The 20th Annual Gender and Sexuality Studies Symposium
April 21, 2023, 1:00pm-5:15pm, Buckman 110
1:00-1:10: Opening welcome, Prof. Joel Parsons, chair of GSS
Panel 1: Books and Bodies (1:10-2:10pm)
Taryn Graves and Alice Atkins, “Book Censorship: Deployed to Maintain Parental Rights and Queerphobic Agenda” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Laura Kelly)
Farah Alsebai, “Gynecological Teaching Associates and the Boston Women’s Health Collectives Our Bodies Ourselves” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Robert Saxe)
Vaniel Simmons, “Genesis: Finding Trans Space in the Creation Story” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Rhiannon Graybill)
Moderator: Prof. Stacey Battis, Modern Languages and Literatures
Panel 2: We’re Here, We’re Queer, and We’re Sometimes Feared! (2:20-3:35pm)
Jamie Garland, “There’s Something Kind of Fantastic About that, Isn’t There?”: Queerness, Normalcy, and Difference in Fantastic Mr. Fox” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Rhiannon Graybill)
Frankie Moutier, “The Light in Which We Fear: An Analysis of the Queer Vampire as Portrayed in Anne
Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Joy Brooke Fairfield)
Ryoko Maruyama, “Glorious Purpose: Loki Stirring up the Universe (but not quite enough)” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Rhiannon Graybill)
Fatima Leal, “The Old New Woman: Who Came Before Germany’s ‘New Woman?’” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Katie Holihan)
Moderator: Prof. Katie Holihan, Modern Languages and Literatures
Panel 3: Southern Stories: Joy, Resilience, and Rage (3:45-5:15pm)
Jessica Joshi, ““Queer oppression in the name of "protecting the children": the efficacy and ethics of Tennessee's "drag ban" legislation (faculty sponsor, Prof. Joy Brook Fairfield)
Anna Claire Tilley, “Category is--Southern Pride: Using Arkansas Oral Histories as a Case Study for Queering Academic Research” (faculty sponsor, Prof. Rhiannon Graybill)
Jahari Shelton, Hailey Smith, Armon Newsom, and Gwen Williams, “Motha: What is a “black Mother?” a round-table discussion of Driven Toward Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio, by Nikki Taylor (faculty sponsor, Prof. Charles McKinney)
Moderator: Prof. Shatavia Wynn, Religious Studies and Africana Studies
5:00-7:00pm Senior Thesis Exhibition and Reception, Clough Hansen Gallery
Featuring multimedia work by London Pirtle, Marianna Malecek, and Elizabeth Pena that explores intersections of embodied identity and our relationship to domestic space.