Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Woman, Life, Freedom: Redefining Social Justice in a Globalized World" to a full house at the TEDxUWLaCrosse event on Oct. 10 in The Bluffs, Student Union. Drawing from her childhood experiences with the "Morality Police" in Iran and the recent "Woman-Life-Freedom" movement, Kazemi explored the importance of empathizing with the struggles of "Other" people. She emphasized the need to build connections and solidarity movements worldwide. Recordings of Kazemi's presentation will be available on the TEDxUWLaCrosse website. 

Submitted on: Oct. 14

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, authored the article "Mobile Immobility: Disability in Contexts of State Violence and Political Incarceration" in "Disability and the Global South Journal," published on Monday, Sept. 30. The concept of mobile immobility serves as an invitation to further trouble disability studies discourses on mobility and immobility. In this article, we theorize what im/mobility means in contexts of political incarceration and violent oppression in the Middle East, as numerous bodies are caught and injured by ableist barriers, borders, carceral institutions, walls and wars. Troubling ableist hierarchies that assume the superiority of mobility, we highlight the many ways that immobility is leveraged towards political mobilization, casting away any clear definitional boundary between the concepts of mobility and immobility. Through a disability studies lens, we unpack mobile immobility by exploring three examples that demonstrate the complexity and nuance needed to theorize im/mobility. First, we enter through the case of a Kurdish political prisoner in 1980s Turkey who became disabled as a result of participating in a hunger strike and two death fasts during his incarceration. We then explore the genre of incarceration ecriture, detailing written and artistic creations produced by political prisoners and survivors in the Middle East, and drawing attention to how inmates mobilize their experiences of immobility towards transformative justice. Finally, we consider the category of kulbars, or illegal cross-border carriers that are at once both forced into mobility and immobility due to extreme poverty and lack of political and social recognition. Through each of these examples, we question what mobility and political mobilization mean in the contexts of state violence, surveillance, authoritarianism, austerity, and borders.

Submitted on: Sept. 30

Alec Lass, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, has become the assistant director of Hear, Here North, which will launch in October 2024.  Lass has been instrumental in helping with social media, print media, website, phone design and generally organizing the director (Ariel Beaujot) and the two classes that put together the program. We are grateful to Lass for his organization and willingness to do any and all things when it comes to Hear, Here.

Submitted on: Sept. 10

Shuma Iwai, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "An American Missionary’s Social Reforms and Fight Against Racism Toward Japanese Americans in the Early Twentieth Century" at the 2024 Yale-Edinburgh Conference on June 27 in New Haven, CT.

Submitted on: Sept. 3

Shuma Iwai, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, authored the article "Galen Fisher's Activism against Anti-Japanese Sentiments" in Studies on Asia, published on June 10 by the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs.

Submitted on: Sept. 3