Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

James Carlson, Educational Studies and Shuma Iwai, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Embodying a Pro-Asian American Lens in the Classroom: Working Towards Justice and Liberty for All While Combating Anti-Asian Hate and Discrimination " at Wisconsin-National Association of Multicultural Educaation on Saturday, April 27 in La Crosse, WI. In a presentation at the Wisconsin-NAME conference in La Crosse, WI, Iwai and Carlson shared details related to the recent passage of the 2023 Wisconsin Act 266, which mandates the inclusion of Hmong and Asian American histories, cultures, and contributions in schools. In addition to exploring historical and recent anti-Asian bias and discrimination, curricular resources for meeting the intent of the mandate and embodying a pro-Asian lens in the curriculum were shared.

Submitted on: April 27

Richard Breaux, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "“The Mahjar [Diaspora] in Wisconsin”" at Arab American Public History Conference on Feb. 16 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Conference brought together senior and junior scholars of Arab American History from Brazil, Canada, and the United States.

Submitted on: Feb. 26

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Politics of State’s Recognition of, and Disabling Policies towards, the Disabled" at Disability Impact: The Annual Conference of Interdisciplinary, Intersectional, and International Disability Studies on July 5 at Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, United Kingdom. The presentation was part of the panel, “Center for Disabilities and Disciplines” with Hemachandran Karah and Saji K. Mathew.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented "Feminist and Queer Critiques of Multiple Empires: A Conversation among Women of Color" at National Women's Studies Association on Oct. 28 in Baltimore, MD. Consisting of four women of color, this roundtable critically analyzed the phenomenon of multiple empires in today’s world. Contrary to the binary understanding of the democratic West leading the fight for human rights against oppressive regimes such as Iran and China, many Western policies, companies, organizations, and scholarship in fact, strengthen the power of authoritarian governments. This roundtable makes an original and significant contribution by unpacking the complex ways in which different imperial forces collaborate in the suppression of feminist and queer resistance in Global South/Third World.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023

Sona Kazemi, Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, authored the chapter "Making Sense of the Disability Autonomy and Collectivity Binary: A Review of Informal Disability Justice Pedagogy (IDJP) across Cultures" in The Routledge Companion to Literature and Social Justice published on Oct. 31 by Routledge. This essay examines the possibility of taking stock of disability justice pedagogy from within communities and cross-cultural settings, while attending to the ways in which disability justice is negotiated as everyday aesthetics across cultures. We call the workings of such everyday learnings concerning disability as Informal Disability Justice Pedagogy (IDJP). This essay emerges out of decades-long teaching, scholarship, activism, and our involvement in social movements, and mentorship across transnational spaces in South Asia, North American, and the Middle East in formal classrooms and informal learning spaces as well as aligning and organizing with several multilingual communities across the globe. In this essay we present two examples of IDJP based on cross-cultural everyday aesthetic while making sense of autonomy and collectivity binary.

Submitted on: Nov. 6, 2023