To celebrate 20 years of scholarship since its founding in 1996, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality will host an anniversary symposium on May 19 and May 20, at 5733 S. Woodlawn Ave. The event is free and open to the public.
Thursday’s opening panel, from 6:30-9 p.m., will be on the founding and development of Gender and Sexuality Studies at UChicago and will bring together for the first time seven of the people who played key roles in the center’s founding.
Prof. Emerita Beth Helsinger, Prof. Norma Field and Prof. Rebecca Zorach will talk about feminist scholarship and teaching at the University before the center’s founding and the years of planning leading up to it, including the role of students in that work.
Prof. Michael Dawson and George Chauncey, a former UChicago professor who currently teaches history and American studies at Yale University, will share their views on efforts in the founding years to fully integrate the study of gender, sexuality and race. Dean John W. Boyer will speak about the College’s support for the initiative, and Prof. Leora Auslander will address the challenges and successes of the initial three years.
On May 20, three panel discussions will focus on distinct areas.
In the first panel, from 10-11:30 a.m., alumni of the Gender and Sexuality Studies program will reflect on how their studies had an impact on their education and how that education has informed what they now do. Panelists include Erin Moore, AB’07; Cindy Nguyen, AB’08; Melissa Oglesby, AB’02; and Naomi Sobel, AB’05. Assoc. Prof. Deborah Nelson will moderate the panel.
From 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m., current and former faculty members will reflect on how the CSGS has influenced their work over the years, with a focus on texts written by the panelists, which have been transformative for the field as a whole. Panelists include Prof. Lauren Berlant, Chauncey, Prof. Susan Gal, Assoc. Prof. Rochona Majumdar, Prof. Martha Nussbaum and Prof. Geoffrey Stone. Prof. Linda Zerilli will moderate this discussion.
A panel from 2-3:30pm, made up mostly of UChicago graduate students, will focus on new, hybrid and interdisciplinary directions in intersectional research on genders and sexualities. Panelists will discuss how they are bringing together disciplinary conventions, activism, academic theory and cultural production, through such means as art-making, film, social media and cultural texts. Panelists will include graduate students Jasmine Benjamin, Jean Cochrane, Michael Dango, Anne Heffernan and Jenn Jackson, as well as multimedia artist and writer Chase Joynt. Prof. Kristen Schilt will moderate this panel.
For more information about other anniversary events, visit the 20th anniversary website.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
