off the concrete. I sat Racism and the M(other)work of mother in 2019 made that impossible. there with the windows up, A/C recircu- Promotoras de Salud” is driven by two However, both sharpened my perspective lating in the car, giving me a false sense overarching research questions: How are on key aspects of my analysis. My experi- of security that I was breathing clean air, promotoras called upon by the state to ence of mothering my own child clari- and I had a devastating thought: This is remediate and resolve environmental rac- fied lessons the promotoras had taught blood money. I felt panic rise up from my ism in their own communities? And what me years earlier about the strength of gut. Was it? roles do promotoras perform in the region- mothers to fight for justice for their own The federally qualified community al response to environmental racism in children and the community motherwork health center that I worked for had been Southern California? In the project I argue they do beyond the home. The margin- awarded an air pollution mitigation grant that the public health arm of the state is a alization of mothers and caregivers is an by the Port of Long Beach. These grants “site of contestation, rather than an ally or important lens through which to under- became available in 2010 as a small con- neutral force” (Pulido, 2017: 1) for achiev- stand their positionality as capitalist-state cession to the community on the part ing environmental justice. The capitalist essential laborers. This is emphasized by of the Port to expand their operations. state reproduces the subjugation of promo- the CSWS’s own Caregivers Campaign, Our clinic had promised a very wide tora labor within a classed, feminized, and launched in 2020. As workers, promoto- and meaningful reach, dependent mostly racialized framework. Promotora “essen- ras are also constrained by the framework on the labor of just two promotoras de tial” labor is taken for granted by the of health equity used by the U.S. state salud, or community health workers, who state, and they are directed to implement public health apparatus. Equity, accord- 20 October 2021 Cristina Faiver-Serna ing to the CDC, is the “opportunity” to attain good health, but equity does not equate justice, and justice is not in the state’s values, nor its vocabulary. Never has this been more glaringly obvious for the vast majority of U.S. residents than during the COVID-19 pandemic. I use Chicana and Latina feminist theory as a grounding for my experiential theorization, methodology for research in the public record, and subsequent compilation of a digital archive on pro- motoras de salud. Promotora testimonio in news media, during public meetings, and on social media speak truth to power about what it means to raise children to survive environmental racism. I build on the five-in-one Chicana M(other)work framework (Caballero et al., 2018) to analyze the spatio-temporalities of pro- motora “hidden” labor in relation to their positionalities, and intersectional systems of oppression, as Chicana and Latinx, Mothers, racialized Others, Work, and Motherwork (Collins, 2000). Further, their hypervisibility in the public eye also leads to invisibility, with their labor taken for granted by the environmental justice movement and public health orga- nizations alike. Ultimately, being so dependent on what I already “knew” from my experi- ence revealed an expansive data set that I will continue to work through in my postdoctoral fellowship next year at the University of New Hampshire, while I also prepare to interview promotoras. My research “constraints” forced me to fully appreciate the years of labor promotoras have already put into the fight for envi- ronmental justice and to tell their stories to the world. When I return to them in my role as researcher, I aim to do so in the least extractive way possible. My goal is to continue to produce scholarship that uplifts their work and contributes to their fight, if only in a small way. Promotoras are called to perform health education, but what they do is teach sur- vival skills first, and “good” health gets measured through consumerist frame- works of patient compliance. The method and mode of survival that promotoras engage in requires a constant putting- "Fieldwork" conducted from home during the pandemic included getting critical feedback along the way together of what has been broken, to cre- from my research assistant, Sebastián Serna Patterson / photo by Cristina Faiver-Serna. ate something new and meaningful from what would otherwise be devastating. ■ REFERENCES Collins, P. H. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge. —Cristina Faiver-Serna is a recent doctoral gradu- Caballero, C., Martínez-Vu, Y., Pérez-Torres, J., Téllez, M., & ate from the Department of Geography. She was the Vega, C., Eds. (2018). The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Pulido, L. (2017). Geographies of race and ethnicity 2020-21 Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship winner. Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolución. The University of II: Environmental racism, racial capitalism and state- Arizona Press.  sanctioned violence. Progress in Human Geography, 41(4), 524–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132516646495 csws.uoregon.edu 21 Graduate Student Research “My Stealthy Freedom” Feminist resistance through social media in Iran by Parichehr Kazemi, PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science In 2014, Masih Alinejad, an exiled dens that women disproportionately bear Iranian journalist, posted on Facebook from fines, impounded vehicles, legal an image of herself running through a charges, and laws that limit opportuni- London street with her curly locks lifted ties for advancement. Many images and in the air, captioning it: “When I run and videos even reflect the harassment these feel the wind in my hair, I am reminded women face as a result of their activism, that I come from a country which kept my often documenting male (and female) hair hostage for thirty years” (Mohseni, aggressors who take it upon themselves 2015). Little did Alinejad know at the to uphold the law by forcing, and often Photo provided by Parichehr Kazemi time, this small, subversive act to reclaim shaming, women into obedience. agency in her new home would pave The women who comprise Iran’s “My cious site in need of the hijab’s protection the way for thousands of Iranian women Stealthy Freedom” movement are there- to ensure its sanctity. to do the same, but in the context of a fore brave, defiant, and united in their regime bent on restricting them at every To fully appreciate the significance conviction to resist existing gender injus- turn. of such countermeasures and the issues tices. Their unique initiative has not which “My Stealthy Freedom” has Since Alinejad’s post, countless only brought international awareness to brought to the surface, it is necessary to Iranian women and girls have defied the gendered politics of Iran, but has place the movement within the broader Iran’s strict hijab mandate by taking pho- simultaneously uncovered the Islamic history of veiling in Iranian politics. tos and videos of themselves unveiled in Republic’s sensitive spot for keeping and Veiling has been a central concern of public spaces. From crowded parks to maintaining ideological control. As my Iranian feminist movements because of desolate beaches, bustling markets to col- research shows, the regime has gone to its symbolic power in Iranian society. As orful playgrounds, and state-controlled great lengths in quelling the movement’s others have pointed out (Moghissi, 1996; classrooms to religiously defined prayer momentum. The activists arrested in con- Sedghi, 2007), the Iranian Woman has sites and holy places, Iranian women are nection with “My Stealthy Freedom” become the site of contestation between redefining the norms of compliance and have been handed hefty prison sentences multiple factions who all seek to con- bringing feminist activism to the forefront under trumped-up charges that earlier solidate their power through their control of the public sphere. women’s activists did not face. In one of the female body. From Iran’s early- Collectively, these photos and videos extreme example, a woman received a six- modern history to the arrival of Ayatollah have launched a social media movement teen-year sentence for handing out flow- Khomeini in Iran, “women’s rights” have, that has grown organically to encom- ers in the Tehran metro on International therefore, been the subject of a tense pass women’s issues outside hijab laws Women’s Day, and in another, a law- political battle, and the hijab has consti- alone. For example, content often exposes yer representing several activists was tuted the symbolic determinacy of who female suppression in gendered spaces given a thirty-eight-year prison sentence possesses power. This can be seen in Reza where women are prohibited from enjoy- under charges of collusion, spreading Shah’s forced unveiling policy in the ing the same privileges as men. While propaganda, and insulting Iran’s supreme 1930s portrayed as a move to “emanci- Iranian men are free to enter soccer sta- leader. To supplement its forceful repres- pate” women, despite its broader tactical diums, ride bicycles, and sing and dance sion of female activists, the regime has significance for disempowering the cler- in public, Iranian women are not. Hence, also launched several propaganda cam- gy, and Khomeini’s “re-emancipation” images and videos often reflect confron- paigns to denounce the movement while of their bodies from Western influence, tations between activists and authorities promoting its own ideological positions despite its significance as a signaling who recognize a duty to keep women on women. On the one hand, authori- device to other factions seeking power safe from unwanted attention by keeping ties have used state-controlled media to following the 1979 revolution (Shirazi, them away from, or at least contained in, depict Alinejad as a Western spy bent on 2018). While the former placed women’s spaces where their bodies could provoke destabilizing the Islamic Republic. On the bodies at the center of an agenda to the male gaze. In other instances, content other hand, countercampaigns show an Westernize and modernize Iran, the lat- illustrates the social and economic bur- attempt to reassert control of the female body by depicting it as a holy and pre- FREEDOM, continued on page 25 22 October 2021 Graduate Student Research Tempos of Zoom Ethnography Singing with a women’s chorus in the pandemic by Molly McBride, PhD Candidate Department of Anthropology At the last rehearsal of Sistrum’s 2020-2021 season, we sang through our repertoire as a celebration of what we accomplished over Zoom rehearsals in the past nine months. It was also a coda orient- ing the women’s chorus toward the future, a “dress rehearsal” for a time when in-person concerts might be possible. One moment of this rehearsal, when we sang “I Have a Choir practice over Zoom / photo provided by Molly McBride. Voice,” encapsulated the essence of my eth- Research Grant, I had originally proposed from lesbian-feminism that was predomi- nographic research with the group. Meg, the to look at the sexual politics of the chorus: nant at that time. Through interviews with chorus director, broadcasts a recording of “I how gender, race, sexual orientation, and founding and current members and partici- Have a Voice” for us to sing with; on Zoom, class are performed in the chorus, both at pant observation of rehearsals, I saw traces each singer is muted and we sing along with an individual level and at a group level, of lesbian-feminism in the group’s current the recording. From the start I have trouble as the chorus brings together many voices politics, along with the negotiation of queer finding my part in this challenging piece into one. With the onset of the COVID-19 politics, white privilege, and anti-racism. and I attempt to lipread by intently watching pandemic, it was difficult to reconceptual- Over Zoom, singers navigated tempos of other singers, hoping to follow along even ize my project. Luckily, Sistrum pivoted to connectivity and musicality. Often rehears- if a beat behind. We arrive at my favorite Zoom rehearsals, so I, too, pivoted to digital als were mired in disconnection, but we part, only eight measures with a repeating ethnography. Out of necessity, my research found different forms of sociality on Zoom refrain over cascading melody: “Thunder focus changed from issues of identity to and translated some traditions, such as sing- catches my heart, thunder fills my lungs.” the group’s navigation of the pandemic and ing to new members at the start of a semester, Almost immediately emotion overtakes me. how their activities, which heavily rely on to digital contexts. The regularity of meet- Tears well and fall from the corners of my in-person interaction, went digital. As with ing every Wednesday provided a consistent eyes and my throat croaks out the lyrics. any internet-mediated encounter, rehearsals social and creative outlet where we could I am often moved to tears when singing were often affected by technology issues: collectively grieve and share anger and joy. with Sistrum—uncharacteristically, I might lags between video and audio, audio drop- At the direction of Sistrum’s artistic director add—but this time was different because I ping, video freezing, and the like. These and board, we started producing music vid- realized how thankful I am to have been part disruptions of time and connectivity, along eos as a creative response to the constraints of Sistrum during the COVID-19 pandemic. with the general rupture of time caused by of the pandemic. One video, “SIGNS,” plays Toward the end of the song, the recording the pandemic, were at the forefront of my with temporality through remixing old and cuts out and confusion and concern dawn ethnographic experience with Sistrum. new footage of Sistrum performing the song. on several faces. We are all lost without the I use temporality, and in particular This remix signifies Sistrum’s past politics, music but eventually it returns, and we fin- queer temporalities, to examine Sistrum’s current pandemic reality, and visions for a ish the song together…mostly. queer history, tempos of Zoom, and creative more just future. My research with Sistrum, a women’s responses to the pandemic. Founded in the As I look to my own academic future, chorus from Lansing, Michigan, unfold- 1980s in Lansing’s vibrant lesbian commu- I hope to soon publish my research as a ed in surprising ways over the past year. nity, Sistrum enacted separatist principles journal article. I am currently preparing Supported by a CSWS Graduate Student ETHNOGRAPHY, continued on page 25 csws.uoregon.edu 23 Graduate Student Research Breaking the Celluloid Frame The women at the margins of Disney animation by Stephanie Mastrostefano PhD Candidate, Department of English During the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood were “considered more sensitive to detail During the summer of 2019 I had the saw unprecedented uprisings among than men” (Johnson 13). During the first opportunity to read some of these women’s specialized trade workers. The enter- decade of the studio, women were almost stories and to uncover the hidden labor of tainment boom that began in the 1910s and exclusively hired in Ink and Paint and saw working mothers and doting wives during was sustained throughout the First World few opportunities for advancement. But the the Disney Studio strike. These records con- War and the Great Depression had driven work of inking and painting was physically stitute the basis for my second dissertation hordes of laborers to the motion picture demanding and undervalued; women often chapter which examines the complex and business. Backed by half a century of labor suffered from eye strain, back pain, and sometimes contradictory roles that women activism, enthusiasm for organizing had severe exhaustion and were discouraged held during this tumultuous moment in unionized nearly every corner of the enter- from participating in recreational activities Disney history. Women in the burgeoning tainment industry. From writers to projec- that could impact their steady hand, such as entertainment industry of the 1920s–1950s tionists and background artists to musicians, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, or even participated in the building of powerful creative professionals had entered the labor bowling. In exchange for these sacrifices, empires. They labored in their careers, in movement. But a smaller, newly developing their labor was uncredited on the finished their homes, and sometimes in the careers corner of entertainment missed the initial films, and they were among the lowest paid of their partners. Through my research I aim wave: animation studios. And Walt Disney workers in the industry. to show that we need to rethink the primi- was the biggest employer of animators in Like their work on the films themselves, tive categorizations of “work” vs. “women’s Hollywood. women’s multifaceted and complex role work” by collapsing domestic and public The Disney Studios entered their Golden in the unionization of animation work- spaces. Age during the late 1920s with the innova- ers is often overshadowed by men. Studio My dissertation examines women’s tion of synchronized sound cartoons, and lore claims that Art Babbitt, the revered labor in the early animation industry as they galvanized their position as a leader lead animator (and close confidante to Walt it intersects with racism, domestic work, in film with the release of the first feature Disney), led the drive to unionization at the and emerging technologies. To this end, I length animated film in the United States: studio after he saw a woman pass out at her aim to read an alternate history of anima- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). desk from hunger due to her inability to tion’s development into a fully rationalized But what is often overlooked in historical afford lunch. The historical account of the industrial complex from the perspective of accounts of the studio’s rise in popularity is infamous 1941 Disney Studio Strike follows the women that built it. The multiplicity the monumental role that women held in the Babbitt’s leadership and recounts a platform of women’s labor—as artists, as activists, as production of animated films. Between the that strove for more equitable wages among mothers—built the foundation of the anima- studio’s first breakout success (Steamboat studio workers—including the ink and paint tion industry in the 1920s and 1930s and Willie 1928) and the release of Snow White, girls. But these narratives exclude the wom- then sought reform in that same industry the Disney Studio had grown from 80 to en’s own participation in their liberation— in the 1940s and 1950s. Placing women as nearly 1,200 employees, of which the major- or their resistance to it. Further, records of central to the formation of entertainment ity were inkers and painters. the studio strike omit the domestic labor of empires and the efforts to reform them, I The Ink and Paint department at Disney the animators’ wives: women who labored argue, presents a more nuanced and accu- was comprised almost entirely of women. at home to support their husbands and who rate historical view. ■ Studio write-ups describe the “tedious and organized themselves into a network of —Stephanie Mastrostefano is a PhD candidate in detailed work” of ink and paint as work mothers that ensured the strikers had food, English. She received a 2019 Graduate Student Research that was “best suited for women” as they water, and proper childcare in place. Grant from CSWS. 24 October 2021 Photo provided by Stephanie Masterostefano FREEDOM, continued from page 22 ETHNOGRAPHY, continued from page 23 ter placed them at the heart of a plan Stealthy Freedom” can further illumi- to Islamicize the country (Childress, nate paths in this direction. ■ 2011). —Parichehr Kazemi is a PhD candidate in the Key to understanding the signifi- Department of Political Science. cance of “My Stealthy Freedom” is, thus, a history of contention through REFERENCES power dynamics that are seeing their most significant challenge to date from Childress, Diana. Equal Rights Is Our Minimum the largest digital movement in Iran Demand: The Women’s Rights Movement in Iran. (Khiabany, 2015). Central to this impact Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., are the images and videos that comprise 2011. the movement. My research approaches Khiabany, Gholam. “The Importance of ‘Social’ them as sites of meaning making where in Social Media: The Lessons from Iran.” In The multiple factors converge in visual arte- Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics, facts to create a unique mode of protest by Axel Bruns, Gunn Enli, Eli Skogerbo, Anders and resistance. Using critical visual Olof Larsson, and Christian Christensen, 223–34. theory to disaggregate these artefacts New York: Routledge, n.d. Molly McBride into four component parts that can account for each stage of production, Moghissi, Haideh. Populism and Feminism in Iran: an article focusing on the different tempo- dissemination, and approach, I make Women’s Struggle in a Male-Defined Revolutionary a case for the image as a safe space Movement. Second Edition. London: MacMillan ralities mentioned above and hope to elicit Press LTD, n.d. feedback from Sistrum members in the spirit for protest where those who fear the of reciprocal ethnography. I presented this repercussions of an authoritarian state Mohseni, Ala. “My Stealthy Freedom research at the 2021 Western States Folklore can censor the parts of their bodies that Documentary, Part 1: A Page Is Born.” IranWire. Society Conference in April and at the 2021 could be used to identify them. In free- Accessed May 1, 2020. https://iranwire.com/en/ Société Internationale d´Ethnologie et de ing the body from the state’s gaze and features/1358. Folklore Congress in June. This CSWS-funded yet embodying protest itself, the image simultaneously produces a space for Sedghi, Hamideh. Women and Politics in Iran: research is exploratory for my dissertation, and Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. Cambridge, though things will look quite different when visualizing cultural oppression in some Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, I begin dissertation research in 2022, working cases, while challenging dominant dis- 2007. with Sistrum over Zoom has informed how I courses, reshaping relations, and pre- am planning out my topic. First, in learning figuring alternative realities in others. Shirazi, Faegheh. “Iran’s Compulsory Hijab: about the robust history of LGBTQ+ people in As I move forward with this research, From Politics and Religious Authority to Fashion Lansing, Michigan, I am recommitted to the it is my hope to uncover new modes Shows.” In The Routledge International Handbook importance of place, memory, and ecologies of of resistance that can strengthen and to Veils and Veiling Practices, by Anna-Mari Almila community. I hope to explore several different advance women’s movements around and David Inglis, 97–115. New York: Routledge, queer communities in Lansing through their the world. I am confident that “My 2018. place-making and -remembering activities and the political commitments of each. Second, I hope to also examine the digital mediation of queer communities. After so much time spent online and on social media, I realized the importance such technology has in connecting people and in shaping identity. Though rehearsals have ended for the sum- mer, I continue to reflect on the work of ethnography during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. I developed a real attachment to the group and its members, and in part I think this is because of how they have affected me. Sitting alone in my apartment, I began to use my voice in new ways and realize that, as the song goes, I have a voice. I am continually learning how to use my voice and the thunder that fills my lungs in ethnography and every- day practice, learning when to speak out and when to listen. ■ —Molly McBride is a PhD student in Anthropology. She received a 2020-21 graduate student research grant from Photo provided by Parichehr Kazemi CSWS. csws.uoregon.edu 25 Graduate Student Research “Soy mujer, latina e inmigrante” An intersectional study of linguistic capital among Latina women immigrants in Oregon by Lara Boyero Agudo , PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages “If you are white and speak Spanish, people say: in different towns in Oregon. Using my own instrument, I con- ‘Wow, that’s awesome, you speak two languages’; but ducted Spanish semi-structured interviews with Latinas in Oregon if you are Hispanic, speaking Spanish, it’s more like: Communities (Portland, Springfield, Eugene, Corvallis, Salem, Clackamas, etc.). The study seeks to examine: (1) their ideologies ‘Oh, another wetback’... and people don’t recognize and linguistic attitudes toward Spanish, English, and Spanglish you as bilingual.” —Luz, Mexican woman resident in after their experiences outside the home; (2) their agency after their Springfield, OR exposure to the public interactions; and (3) how their personal interactions in the public sector affect, or not, the maintenance and Oregon’s Latino population has kept growing during the last transmission of Spanish to their children at home. At the same time, three decades. According to the Migration Policy Institute, this project yields a portrait of some forms of intersectional discrimi-the percentage of Latinx immigrants doubled from 25.8% nation these women face. in 1990 to 42% in 2017. Despite Oregon’s multiculturalism, there Preliminary findings reveal that participants in this study are is a political and cultural environment where xenophobia has been aware of many structural inequalities. Some Latinas expressed that, accepted, and there is a tendency to dehumanization that creates although hospitals usually offer services in Spanish, they still have isolation and fear among the Latinx community. In fact, in 2017, to schedule the translator service in advance. If they go because of an Woodburn was subjected to ICE raids and public space became a emergency or they visit a specialist, the service is not offered. Thus, menace. Latinas were in danger if they were grocery shopping, but as Rosa and Díaz (2019) and Zavala and Back (2017) explained, insti- at the same time, they had to meet that need. tutions become actors that reproduce white supremacy. Public space Within patriarchy, the idea of “home” is often created with the should serve everyone equally, not privilege the dominant group. interaction of women and the service sector. It is a race-gender-class Spaces automatically operate to disadvantage some racialized issue how Latina women have to deal with public services, trans- groups. Keeping in mind Celia’s testimony, we see the naturaliza- portation, supermarket landscapes, or schools. Moreover, within the tion of unequal treatment throughout linguistic discrimination. context of the U.S. and the language ideologies that favor monolin- Everything beyond the limits of “whiteness” becomes marked and gualism in this country, Spanish-speaking Latinas are exposed to has to be fixed. Racism is versatile and has a greater capacity to more discrimination. transform and survive. Likewise, racism takes various forms to fit People mostly detect racism during visible attacks when an changing historical circumstances to maintain economic and social immigrant is shouted at: “Make America great again! Go back to your privilege in different contexts. country!” However, subtle acts of discrimination are more challeng- Concerning Latinas’ agency, Latinas in my study attested that ing to perceive and therefore normalized and perpetuated. As Celia, they are not the “problem.” They pointed out the perceptions and another woman from my study, states: ideologies of the white listeners responsible for the racialization “When you go shopping, if you don’t know English, the service is they experience. If their English is good or bad, it does not matter difficult because the worker doesn’t meet your needs. You have to use because some participants with a high level of English proficiency the translator on your phone... And you realize that, ‘ok, he is friendly reported the same treatment (Rosa, 2016). So, the person who listens and polite, but he doesn’t understand you,’ and sometimes you have racializes and stigmatizes them. They mark Latinas. to leave without buying what you needed. I think Hispanic people Regarding the Spanglish ideologies and their maintenance, deserve quality service. However, not one in which we use gestures because we are not limited physically, or mentally, or anything.” Spanish, as a minoritized language in the U.S., has little prestige in —Celia, Cuban woman resident in Eugene, OR official contexts where there is no institutional support. Moreover, as these women explain, there is no radical language change in the The CSWS grant has allowed me to recruit 25 participants WOMEN IMMIGRANTS, continued on page 29 26 October 2021 Lara Boyero Agudo Graduate Student Research El Noa Noa Strategies of love and care at the U.S.–México border by Polet Campos-Melchor , PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology The title, “El Noa Noa,” was inspired by Juan Gabriel’s nod to an infamous bar in Ciudad Juarez that burned down in 2004. The bar once hosted queer artists and was a reminder of the music and spirit of Juan Gabriel, the angel of the city. After my 2019 summer fieldwork at Respetttrans, a trans asylum seeker shelter in Ciudad Juarez, I was inspired to celebrate the lives of trans women through my research and practice. I expected to return in Summer 2020 to create a loteria with the community and a transfronteriza artist. The pandemic made the return impossible. The violences experienced by trans asylum seekers awaiting asy- lum are ongoing. While my summer 2019 fieldwork examined the experiences of trans women facing transmisogyny, xenophobia, and homophobia during their experience with the Remain in Mexico Policy in Ciudad Juarez, my 2020 summer fieldwork was set to doc- ument the lives of trans asylum seekers being celebrated in Ciudad Beside the rainbow flag, a sign states "we want us alive." The image is from Polet's fieldwork, pre-pandemic / photo by Polet Campos-Melchor. Juarez. With the support of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, I was able to finalize transcription from my 2019 research and conduct 10 follow-up interviews with my interlocutors. This dered by state institutions and by society, as well as by homophobia resulted in my Masters thesis, submitted to the Department of that marks their bodies as deviant. For trans asylum seekers, living Anthropology and approved in December 2020. at the intersections can mean becoming invisible, losing their lives, In 2019, I was walking down Calle Hospital in Ciudad Juárez, confronting structural violence, and struggling with U.S. asylum when I saw a bright pink house with rainbow and trans flags hang- processes. ing from the roof. Asking around my volunteer networks in El Paso, To secure their safety and survival they call upon community I soon came to find out that the pink house was a shelter, known networks. These community networks extend from Central America as Respetttrans. It was run by Grecia, a nurse and the Rarámuri all the way up to the northern states of the United States. They form Mennonite “mother” of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender a network of love that enables trans asylum seekers to navigate trans (LGBT+) shelter. Grecia is a well-known member of the LGBT+ com- bigotry and the resulting isolation and neglect, ridicule and shame, munity in Ciudad Juárez, and her goal is to keep trans women off the and social marginalization. Love mitigates transphobia through streets and place them into homes and jobs where they feel safe and actions, and I draw on the work of Audre Lorde. Lorde does not welcome. In the year that I conducted fieldwork, Grecia taught me discuss love directly; she theorized the erotic as “a resource within that love is a verb; that love informs trans asylum seekers’ migration each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly experiences at the U.S.–México border. rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.” Trans asylum seekers at the U.S.- México border exist and live Lyndon Gill adds to this definition by theorizing the erotic as “a per- at the intersections of trans bigotry, xenophobia, and homopho- spectival trinity that holds together the political-sensual-spiritual.” bia. Kimberlé Crenshaw has theorized intersectionality as “a lens Gill’s contribution pieces together queer bodies, politics, and emo- through which you can see where power comes and collides, where tions as whole and theorizes the erotic as a means beyond survival. it interlocks and intersects.” Through an intersectional lens, it is My concept of love mobilizes these definitions to suggest that love is possible to say that it is not just a problem of transphobia; trans an aspect of the erotic and manifested power between trans asylum asylum seekers are impacted by contemporary U.S. and Mexican seekers. migration policies, by the ways in which they are racialized and gen- EL NOA NOA, continued on page 29 csws.uoregon.edu 27 Graduate Student Research URGENT PAUSES A reflection on my renewed commitment to rigorous research By Katherine M. Huber , PhD Candidate, Department of English COVID-19 confronted us all with an food was still being exported from Ireland to of modernizing fisheries, agriculture, and uncomfortable present. The fear for an industrializing England. energy infrastructure to offer more endur-the health and safety of family and Subsequent imperial land reforms per- ing ways of life. For example, my first colleagues, the inability to make plans in petuated emigration even after Ireland’s War chapter examines photographs that reveal the midst of ongoing economic and political of Independence from 1919-1921. Ireland’s local resistance to imperial-era agricultural uncertainty, shifting safety guidelines, racial anti-colonial movement established soli- and fisheries reform under the Congested and income disparity in healthcare, and darity with activists elsewhere, including Districts Board, defying how modernity imposed isolation all brought the immense Jawaharal Nehru, Marcus Garvey, and Pedro should look even within the official pho- injustices pervasive in U.S. society into Albizu Campos, and culminated in partial tographic record. The CSWS research grant sharp relief. The national uprisings and independence in 1922, when the border sep- enabled me to revise a version of this resurgence of the Black Lives Matter move- arating Northern Ireland from what is now chapter into an article that has since been ment that followed the murders of George the Republic of Ireland was established. The published in a leading journal in Irish Floyd and Breonna Taylor made the meticu- 2border has remained a space of violent con- Studies, Éire-Ireland. The environmental lous work of research seem both urgently testation, particularly during the Troubles humanities are burgeoning in Irish Studies, necessary and totally out of touch. Over the from 1968-1998, and its broader impacts led and I am excited to help shape the field by past year, the CSWS grant has supported me to social justice movements. The Northern being part of Éire-Ireland’s special issue on in critical self-reflection that has reinforced Irish Civil Rights Movement protested dis- Ireland and the environment. my commitment to nuanced and rigorous crimination against minority Catholic pop- Additionally, I have begun a new project historical research and teaching. ulations in Northern Ireland, particularly that draws my more historical research into At a moment of intense protest and in housing, healthcare, and environmen- the present. Ireland’s history of economic injustice in the United States, one aspect tal injustices, and forged connections with subordination in colonial and neocolonial upon which I reflected deeply was my African American Civil Rights activists like regimes means that fewer people were immi- choice to study Ireland. While Ireland Angela Davis. Over the past year, I have grating into the country until the mid-1990s. may seem to some an unusual choice for had the opportunity to write about these More recent encounters with immigration research about power and land, it offers complex histories in an analysis of Ciaran and an increasingly racially diverse popu- an important case study for understanding Carson’s 1989 poetry collection Belfast lation during the economic prosperity of the gendered and uneven forms of envi- Confetti. Carson’s poems draw the geologic the so-called Celtic Tiger (1995-2008) raise ronmental development in close proximity time of river systems into the human his- important questions about what Black Irish to the imperial center. Ireland’s long his- tories of colonialism and sectarian violence identities look like during shifting European tory as a British colony has involved many to demonstrate Belfast’s rivers as cultural immigration policies in the early twenty-first forms of dispossession and land reform that agents in ongoing formations of power and century. I address these questions by examin- were later exported to other British colo- oppression in Ireland and abroad. A draft of ing representations of asylum-seekers in the nies. For example, the forced acquisition this article was under review last summer, Republic of Ireland’s Direct Provision (DP) of land from indigenous Irish populations but I revised and published it in early 2021 system, which houses asylum seekers who in the late sixteenth century made way for in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, the wait for extended periods to learn if they plantation systems and Protestant settlers UK–Ireland journal of the Association for may remain. While social justice activists from England and Scotland. As primarily the Study of Literature and Environment.1 have critiqued the overcrowded and degrad- Catholic Irish-speaking populations were These complex and intersecting histo- ing conditions of DP centers, scholars have pushed further west, their poverty and dis- ries of power have much to teach us about examined how constructions of whiteness enfranchisement were ensured by a series the material effects of colonialism in social in an integrating European economy inform of legislations known as the Penal Laws and racial hierarchies today. Tracing these the Republic’s citizenship laws and refugee (1607-1829). These laws systematically dis- histories in Irish culture is the focus of policies. My analysis of intersections of race possessed colonized populations by limiting my dissertation, “Re-mediating Ireland: and citizenship in Nicky Gogan and Paul their material wealth, education, and politi- The Nature of Modernization in Twentieth- Rowley’s 2008 documentary, Seaview, and cal and religious freedoms. The effects of the Century Irish Culture.” Drawing on lit- Melatu Uche Okorie’s 2018 short-story col- Penal Laws substantively contributed to the erature, film, archival photography, and lection, This Hostel Life, reveals representa- mass starvation and emigration of primarily radio, my project demonstrates how those tional strategies through which Black Irish Irish-speaking populations during the Irish most affected by environmental develop- identities assert agency and cultural belong- Famine of the late 1840s, a period in which ment projects challenge official narratives ing. I presented this work at the American 28 October 2021 EL NOA NOA, continued from page 27 As a survival strategy, love is what Chela Sandoval articulates as social move- ment between citizen-activists who work towards freedom. Love then creates a dis- course on space and action. Chicana femi- nist intersectional theory attends to the creation of sitios y lenguas (a space and lan- guage) through discursive action. As artic- ulated by Emma Pérez, “our work emerges from un sitio y una lengua that rejects colonial ideology and the by-products of colonialism and capitalist patriarchy–sex- ism, racism, homophobia…Chicanas seize sociosexual power [to create] our own sitio y lengua.” I engage theorizations of love to consider new sitios y lenguas, as shared Photo provided by Katherine Huber between trans women at the U.S.–México border to inform their survival strategies. Among trans asylum seekers, love and Conference of Irish Studies in June 2021. of coimplicated histories to build stronger survival looks like pasarelas (fashion run- Reflecting on the work I have done coalitions for more equitable futures. ■ aways), cooking for each other, watching with the support of CSWS, I am increas- —Katherine M. Huber is a PhD candidate in English. out for each other on the street, passing ingly committed to rigorous research that She received a 2020 Graduate Student Research Grant information on the asylum process, visit- helps us understand the complex histories from CSWS. ing each other in hospitals, watching mov- and formations of power that have led ies together, sharing food and stories. As if to the gross inequalities of our current REFERENCES watched over by the spirit of Juan Gabriel, moment. Such work is urgently necessary 1 “‘The Eden of the future…looking like the love is a verb that enables trans asylum as we question value systems worldwide banished past’: Reading Riparian Agency in seekers to create a space for themselves at that perpetuate the uneven distribution of Deep Time in Ciaran Car-son’s Belfast Confetti,” the intersections. ■ wealth and resources during global crises Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, DOI: 10.1080/14688417.2021.1893206 —Polet Campos-Melchor is a PhD candidate in like the COVID-19 pandemic and the cli- anthropology. She received a 2020 Graduate Student mate crisis. Our ability to build meaningful 2 “The View from Mrs. Kelly’s Window: Research Grant from CSWS. coalitions depends on recognizing what Reframing Agency and Land in the Congested Chandra Talpade Mohanty calls “coimpli- Districts Board Photo-graphs,” Éire-Ireland: An REFERENCES cation,” which “refers to the idea that all of Interdisciplinary Journal of Irish Studies special us…share certain histories as well as cer- issue on Ireland and the Environment, DOI: 1 “Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality, More tain responsibilities.”3 By “tak[ing coim- 10.1353/eir.2020.0018 than Two Decades Later” https://www.law. plication] seriously to understand ‘differ- 3 Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism without columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw- Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. intersectionality-more-two-decades-laterence’ as historical and relational,” I hope my research enhances our understanding Duke UP, 2008, pp. 203. 2 Kimberlé Crenshaw. "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics." U. Chi. Legal f. (1989): 139. WOMEN IMMIGRANTS, continued from page 26 3 Marshall K. Cheney, Mary J. Gowin, E. Laurette Taylor, Melissa Frey, Jamie Dunnington, Ghadah family, and they remain firm in Spanish use. —Lara Boyero Agudo is a PhD candidate in Romance Alshuwaiyer, J. Kathleen Huber, Mary Camero These Latinas also made clear the need to languages. She received a 2020 Graduate Student Garcia, and Grady C. Wray. "Living outside the have new generations that speak both lan- Research Grant from CSWS. gender box in Mexico: testimony of transgender guages to help the community. As another Mexican asylum seekers." American Journal of Public interviewee explained: “My grandson does REFERENCES Health 107, no. 10 (2017): 1646-1652. not forget that Spanish is a language that Back, Michele & Zavala, Virgnia, Racismo y lenguaje 4 Audre Lorde. "I Am Your Sister." Collected and will take him far.” Even when they talk (Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, edited by about Spanglish, none of them described Editorial, 2017). Rudolph P. Byrd et al." (2009): 53. it as a variety with less prestige. They are aware of the language contact and are happy Rosa, Jonathan, “Racializing Language, Regimenting 5 Lyndon K. Gill. Erotic Islands: Art and Activism in the Latinas/os: Chronotope, Social Tense, and American Queer Caribbean. Duke University Press, (2018): 10.about the biculturalism that is being formed. Raciolinguistic Futures,” Language & Communication 6 Chela Sandoval. Methodology of the Oppressed. I will continue to develop my research 46 (2016): 106-117. Vol. 18. U of Minnesota Press, (2013): 183. project as I am able to interview not only Rosa, Jonathan, & Diaz, Vanessa, “Raciontologies: 7 Emma Pérez, “Sexuality and Discourse: Notes more women but also men. I hope this Rethinking Anthropological Accounts of Institutional From a Chicana Survivor,” in Chicana Lesbians: The research project fills in the gap of studies in Racism and Enactments of White Supremacy in the Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About. (Berkeley: Third the field and helps to challenge the status United States,” American Anthtopologist 122.1 (2019): Woman Press, 1991), 161. quo in the U.S. ■ 120-132. csws.uoregon.edu 29 H I G H L I G H T S F R O M T H E A C A D E M I C Y E A R Richmond nominated for a top government post Several CSWS faculty affiliates are involved in projects funded by the Chemistry professor Geraldine Richmond (pic- new institute, including Professor Laura Pulido, geography and Indigenous, tured left), the UO’s Presidential Chair in Science, race, and ethnic studies; Franny Gaede, director of digital scholarship ser- has been nominated to serve in the Biden admin- vices, UO Libraries; Assistant Professor Ana-Maurine Lara, anthropology; istration as undersecretary for science in the Associate Professor Alaí Reyes-Santos, Indigenous, race, and ethnic studies; Department of Energy. Her nomination requires and Associate Professor Marsha Weisiger, history. confirmation by the U.S. Senate. The Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate The undersecretary for science oversees the Justice will be a multidisciplinary collaboration between leaders from Energy Department’s Office of Science, advises the UO’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Design, alongside the secretary of energy on energy and technology other partners across campus and institutions in the region, including the issues, monitors the department’s research and University of Idaho and Whitman College. With capacity made possible by development programs, and advises the secretary the Mellon funding, the institute will tackle the intertwined issues of racial on management of the DOE’s national laboratories, and climate justice and work toward a more just future for the region. among other duties. A professor at the UO since 1985, Richmond Affiliates win VPRI faculty research awards has been a pioneer in advocating for the advance- Several CSWS faculty affiliates are recipients of the 2021 Faculty Research ment of women in science. In 1998, Richmond and Jeanne Pemberton Awards, given by the Office of the Vice President of Research and of the University of Arizona co-founded COACh, the Committee on the Innovation. Recipients include: Advancement of Women Chemists. The organization has delivered a series • Annelise Heinz, Assistant Professor, History, “Book Project: of successful workshops on negotiation, leadership, and conflict resolution Collective: How Lesbian Feminists Reimagined Society” to more than 15,000 women in all fields of science and engineering around • Maile Hutterer, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, the U.S. Since 2010, Richmond has taken COACh to developing countries “Architecture in the Medieval Imagination—Chapter 2, ‘Place’” in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The international workshops, which • Masami Kawai, Assistant Professor, Cinema Studies, “Feature Film: include guidance on publishing and proposal writing, have been conducted Valley of the Tall Grasses” in more than 20 countries. • Leah Lowthorp, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, “Deep Cosmopolitanism: Kutiyattam, Dynamic Tradition, and National/ Global Heritage in Kerala, India” • Johanna Richlin, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, “Fear, Hope, and Potentiality: An Ethnographic Study of Vaccine Hesitancy in the Time of Covid-19” • Yvette Saavedra, Assistant Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Living La Mala Vida/Living the Bad Life: Transgressive Femininities, Morality, and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century California, 1800-1850” • Courtney Thorsson, Associate Professor, English, “The Sisterhood: Black Women’s Literary Organizing” Lara wins Ruth Benedict Prize, VPRI Early Career Award Ana-Maurine Lara (pictured right), assistant pro- fessor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, has been awarded the Ruth Benedict Prize of the Raiskin, Long win Oregon Heritage Excellence Award Association for Queer Anthropology, a section Judith Raiskin (pictured left above), associate professor of women’s, gender, of the American Anthropological Association and sexuality studies, and special collections librarian Linda Long, UO for her book Queer Freedom : Black Sovereignty Libraries, have received the 2021 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award for (SUNY Press 2020). the Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project. The oral history project docu- In addition, Lara has received the 2021 ments and preserves the contributions of the Eugene lesbian community to Early Career Award from the Office of the Vice Oregon’s enduring cultural, political, and social innovations. President for Research and Innovation—UO’s Oregon Heritage Excellence Awards recognize action taken to preserve highest honor to recognize and celebrate an and share Oregon’s heritage over and above the call of duty. emerging and significant record of scholarship “The award recipients represent individuals, organizations, and projects and research on our campus. According to the that serve as inspiration and models for preserving Oregon’s stories,” said VPRI website, Lara earned this honor for her Katie Henry, coordinator for the Oregon Heritage Commission. “This year “significant record of outstanding interdisci- has been especially tough for everyone, including Oregon’s heritage orga- plinary accomplishments across several fields, including anthropology, nizations, and being able to celebrate these heritage wins is critical as we literature, performance studies, women and gender studies, digital humani- hopefully move towards recovery.” ties, and Indigenous, race, and ethnic studies. An innovative scholar, she Awards are a project of Oregon Heritage, part of the Oregon Parks and combines qualitative social science research with the artistic production of Recreation Department. This year’s awards were presented in conjunc- fiction, poetry, and performance.” tion with the Oregon Heritage Summit in April. During the virtual sum- mit, videos of the award-winning projects were debuted. The Lesbian Affiliates gain seed funding for research projects Oral History Project video can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/ Several CSWS faculty affiliates are among the winners of seed funding for watch?v=Kb8ZkV8TWA0. the 2021 Incubating Interdisciplinary Initiatives awards, known as the I3 Awards, from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Faculty affiliates help to establish new institute Four research teams were selected for this year’s funding awards. The University of Oregon has received a $4.52 million grant from the Projects that CSWS affiliates are participating in include “Understanding Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new initiative envisioning a Collegiate Esports: Economic, Institutional, and Cultural Integration” (with transformative research platform for racial and climate justice. It is the larg- Tara Fickle, English, and Amanda Cote, Journalism and Communication) est humanities award in UO history. HIGHLIGHTS, continued on page 32 30 October 2021 CSWS Congratulates 2021-22 Research Grant Award Winners The Center for the Study of Women in Soci- Women’s Working Class Literature.” ety (CSWS) is pleased to announce funding • Teresa Hernandez-Reed, English, “Con- awards for AY 2021-22 totaling $108,000 for tested Motherlands: Disputed Sover- scholarship, research, and creative work on eignties and Geographies of the U.S./ women and gender—our largest funding year Mexico Border.” in well over a decade. • Sarah Horn, Psychology, “Mental and Because the pandemic interrupted the Physical Health Consequences of the Center’s regular programming, CSWS decided COVID-19 Pandemic on Child Welfare instead to increase this year’s grant fund- Involved Women Caregivers.” ing to support faculty and graduate student • Carla Macal, Geography, “GuateMaya research. A total of 26 grants were awarded to Migrant Women in Los Angeles: Heal- 16 graduate students, nine tenure-track fac- ing Inter-generational Trauma in the ulty members, and one career faculty member. Diaspora.” In graduate student research awards, Jon • Nathan Mather, Counseling Psychology, Jaramillo, PhD candidate in romance languages, “Working Class Gay Fathers’ Experience was selected as the next Jane Grant Disserta- with Unpaid Care Work: A Narrative tion award holder for his project, “Viral Bodies: Inquiry.” AIDS and Other Contagions in Latin Ameri- • Zeinab Nobowati, Philosophy, “Is can Narrative.” The Jane Grant Dissertation Postcolonial Becoming Postfeminist? A awardee receives an $18,000 stipend and UO Feminist Philosophical Inquiry.” student health insurance for the academic year. Jon Jaramillo • Annalee Ring, Philosophy, “Cleanliness: A In addition, in partnership with the dean, the Cultural Construction Perpetuating Race, Graduate School provides tuition remission for the early stages of their dissertation and who Gender, and Class Discriminations.” the academic year. were runners up for the Jane Grant Fellow- • Max Skorodinsky, Education, “More According to Jaramillo’s project abstract, ship. This year, two completion fellowships than Binary, More than Normative, “The HIV/AIDS crisis in Latin America was were awarded to doctoral candidate Robin More than Quantities: Diverse Gender overshadowed by the late phase of the Okumu in comparative literature and to doc- Identities in Computer Science Educa- Cold War, while authoritarian governments toral candidate Cornesha Tweede in romance tion Research.” promoted discourses reflecting moral and languages. • Jinsun Yang, Sociology, “Gender Dynam- ethical exceptionalism. People with AIDS The following is a complete list of CSWS ics in Non-binary Sports Spaces: Korean (PWAs) experienced multiple crises—moral grant awardees and their projects: Queer Women’s Games Challenge the excision by the state, marginalization, and the Two Sex System in Sports.” certainty of death. Existing societal infra- Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship structures of class, race, ethnicity, gender, • Jon Jaramillo, Romance Languages, “Vi- Faculty Research Grants and sexuality, which already urged marginal- ral Bodies: AIDS and Other Contagions • Hiba Ali, Art, “Amazonification.” ized lives into even more precarious ways of in Latin American Narrative.” • Johanna Bard Richlin, Anthropology, being, complicated and intensified how PWAs “Anxiety, Autonomy, Activism: An Eth- experienced isolation, internal exile, neglect, Graduate Writing Completion Fellowships nographic Study of Vaccine Hesitancy condemnation, discrimination, and death. • Robin Okumu, Comparative Literature, Among Mothers in Oregon.” Exceptional conditions led to a 10-year delay “Utopian Relationality: Intercorporeal • Corinne Bayerl, Comparative Literature, before works by Latin American artists and Subjectivity in French Feminist Fiction.” “The Stage on Trial: Theatrical Battles in writers emerged. My dissertation…examines • Cornesha Tweede, Romance Languages, Early Modern Europe.” works by Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba), Mario “The Recuperation of Agency and Sub- • Claire Herbert, Sociology, “Mothers Bellatín (Mexico), Pedro Lemebel (Chile), and jectivity of the Black African Women in Squatting to Secure Housing: A Three- Pablo Perez (Argentina) since they reveal a the Iberian Early Modern Archive.” Case Comparison of Organized Illegal spectrum of intersectional AIDS subjectivi- Occupation in Detroit, Oakland, and ties exhibiting accommodation, resistance, Graduate Student Research Grants Philadelphia.” and transgression of prevailing national and • Ola Adeniji, Human Physiology, “Bio- • Masami Kawai, Cinema Studies, “Valley religious norms....‘Viral Bodies’ argues that as medical Sports Analysis in Collegiate of the Tall Grasses” (film). these narratives break imposed silences by Athletics: Determinants of Performance • Jina Kim, East Asian Languages and radically exteriorizing the insularity, anonym- in Sprint and Jump Events among Fe- Literatures, “Sounding Women: Chang ity, and decomposing bodies of those dying, male Participants.” Tokjo’s Mid-Century Korean Radio Nov- and living, with the disease, they also inter- • Elinam Amevor, Journalism and Commu- els (1914-2003).” vene in national, transnational, and religious nication, “Risking Birth: Gender, Culture, • Leah Lowthorp, Anthropology, “Deep discourses.” and Advocacy in Maternal Healthcare Cosmopolitanism: Kutiyattan, Dynamic CSWS has awarded the Jane Grant Fellow- Choices and Utilization in Ghana.” Tradition, and Global Heritage in India.” ship to graduate students at the University • Malvya Chintakindi, Anthropology, “In- • Ernesto Martinez, Indigenous, Race, and of Oregon since 1983. This highly competitive formal Labor Blues: Effects of COVID-19 Ethnic Studies, “The Boy Who Became a dissertation award supports projects from a on Dalit Caste Women in Hyderabad, River” (film). range of disciplines on topics related to women India.” • Stephen Rodgers, Music, “The Songs of and gender. The award is open to eligible UO • Anna Dulba-Barnett, Theater Arts, “Read- Clara Schumann.” graduate students who are ABD and spend the ing Polish Theater Through the Lens of • Yvette Saavedra, Women’s, Gender, and award year writing their dissertation. Eco-Dramaturgy and Eco-Feminism.” Sexuality Studies, “Living la mala vida: In addition, a new Graduate Writing Comple- • Cassandra Galentine, English, “Wash Transgressive Feminisms, Morality, and tion Fellowship gives summer writing support Yourself White: Race, Hygiene, and En- Nationalism in 19th Century California, to one or more doctoral students who are in vironmental Justice in U.S. Multiethnic 1800-1850.” csws.uoregon.edu 31 H I G H L I G H T S F R O M T H E A C A D E M I C Y E A R HIGHLIGHTS, continued from page 30 who received OHC Research Fellowships include: • Sharon Luk, Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, “Sea of Fire: and “Indigenous-led Framework for Collaboration across Knowledge A Buddhist Pedagogy of Dying and Black Encounters in Times of and Value Systems for the Conservation of Bio-cultural Diversity—The War.” Totem Pole Journey as Communication Method” (with Barbara Muraca, • Isabel Millán, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Coloring Philosophy and Environmental Studies; Marsha Weisiger, History and into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children’s Literature” Environmental Studies; and Kari Norgaard, Sociology). (Ernest G. Moll Research Fellowship in Literary Studies). • Yvette Saavedra, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Living Affiliates awarded Presidential Fellowships la Mala Vida: Transgressive Femininities, Morality, and Nationalism Seven CSWS faculty affiliates have been awarded the Presidential in Mexican California, 1800-1850.” Fellowships in Humanistic Studies as “highly productive or highly promis- • Analisa Taylor, Romance Languages, “Daughters of the Moon: ing tenure-track faculty working in humanistic areas.” Longing and Memory in Mexico’s Lacandon Rainforest” (Ernest G. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College of Arts and Sciences recog- Moll Research Fellowship in Literary Studies). nized and celebrated both the 2020 and 2021 fellows together. Alternates for the Research Fellowships include: Annelise Heinz, histo- Affiliates who won the 2021 Presidential Fellowships in Humanistic ry, “Collective: How Lesbian Feminists Reimagined Society,” and Katherine Studies include: Kelp-Stebbins, English, “How Comics Travel.” • Stacy Alaimo, professor of English and environmental studies. CSWS affiliates who were awarded OHC Teaching Fellowships include: • Gabriela Pérez Báez, associate professor of linguistics. Corinne Bayerl, comparative literature and Clark Honors College, COLT • Erin McKenna, professor of philosophy. 211 African American Writers in France; and Kristen Seaman, history of art • Bryna Goodman, professor of history. and architecture, ARH 321 Ancient Jewish Art and Architecture (Coleman- Affiliates who won the 2020 Presidential Fellowships in Humanistic Guitteau Professorship in the Humanities). Studies include: • Gina Herrmann, professor of Spanish. May receives Center for Environmental Futures faculty research grant • Anya Kivarkis, associate professor of jewelry and metalsmithing Theresa May, professor of theatre arts, has received a Center for art. Environmental Futures/Andrew W. Mellon Summer Faculty Research • Julie Weise, associate professor of history. Award for her WaterWays Project, “BlueJay’s Canoe.” The grant is designed to support faculty research and writing in the environmental humanities Fickle wins American Book Award, NEH grant and creative works in the environmental arts. Tara Fickle (pictured left), associate professor of English, has been named a 2020 American Book Wheeler receives ALA CHOICE award for book Award winner for her first book, The Race Card: Professor Betsy Wheeler, English, author of Handiland: The Crippest Place From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities on Earth (2019, University of Michigan Press) has been selected for a CHOICE (New York University Press). The American Book Outstanding Academic Title honor by the American Library Association. Award is presented by the Before Columbus This honor is awarded to “outstanding works for their excellence in pre- Foundation, founded in 1976 as a nonprofit edu- sentation and scholarship, the significance of their contribution to the field, cational and service organization dedicated to the their originality and value as an essential treatment of their subject, and sig- promotion and dissemination of contemporary nificance in building undergraduate collections.” Additionally, the CHOICE American multicultural literature. review for Handiland was on the ALA’s Most Read Reviews list for 2020. In addition, Fickle has been awarded a 2021 Sabzalian receives Williams Fellowship NEH fellowship for her project “Behind Aiiieeeee!: Leilani Sabzalian (pictured right), assistant pro- A New History of Asian American Literature.” fessor of indigenous studies and co-director of The fellowship will fund the research, writing, the Sapsik’wałá (Teacher) Education Program, and digital development of a book examining the publication history of o ne College of Education, is one of three Tom of the first anthologies of Asian American literature, Aiiieeeee! and Carol Williams Fund for Undergraduate Balogun, Goodman receive Fund for Faculty Excellence awards Education fellowship winners for 2021. Winners of the Office of the Provost’s 2020–21 Fund for Faculty Excellence The Williams Fellowship honors those include faculty affiliates Kemi Balogun, associate professor of sociology who challenge their students, create inclusive and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and Bryna Goodman, profes- environments, innovate the learning process, sor of history. The recipients of the award not only achieved a high level and create a collaborative learning experience. of scholarship and contributions to their field but are key participants in Williams fellows embody the spirit of innova- developing and defining the academic mission of the university through tion in teaching and learning, and they represent service and daily work. the collaborative ideal of reaching across dis- ciplines and departments to create change and Goodman receives Japan studies grant opportunities for students. History professor Bryna Goodman has been awarded a 2021–22 Japan Studies Grant from the Association for Asian Studies’ Northeast Asia Guillemin named as a fellow in the AAAS Council for her project, “Expansive Exchanges: Japanese Share Trading Biologist Karen Guillemin has been elected as a fellow by the American Institutions in Republican China.” These grants are intended for short-term Association for the Advancement of Science, joining 488 other newly research trips by scholars who need time in Japan in order to complete a elected members recognized for their distinguished efforts to advance sci- distinct project. ence or its applications. A professor in the UO’s Department of Biology and the Institute of Faculty affiliates win OHC fellowships Molecular Biology who also serves as director of the META Center for Nine CSWS affiliates are among those who have been selected to be Oregon Systems Biology, Guillemin examines how animals coexist with their Humanities Center’s 2021–22 Faculty Fellows. microbial residents and the role bacteria play in development and disease. Among OHC’s research grant recipients is CSWS director and law pro- She helped pioneer a research model involving a special germ-free zebra fessor Michelle McKinley, who received the Provost’s Senior Humanist fish that enables scientists to better determine the role microbes play as Fellowship for “Bound Biographies: Transoceanic Itineraries and the Afro– animals grow. Iberian Diaspora in the Early Modern World.” Additional faculty affiliates 32 October 2021 Charise Cheney Named Black Studies Director Charise Cheney, associate professor of Indigenous, race, and ethnic studies, has been named director of the Black Studies Program at University of Oregon. Cheney’s books include Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the Golden Age of Rap Nationalism (New York University Press, 2005) and the work-in-progress “What Do We Have to Lose?” School Desegregation in Topeka, Kansas after Brown v. Board, 1953-1970. Her current scholarship examines Black social and political movements in a wide variety of contexts, from educational policies to music and dance. She led the Umoja Academic Residential Community as its first faculty director from 2016 through 2018. And her distinguished record of teaching was recognized with the Tykeson Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018. In “A Message from the Director” on the Black Studies website, Cheney had these words to say about her vision for the program: “Over the next three years, my objective is to solidify the mission, vision, and curriculum of Black Studies. As an academic program, introduced me to histories, methodologies, and epistemologies that Black Studies draws upon instructional resources from units across the were absent in my secondary education. Like other Black students university. My first order of business as Director is to recruit core faculty whose elementary, middle school, and high school classes privileged and faculty affiliates and to expand Black Studies course offerings…. whiteness, college courses that centered marginalized and minoritized Americans radically shifted my racial and gender subjectivity. In fact, “The Black Cultural Center, Umoja Academic Residential Community those courses changed my life trajectory. Conservative rebranding of and the Black Studies Program share an origin story. In 2015, the Black ‘Critical Race Theory’ has effectively challenged the incorporation of Student Task Force mobilized around a shared phenomenology of more inclusive social studies curricula in classrooms across the nation. anti-blackness and created a list of 12 demands. The BSTF and its allies But white supremacy and white settler colonialism are integral parts inherited a legacy of Black student activism that began in the late 1960s of American history, the legacy of which is imprinted on our daily lived as Black college and university students at PWIs and HBCUs pushed for experiences. Black Studies is an academic field that should not be protected spaces on campus, including academic sites that nurtured confused with identity politics, but the two are intimately related. My and developed transcendent forms of blackness. As a student and desire as the Director of Black Studies is to create an intellectual space teacher, I am a product of that history. that facilitates students’ personal growth and promotes social justice “As an undergraduate at Northwestern University in the 1990s, I activism and advocacy.” was inspired by the Black Studies and Women’s Studies courses that For more information, go to https://blackstudies.uoregon.edu. ■ Beck, May win Distinguished Teaching Awards Studies Faculty Research Seed Grant for “Becoming Heritage: Recognition, CSWS faculty affiliates Erin Beck, associate professor of political sci- Exclusion, and the Politics of Black Cultural Heritage in Colombia.” ence, and Theresa May, professor of theatre arts, have received 2021 Distinguished Teaching Awards—UO’s highest teaching honor. The Office Chronister to head new Division of Graduate Studies of the Provost selected a total of six outstanding faculty members to receive Krista Chronister (pictured right), professor of -'l the prestigious awards. counseling psychology in the UO’s College of ~ --~ Beck received a Thomas F. Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy, Education, has been selected as the new vice pro- ' vost of graduate studies and will head the newly . .... ~. ,,: which recognizes expertise in a particular field or instructional setting. May ., received the Herman Faculty Achievement Award, which is given to only created Division of Graduate Studies. In addition one outstanding recipient per year. to overseeing the new division, she will and sup- . .. port graduate education across the university’s i r . ' - Escallón named Morse Resident Scholar, wins CLLAS seed funding schools and colleges. ,'?I Assistant professor Maria Fernanda Escallón, anthropology, has been Chronister has served as the associate dean named a 2021–22 Wayne Morse Resident Scholar for her project “COVID- for academic affairs and equity, interim director • 19, Faculty Activism, and the Potential for Building a Care Work Policy of the HEDCO Clinic, and assistant dean for equi- Infrastructure in Academia.” ty and inclusion. She also served as the interim The project involves a comparative analysis of five U.S.-based uni- director at the Center on Diversity and Community, as well as the director of versities that will examine both the caregiving policies that faculty have training for the UO counseling psychology’s doctoral program. proposed and institutional responses to them. The goal is to analyze uni- versities’ plans, priorities, and limitations in addressing the carework crisis Stephen wins LASA Award in order to effectively narrow the academic equity gaps exacerbated by Professor Lynn Stephen, anthropology, has won the 2021 Latin American COVID-19. The study has also been designated a CSWS Research Interest Studies Association’s Expert Witness Section Award for her article, “Fleeing Group Special Project. Rural Violence: Mam Women Seeking Gendered Justice in Guatemala and In addition, Escallón has received a Center for Latino/a and Latin American the U.S.,” published in the Journal of Peasant Studies in 2019. The article csws.uoregon.edu 33 Charise Cheney H I G H L I G H T S F R O M T H E A C A D E M I C Y E A R is one of the pieces she wrote specifically to build an argument to help in an active online platform that can serve as an intellectual resource and a gendered asylum cases. space to build connections as well as foster dialog and interaction. For more information, contact co-organizers Kristin Yarris at keyarris@ Herrmann wins Camargo Foundation residential fellowship in France uoregon.edu or Maria Fernanda Escallón at mfe@uoregon.edu. Gina Herrmann, professor of Spanish and Norman H. Brown Faculty Fellow, has been awarded a residential fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Wellbeing: Studies and Practices Cassis, France. The program awards international fellowships in the arts New for AY 2021–22, the Wellbeing: Studies and Practice research inter- and humanities and supports academic and artistic inquiry. Herrmann will est group seeks to foster a space of intellectual and supportive community spend fall term working on a project about current refugees and similarities among faculty, staff, and students interested in the field of wellbeing studies to earlier migration policies, particularly in the French concentration camps and praxis at UO. Participants will come from academic departments such of World War II. as Global Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies as well as from the Duck Nest Tenure and Promotion and other campus services fostering wellness in students, faculty, and staff. CSWS is thrilled to extend congratulations to those members of the commu- As a field of transdisciplinary study, wellbeing studies bridges the nity who have received tenure and promotion, and especially to faculty in human sciences with the humanities, asking key questions about the social our CSWS community: Jamie Bufalino, Senior Instructor, Women's, Gender, and subjective nature of health, humanistic questions about what it means and Sexuality Studies; Marjorie G. Celona, Associate Professor, Creative to live well, and political questions about the ways in which social life can Writing Program; Tannaz Farsi, Professor, Art; Kaori Idemaru, Professor, be structured to support human flourishing. At UO, in the past year, several East Asian Languages and Literatures; Jina Kim, Associate Professor, new courses have been developed and taught by faculty across disciplines, East Asian Languages and Literatures; Ana-Maurine M. Lara, Associate from Global Studies to Sociology, examining the topic of wellbeing in his- Professor, Anthropology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; torical, cross-cultural, and critical perspectives. These academic courses of Charlene Liu, Professor, Art; Bronwen Maxson, Associate Librarian, study inevitably call students to reflect on their own positionality vis-à-vis Research & Instructional Services; Theresa May, Professor, Theatre Arts; wellbeing practices. This mode of reflexive thought and praxis has been Barbara Muraca, Associate Professor, Philosophy and Environmental an explicit element of these new courses, and is of course an extension of Studies; Camisha A. Russell, Associate Professor, Philosophy; Kristen longstanding feminist principles of linking the political to the personal. E. Seaman, Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture; Susan L. These courses ask students to reflect on their personal relationships to their Sokolowski, Professor, Product Design; Kate Thornhill, Associate Librarian, bodies, and to systems of reproduction and production—all as a means of Digital Scholarship Services; Eleanor Vandegrift, Senior Instructor II, opening up a conversation about cultivation of body awareness and accep- Global Studies Institute. Enhorabuena! Parabéns, congratulations to all! tance among students. The aim of the RIG will be to consider wellbeing as a personal and subjective process shaped by what feminist care ethicists have RESEARCH INTEREST GROUP REPORTS long-argued are social and policy environments that structure possibilities Exploring Black Feminist Ecologies of wellness. New for AY 2021–22, the Exploring Black Feminist Ecologies research inter- During the first year, RIG participants will meet at least twice per term est group seeks to create a space to reimagine the natural world through the to focus on community-building and providing a space of community and lens of black feminism in art, literature, critical geography, environmental support for their inquiries and practices in wellbeing studies. Longer-term education, and environmental racism. RIG members plan to discuss two potential outcomes may include: the development of a Wellbeing Studies books on black feminist ecology, workshop graduate student projects, Center or the coordination of a multi-day conference on Wellbeing held at organize a panel discussion, and establish a long-term Black Ecologies Lab the UO, drawing scholars and practitioners from around the world. within the UO’s environmental studies program. For more information, contact Kristin Yarris at keyarris@uoregon.edu. For more information, contact Jessica T. Brown at jtbrown@uoregon.edu. Inclusive Pedagogies Care, Equity, and Social Justice First established in 2017 by members of the UO’s Composition Program, New for AY 2021–22, the Care, Equity, and Social Justice (CESJ) research Inclusive Pedagogies became a CSWS research interest group in AY 2018- interest group seeks to foster connections among scholars examining how 19. While the pandemic limited their activities during 2020–21, the RIG ordinary citizens, activists, and organizations in the Global South use achieved two primary goals for the year. practices of care in order to resist processes of exclusion, violence, and First, with support from CSWS, organizers launched a new Inclusive vulnerability. Their goal is to strengthen and promote collaboration between Pedagogies blog to serve as a clearinghouse for readings, research and scholars and activists from the Global North with those who live, work, or criticism, teaching materials, podcasts and videos, and other resources that conduct research in the Global South around strategies of survival and alter- support inclusive/antiracist pedagogy and praxis at the UO. In addition to native forms of care among historically marginalized groups. Their interest hosting the group’s history, blog, and events calendar, the website offers is in exploring interdisciplinary perspectives on care, caregiving, and care- resources for inclusive teaching in three main categories: work that highlight how, beyond an act of love or a form of labor, care might • Writing—readings, syllabi, assignments, and other course materials also be understood as a political act. Through this research group, partici- that support inclusive/antiracist teaching in WR and other writing- pants want to examine the politics of care and how carework and caregiv- based courses. ing can be read as political. As such, RIG members are interested in tracing • Contract Grading—materials for equitable and inclusive contract how care and survival move from individual action toward the collective, grading and labor-based assessment practices in WR, ENG, and becoming a group-based means to advance social justice and equity causes. other courses. To build an intellectual community, beginning Fall 2021 CESJ will orga- • Antiracism—campus and national educational resources that com- nize meetings every other month to discuss academic articles and present bat racism and anti-Black racism across the curriculum. work in progress from faculty and students. They also plan to organize two For more information and to contribute materials to the site, go to public roundtable discussions during the year, inviting local and interna- https://blogs.uoregon.edu/iprig/. tional scholars, researchers, and activists to participate. Beyond the grant Second, RIG members continued their regular reading group meetings period, organizers expect that the RIG will support collaboration for research via Zoom during the academic year. They met twice per term to discuss cur- and the publication of articles in peer-review journals and other platforms, rent research in composition studies and its intersections with gender, race, as well as presentations at conferences and symposia, and additional grant sexuality, ability, and other aspects of identity and social justice. support from external funding sources. They plan to create a website that Unique to their reading group format is that no preparation is required will enable local and international participants to share work and maintain for the two-hour sessions. Instead, members read together for the first 30 34 October 2021 Thank You to CSWS Donors The Center for the Study of Women transformative work of CSWS. Your directly at 541.346.2113. in Society’s mission gives scholars gift will go directly to our work to fund We thank you, our donors, for your the support they need to make a intersectional feminist research and ongoing support of our mission: difference in the world. Last year, we enrich the UO community by bringing awarded more than $89,000 in grant to campus leaders who can speak to the Thomas Beaumont funding to support research that ways in which gender, race, class, ability, addresses complex gender identities and and sexual orientation intersect and Aletta Biersack inequalities. Over time, we have granted inform our vision of social justice. more than two million dollars to more Louise M. BishopMail a check payable to “CSWS—UO than five hundred researchers to support Foundation” to: University of Oregon the growth and development of feminist Vickie DeRoseFoundation, 1720 E. 13th Avenue, Suite scholarship. 410, Eugene OR 97403-2253. For more Bryna Goodman Moreover, seed funding from the information about giving to CSWS, please Center supports research interest groups contact us at 541.346.5015 or go to csws. Margaret J. Hallock and special projects, some of which uoregon.edu and click the “give” button. have grown into major initiatives such You can also contact the UO Foundation Sara D. Hodges as the Women of Color Project, which Ana-Maurine Lara began in 2008 to address the absence of women of color in leadership positions at Theresa May the University of Oregon. Over the last decade, the Center has been a home for Leah Middlebrook women faculty of color through leadership opportunities, networking, intellectual Paul W. Peppis camaraderie, feedback, and mentorship. Our donors help to make this vital, Annie H. Popkin ongoing work possible. Suzanne E. Row You can be a part of the almost 50 years of feminist research and community Alai Reyes-Santos by donating today to support the Ellen K. Scott minutes then discuss the selected article or book chapter in relation to their spectives and biases and how transformative pedagogy seeks to make the teaching praxis. Faculty, graduate student educators, and writing support classroom a democratic setting where everyone feels a responsibility to specialists from across disciplines are invited to participate (see the website contribute. Their second reading selection was “The Myth of the Colorblind for upcoming meetings and reading selections). Writing Classroom: White Instructors Confront White Privilege in Their During fall term, RIG members discussed selections from two books Classrooms,” by Octavio Pimentel, Charise Pimentel, and John Dean, in in anticipation of the UO’s 2021 Equity and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication, TeachIn (rescheduled from 2020). The first selection was from keynote edited by Frankie Condon and Vershawn Ashanti Young (University Press speaker Dr. Bettina Love’s book, We Want To Do More Than Survive: of Colorado, 2017). The chapter discusses the ways in which writing Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom (Beacon instructors attempt to displace the colorblind perspective in their class- Press, 2019). Members read Chapter 5, “Abolitionist Teaching, Freedom rooms by using an antiracist approach to multiculturalism. Dreaming, and Black Joy,” which discusses freedom dreaming as imagining During spring term, their first reading selection was “Should Writers Use a new world free from oppression and educators as co-conspirators, not They Own English?” by Vershawn Ashanti Young (Iowa Journal of Cultural allies, in the creation of this new world. Their second reading selection Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 110-118). Young writes a rigorously was from Kevin Kumashiro’s book, Troubling Education: Queer Activism reasoned response to Stanley Fish’s dissent to the Conference on College and Anti-Opressive Pedagogy (Routledge, 2002). Members read Chapter Composition and Communication’s 1974 statement, “Student’s Right To 2, “Theories and Practices of Anti-oppressive Education,” which analyzes Their Own Language,” emphasizing his point by writing the essay entirely four ways to conceptualize and work against oppression: education for the in Black English. Young was a keynote speaker for the 2021 CCCC event, Other, education about the Other, education that is critical of privileging at which several IPRIG members presented. Their second reading selec- and Othering, and education that changes students and society. tion was “Relating Our Experiences: The Practice of Positionality Stories During winter term, the first reading selection was from bell hook’s in Student-Centered Pedagogy,” by Christina V. Cedillo and Phil Bratta classic work Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (College Composition and Communication, vol. 71, no. 2, 2019, pp. 215- (Routledge, 1994). Members read Chapter 1, “Engaged Pedagogy,” which 240). The authors discuss positionality stories as “a critical methodology discusses how teachers must be actively committed to a process of self- that opens space for students to consider academic counternarratives that actualization and well-being if they are to teach in a manner that empowers contest educational conditions and assumptions” (215). students, and Chapter 3, “Embracing Change: Teaching in a Multicultural For more information, please contact Jenée Wilde at jenee@uoregon.edu World,” which discusses how all pedagogical choices reflect political per- or go to blogs.uoregon.edu/iprig. ■ csws.uoregon.edu 35 L O O K I N G A T B O O K S FOR MORE BOOKS BY CURRENT AND FORMER AFFILIATES, GO TO CSWS-ARCHIVE.UOREGON.EDU/RESEARCH/BOOKS-FILM Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of The White Devil, by John Webster (1612), edited by Modern American Culture, by Annelise Heinz Lara Bovilsky (Bloomsbury, 2021, 224 pages). “This (Oxford University Press, 2020, 360 pages). fully re-edited, modernised play text is accompanied “This book tells the first history of mahjong and by insightful commentary notes, while its lively its meaning in American culture....This mass- introduction explains why Webster’s interests in produced game crossed the Pacific, creating waves complex female lead characters and questions of of popularity over the twentieth century. Annelise social tension related to sexuality, gender, race, and Heinz narrates the history of this game to show law and equity—unusual for the play’s time—have how it has created a variety of meanings, among led to its increasing relevance for modern audiences them American modernity, Chinese American and readers....Lara Bovilsky guides you through the heritage, and Jewish American women’s culture.” most interesting points of its rich performance —from the publisher history, and explores the onslaught of recent productions with race-conscious and regendered Speculative Enterprise: Public Theaters and casts. Analysing its masterful poetry, she shows how Financial Markets in London, 1688-1763, by Mattie the work can be harnessed to engage debate about the abuse of political and Burkert (University of Virginia Press, 2021, 296 religious authority, the troubling fruits of economic desperation, and personal pages). “In the wake of the 1688 revolution, freedom, and empowers you to do likewise.” —from the publisher England’s transition to financial capitalism accelerated dramatically. Londoners witnessed Ivo Papzov’s Balkanology, by Carol Silverman (Bloomsbury: Global 33 1/3 the rise of credit-based currencies, securities series, 2021, 160 pages). “From countercultural markets, speculative bubbles, insurance schemes, resistance to world music craze, Balkan music and lotteries. Many understood these phenomena captured the attention of global audiences. in terms shaped by their experience with another Balkanology, the 1991 quintessential album of risky venture at the heart of London life: the public Bulgarian music, highlights this moment of theater. Speculative Enterprise traces the links unbridled creativity. Seasoned musicians all over these observers drew between the operations of the world are still in awe of the technical abilities Drury Lane and Exchange Alley, including their of the musicians in Ansambl Trakia....Bridging folk, hypercommercialism, dependence on collective jazz, and rock sensibilities, Trakia’s music has set opinion, and accessibility to people of different the standard for Bulgarian music until today, and its classes and genders.” —from the publisher members, especially Ivo Papazov, are revered stars at home and abroad....Balkanology underscores the Stories That Make History: Mexico through Elena Poniatowska’s Crónicas, political, economic, and social roles of music during by Lynn Stephen (Duke University Press, 2021, 328 pages). “From covering socialism and postsocialism.” —from the publisher the massacre of students at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the 1985 earthquake to the Zapatista rebellion in 1994 and the disappearance of forty-three students in Living with Animals: Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect, by Erin McKenna 2014, Elena Poniatowska has been one of the most (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021, 212 pages). “Living important chroniclers of Mexican social, cultural, with Animals brings a pragmatist ecofeminist and political life. In Stories That Make History, Lynn perspective to discussions around animal rights, Stephen examines Poniatowska’s writing, activism, animal welfare, and animal ethics to move the and political participation, using them as a lens conversation beyond simple use or non-use through which to understand critical moments decisions. Erin McKenna uses a case-study in contemporary Mexican history. Through approach with select species to question how her crónicas—narrative journalism written in a humans should live and interact with various literary style featuring first-hand testimonies— animal beings through specific instances of such Poniatowska told the stories of Mexico’s most relationships....Rather than seek absolute moral marginalized people. Throughout, Stephen shows stands regarding human relationships with other how Poniatowska helped shape Mexican politics animal beings, and rather than trying to end such and forge a multigenerational political community relationships altogether, the book urges us to make committed to social justice. In so doing, she existing relations better.” —from the publisher presents a biographical and intellectual history of one of Mexico’s most cherished writers and a unique history of modern The Suicide of Miss Xi: Democracy and Disenchantment in the Chinese Mexico.” —from the publisher Republic, by Bryna Goodman (Harvard University Press, 2021, 352 pages). “On September 8, 1922, the body of Xi Shangzhen was found hanging in the Japan on American TV: Screaming Samurai Form Shanghai newspaper office where she worked.... Anime Clubs in the Land of the Lost by Alisa [As] Bryna Goodman shows, the suicide of an Freedman (Columbia University Press, 2021, 168 educated ‘new woman’ exposed the emptiness of pages). “Japan on American TV explores political, republican democracy after a flash of speculative economic, and cultural issues underlying depictions finance gripped the city....The Suicide of Miss Xi of Japan on U.S. television comedies and the programs opens a window onto how urban Chinese in the they inspired. Since the 1950s, U.S. television programs early twentieth century navigated China’s early have taken the role of “curators” of Japan, displaying passage through democratic populism, in an ill- and explaining selected aspects for viewers. Beliefs fated moment of possibility between empire and in U.S. hegemony over Japan underpin this curation party dictatorship. Xi Shangzhen became a symbol process. Japan on American TV takes a historical of the failures of the Chinese Republic as well as the perspective to understand the diversity of Japan broken promises of citizen’s rights, gender equality, parodies and examines six main categories of and financial prosperity betokened by liberal television portrayals.” —from the publisher democracy and capitalism.” —from the publisher 36 October 2021 Center for the Study of Women in Society presents KITCHEN TABLE A feminist podcast to nourish the soul in troubled times Podcast Hosts Series 1 Black Feminist Ethics Michelle McKinley, in the Era of COVID-19 University of Oregon Featured Guests • Christen Smith, University of Texas – Austin • Rhaisa Williams, Washington University • Mireille Miller Young, University of California – Santa Barbara Shoniqua Roach, • Marlo David, Purdue University Brandeis University csws.uoregon.edu/kitchentable —coming fall 2023— CSWS presents our 50th anniversary Celebration marking five decades of feminist research exploring what our next 50 years may bring contact CSWS now to take part in our collective visioning for this milestone event csws@uoregon.edu • (541) 346-5015 0 1o iiEaoN