Program

CREATING GLOBAL CHANGE: PROGRAM

WGST Globe Logo

Middle Tennessee State University
Interdisciplinary Conference in Women’s and Gender Studies
Thursday, March 28 – Saturday, March 30, 2019

On behalf of Middle Tennessee State University’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, we welcome you to the 13th biennial interdisciplinary conference, Creating Global Change. Thank you for attending and actively engaging issues of interest in the field.

The conference thematic, Gendered Migrations, Bodies and Borders is particularly relevant to current events allowing for cross-disciplinary collaboration on the complex global environments shaping migration through gender. Program panels, films, and performances address border crossings and contested bodies, identities, and spaces. These scholarly and creative works explore sociocultural and geographic borderlands that influence communities of cultural resistance, indigenous feminisms, and social change. Our keynote speaker is creative writer and journalist Daisy Hernández, author of A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir, and co-author (with Bushra Rehman) of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism. The keynote event will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom (STU) with an introductory ensemble performance in song by Nashville in Harmony, a city chorus for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and their allies. The keynote lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by a book signing reception with Hernández.

A featured panel presentation Gendered Bodies and Indigenous Resistance in the Borderlands is scheduled for Friday at 11:30 a.m. in the STU Ballroom. The discussion will explore how indigenous cultures of resistance shape identity, border crossings, and claims on bodies and spaces. Expert panelists include Jacki Thompson Rand (University of Iowa) with a focus on Native American women in the Southeast, Lisa Kahaleole Hall (University of Victoria, Canada) on Native Hawaiian women, Robert Gutierrez-Perez (University of Nevada-Reno) on LGBTQ Chicanos/Xicanos in the Southwest border region, and Paul Chilsen (Middle Tennessee State University) on women tribal leaders in the Brazilian Amazon.

Please also join us in the STU Ballroom on Friday at 3:00 p.m. for a featured film by Ellie Lobovits, Birth on the Border, followed by a guided discussion with Adelle Monteblanco (Middle Tennessee State University) about women giving birth and Mexican-American midwives. Against a backdrop of oppressive U.S. border policy, the film explores legal border crossings from Mexico into El Paso, Texas, for the purpose of childbirth. These women's stories of risk, strength, and resiliency reveal the complexities of life on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Once again, the conference will open with a preconference day Student Showcase on Wednesday, March 27th, in the STU Ballroom with student papers, posters, and performances. Finally, look for an interesting array of conference paper panels from international and regional scholars scheduled throughout the conference on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the Parliamentary Room.

We sincerely thank so many who assisted in organizing and funding this conference. We acknowledge and thank our Conference Organizing Committee co-chaired by Roberta Chevrette, Communication Studies, and Ashleigh McKinzie, Sociology, for their dedication to putting together the program. Special thanks to Marie Harrell, WGST Secretary/Event Coordinator; Gina Logue, News and Public Affairs; Kara Hooper, Kelsey Wells, and Karin Albrecht, Creative and Visual Services; Justin Reed, Jennie Bryan and Tiffany Fantine, Student Union Facilities; Rose Wilson and MT Catering; Robert Mogensen and Beth Dye, Production Services; and Dustin Cunningham, Technical Assistance. We acknowledge the support of President Sidney A. McPhee; Provost Mark Byrnes, Dean Karen Petersen, College of Liberal Arts; Dr. Marian Wilson, Office of Equity and Compliance; Vice Provost of International Affairs, Dr. David Schmidt; and all of our Co-sponsors and supporting student organizations.

Roberta Chevrette, Program Co-Chair,
Communication Studies

Ashleigh McKinzie, Program Co-Chair,
Sociology and Anthropology

Vicky MacLean, Professor of Sociology
Director, Women’s and Gender Studies

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

Planning Committee
Roberta Chevrette, Communication Studies (Co-Chair)
Ashleigh McKinzie, Sociology (Co-Chair) 

Margaret Brooker, Dance 
Stephanie Dean, New Media
Meredith Dye, Sociology
Ida Fadzillah, Anthropology
Rebekka King, Religious Studies
Adelle Monteblanco, Sociology
L’Oreal Stephens, Communication Studies
Cyrana Wyker, History

Support Team
Vicky MacLean, WGST Director
Marie Harrell, WGST Secretary and Events Coordinator

Student Volunteers
Britt Bimson, WGST Certificate and Sociology
Tierra Brooks, MT Student Sociologists
Sarah Chebet, MT Student Sociologists
Jennifer Crow, MT Student Sociologists
Nailah Herbert, MT Student Sociologists
Kelsey Johnson, MT Lambda
Michelle Joyner, WGST Certificate and Sociology
Phattra Marbang, MT Student Sociologists
Sherri Marquez, MT Student Sociologists
Ashley Pruitt, MT Student Sociologists
Victoria Roberson, MT Lambda
Tess Shelton, Generation Action

Faculty Volunteers 
LaToya Eaves, Global Studies and Human Geography
Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, Religious Studies
Marion Hollings, English
Judith Iriarte-Gross, Chemistry
Akia Jackson, English
Jid Lee, English
Kate Pantelides, English
Allie Sultan, Media Arts and Video Production
Tiffany Saul, Sociology and Anthropology
Chandra Story, Health and Human Performance
Laura White, English

Co-Sponsors
American Association of University Women
College of Behavioral and Health Sciences
College of Liberal Arts
College of Media and Entertainment
Department of Communication Studies
Department of English
Department of Global Studies and Human Geography
Department of History
Department of Philosophy and Religion
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Department of Theatre and Dance
Distinguished Lecture Fund
International Affairs
MT Generation Action
MT Lambda
MT Student Sociologists
National Women’s History Month
Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance
President’s Commission on the Status of Women
Virginia Peck Fund
Women’s and Gender Studies​ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Keynote Event, Thursday March 28th, 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., Student Union Ballroom
Keynote Speaker, Daisy Hernández
Hernandez

Daisy Hernández grew up in Fairview, New Jersey, in a Cuban-Colombian family. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Miami and an MA in Latin American Studies and Journalism from New York University. A professor in the Creative Writing Program at Miami University in Ohio, she is the author of the award-winning memoir A Cup of Water Under My Bed and coeditor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. The former editor of ColorLines magazine, she has reported for The AtlanticThe New York Times, and Slate, and she has written for NPR's “All Things Considered” and CodeSwitch. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Aster(ix)Bellingham ReviewBrevityDogwoodFourth GenreGulf CoastJuked, and Rumpus among other journals. USA Today calls Colonize This! one of the “27 Things to Read If You Care About Women of Color.” According to Buzzfeed Hernández “weaves poignant lessons about immigrant life, womanhood, and more into a beautiful coming of age story.” ColorLines was awarded UTNE’s General Excellence Award in 2007. Her ColorLines article “Becoming a Black Man” was nominated for a 2009 GLAAD Media Award. For twelve years, Hernández has been speaking at colleges, conferences, and organizations about political and social issues including: feminism, race, and writing true stories; immigrant families and queer identity; media representations and ethnic communities; memoir writing as political action; and spirituality and women's lives.

Thematic Panel, Friday, March 29th, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Student Union Ballroom
Gendered Bodies and Indigenous Resistance in the Borderlands

The panel critically examines borders and borderlands as they relate to emergent feminisms within indigenous culture.  Panelists explore the complex histories of identity, colonization, and race-based violence that make claims on gendered bodies, identities, and places.  Insights into specific historical cases of indigenous acts of resistance to the logic of possession and control are provided including everyday life performances, artistic expression, and legal and collective action.


Rand

Jacki Thompson Rand, History, University of Iowa
Professor Jacki Rand, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has research interests centering on federal Indian law and policy, settler colonialism, and global indigenous histories. Using court records and documents, oral histories, newspaper accounts, and archival sources, Rand is producing a book manuscript on violence against Native women contextualized in the history of a southeastern tribe in the late twentieth century. Professor Rand teaches courses in the history of Native North America, of federal Indian law and policy, of museums, and of human rights in addition to public history. She is presently developing a course on global indigenous peoples and settler colonialism. Professor Rand sits on the editorial board of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Journal. Prior to entering graduate school, Professor Rand worked for the Smithsonian Institution and organized numerous consultations between senior staff members of the National Museum of the American Indian and Native community members throughout the United States. 


KahaleoleHall

Lisa Kahaleole Hall, Indigenous Studies, University of Victoria, Canada
Program director of Indigenous Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada, Lisa Kahaleole Hall’s research and teaching interests include the intersections of race, colonialism, and indigeneity with gender and sexuality. Her recent research focuses on U.S. colonialism and native Hawaiian feminism.  She is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Making Relations in the “House of Difference.” Hall served as chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies program and the 2011-2016 National Endowment for the Humanities Preceptor in Women's Studies at Wells College in Aurora, NY. Throughout her time at Wells, she maintained visiting and courtesy professor status within Cornell University’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.


GutierrezPerez

Robert Gutierrez-Perez, Communication Studies, University of Nevada-Reno
Robert Gutierrez-Perez is a Southwest borderlands scholar studying performances of power, resistance, and agency through the lens of culture and communication. Using a variety of critical qualitative research methods, Gutierrez-Perez explores how gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning Chicanos/Xicanos in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico resist multiple systems of oppression through their everyday performances of identity, culture, and history. Other research interests include advocacy and civic engagement in higher education, queer intercultural communication, critical performance studies, and queer of color critique. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication and Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, and in recently published books, including Queer Praxis: Questions for LGBTQ Worldmaking and The Assault on Communities of Color: Exploring the Realities of Race-Based Violence.


Chilsen

Paul Chilsen, Cinema and Television, Middle Tennessee State University
Paul Chilsen’s research focuses on the critical definition and practice of effective cinematic expression. Since 2017, he has collaborated with anthropologists and Indigenous leaders, whose work with the Kayapó in Brazil spans more than twenty years. The multi-disciplinary team includes colleagues from Purdue, Brazil’s Goeldi Museum, University of Uberlândia, Brazil, Indigenous NGOs in Brazil, the University of St. Thomas, Video in the Villages, and Middle Tennessee State University. The effort has produced expanding ranks of Kayapó filmmakers, as well as a number of new film projects including Chilsen’s unfolding documentary about Tuira Kayapó and the growth of female leadership among the Kayapó. His commitment to using film as a vehicle for creative, social, and political self-discovery and expression are evident in his ongoing work with the Rosebud Institute, exploring new and diverse ways of responsibly teaching and creating effective media in a globally connected culture. His education includes an MFA in Cinema Production from Columbia College Chicago, PhD studies in Cinema Theory and Aesthetics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS in Communication Arts.

Film Screening and Discussion, Friday, March 29th, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., Student Union Ballroom
BIRTH ON THE BORDER – by Ellie Lobovits

Birth on the Border is a documentary short that explores legal border crossing from Mexico into the U.S. for the purpose of childbirth. The film delves into the narratives of two women from Ciudad Juárez who cross the border legally to give birth in El Paso, Texas, as well as the stories of two Mexican-American midwives. Against the backdrop of oppressive U.S. border policy, these women's stories of risk, strength, and resiliency reveal the complexities of life on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trailer.
Birth on the border poster

Ellie Lobovits is a filmmaker, curator, and cultural observer. Ellie's research, writing, and filmmaking focus on borderlands, the body, and feminist stories. Her most recent documentary film, Birth on the Border, explores childbirth and legal border-crossing on the US-Mexico border. Ellie is also a photographer, childbirth doula, and lover of flowers.  She holds an MA in Visual Anthropology from San Francisco State University.
http://ellielobovits.com

– Birth in Pieces –

El Jardín Birth and Family Resource Center and MindWarp Films present Birth in Pieces, a locally filmed and produced documentary that focuses on women’s birth experiences in the current context of a high national and state maternal mortality rate. What’s wrong with birth in the USA? Birth in Pieces explores mothers’ individual birth stories within a larger framework of a fragmented maternal healthcare system that doesn’t always place value on a mother’s autonomy or well being. In order to fix these systematic problems, we have to start by listening to women: it is possible to have an empowering birth and healthy start to motherhood, and all mothers and babies deserve that opportunity.​ Trailer.

 Medium Birth in Pieces Poster


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, March 27th
STUDENT SHOWCASE PRECONFERENCE DAY LEVEL 2 STUDENT UNION BUILDING (STU)

8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  Registration, Coffee and Conversation 

9:10 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. 
STU Ballroom
Session 1: GENDER AND THE MEDIA

Organizer Roberta Chevrette, Communication Studies, MTSU

Moderator Stephanie Dean, New Media Communication, MTSU 

“The Anatomy of Anime: Does the Male Gaze Persist in Japan?” Kristen Sales, Middle Tennessee State University 

"Gender and Feminism in Bob's Burgers" Amber Williams, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Strength of Women in Black Panther” Alex Lempin, Middle Tennessee State University 

“The Infantilization of Women in Pop Culture” Sheridan Hitchcox, Middle Tennessee State University 

10:20 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. 
STU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 2: SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE, FORENSIC SCIENCE, AND HUMAN RIGHTS 

Organizer and Moderator Tiffany Saul, Anthropology, MTSU 

“The Silent Genocide” Hannah Newcomb, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Tuam Ireland and the Oppression of Women” Leah Vanderbush, Middle Tennessee State University 

“The Women of Jonestown: An Alternative Perspective on the World’s Largest Mass Suicide” Louis Gibson, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Women in the Rwandan Genocide” Chynna Airana McMillan, Middle Tennessee State University 

10:20 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. 
SU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 3: A LOOK INTO SEXUAL IDENTITIES – CO-SPONSORED BY MT LAMBDA

Moderator Kelsey Johnson, MT Lambda

Panelists
Jacob Dieter
Kirby Mealer
Victoria Roberson
Em Schoenike
James Selby

11:30 a.m. - 12:25 p.m. 
STU Ballroom
Session 4: SEXUALITY STUDIES

Moderator Cyrana Wyker, History, MTSU 

"Feeling Unjoined: The South's Queer Children" Eric Hughes, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Language Use, Its Meaning and Identity Development among Gender Non-conforming People” Rebekah Dawson, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Social Construction of Sexual Consent: An Exploration of Experiences” Lesley Starnes, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Stand by Your Man: The Political Spouse During a Scandal” Ashleigh King, Transylvania University 

12:40 p.m. – 2:05 p.m.
STU Ballroom
PERFORMANCES: DANCE AND SPOKEN WORD

Moderator L’Oreal Stephens, Communication Studies, MTSU 

MTSU DANCE PROGRAM
Meg Brooker, Choreographer, MTSU 
“Right Side/Wrong Side: Reflections on Dancing on the Border Fence in Brownsville, Texas”
“Bounded: Bodies and Borders”
“The Suppliants”

Performers:
Marsha Barsky, Associate Professor and Director of Dance
Students:
Erica Fugate
Natasja Hall
Chertiqua Hargrove
Shelby Langford
Shauntoria Marable
Vong Phrommala
Patra Steele
Mekayla Trout
Anthony Valasek

SPOKEN WORD, READINGS, PERFORMANCES 

“Visiting Hours”
Lacey Pate
Credits: Shane Koyczan/Koyczan Publications Inc.

“Menstrual Equity is a Human Right”
Performers: 
Julia Alcantar
Nina Donovan
Jessica Leija
Tess Shelton
Montse Zavala      

“Thank God I’m a Virgin”
“You Are Not a Princess”
“How to Love the Sinner and Hate the Sin”
“Karma”
“Sharks”
Emily Joy

2:20 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. 
STU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 5: INTERSECTIONAL INEQUALITIES AND IDENTITIES: MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF PEOPLE OF COLOR

Organizer Ashleigh McKinzie, Sociology, MTSU 

Moderator Nailah Herbert, MTSU

“The Queer Negro” Calvin Glass, Middle Tennessee State University

“Hate Crimes” Kaelyn Morris, Middle Tennessee State University

“Intersectionality” Regan Olivares, Middle Tennessee State University

2:20 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. 
STU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 6: FEMINIST RESEARCH AND RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 

Moderator
Kate Pantelides, MTSU

“Conversation between Men and Women and use of ‘Mansplaining’ in A Listerv Corpus of Writing Program Administration” Rima Abdallah, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Rhetorical Significance of Mansplaining” Elizabeth McGhee and Abbie Moody, Middle Tennessee State University

“Markers of Faith: Mormon Women and Identity Formation Through Clothing” Jennifer Crow, Middle Tennessee State University

4:10 p.m. - 5:35 p.m.
STU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 7: WHAT STUDENTS TEACH US: LESSONS FROM LETTERS TO A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

Moderator Kate Pantelides, MTSU

“Living on Through Letters: Student Responses to Holocaust Survivor Nessy Marks As a Surviving Archive of Received Memories” Katherine Musick, Middle Tennessee State University

“Detachment and Avoidance: Examining Sociological Treatment of Holocaust Narratives and the Rise of the Alt-Right” Michelle Joyner, Middle Tennessee State University

“Molding Saviors?: An Analysis of the Hero-Savior Discourse in Student Letters to Nessy Marks” Nailah Herbert, Middle Tennessee State University

“Letters written by 4th graders to Holocaust Survivor Nessy Marks” Connor Methvin, Middle Tennessee State University

“Uncovering the Power of Spoken History through Storytelling” Britt Bimson, Middle Tennessee State University

4:10 p.m. - 5:35 p.m.
STU Ballroom
Concurrent Session 8: INTERSECTIONALITY AND CREATING GLOBAL CHANGE 

Moderator Sherri Marquez, MTSU

“Gendered Space: NASA’s Women in the Media, 1958-1990” Helen Wilds, Middle Tennessee State University

“World War II and American Womanhood: A Case Study of Middle Tennessee WAC and WAVES Women” Krystal Marin, Middle Tennessee State University 

“Disparities in Women’s Health and Creating Parity” Caytie Gascoigne, Middle Tennessee State University

“Transmigration and Geophilosophy: A Multimodal Presentation on Trans Bodies and Gendered Space” Jude Romines, Middle Tennessee State University

THURSDAY, March 28th
LEVEL 2 STUDENT UNION BUILDING

8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.  
Registration, Coffee and Conversation

9:30 a.m.
Conference Opening Remarks
Dr. Cheryl Torsney, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, MTSU

9:40 a.m. - 11:05 a.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 1: IMMIGRATION, REFUGEES, AND REIMAGINING SPACE AND PLACE

Organizer and Moderator LaToya Eaves, Global Studies, MTSU

“Where Do I Belong?  Narratives of Latina/xs in Middle Tennessee” James Chaney and Laura Clark, Middle Tennessee State University

"Beyond the Orientalist Frame: Diaspora and Family Photographs" Christabel Devadoss, Middle Tennessee State University

“Resistance and the Alabamafication of the United States: UN/Documented Responses to the Anti-Immigrant Climate” Anne Marie Choup, University of Alabama, Huntsville

11:20 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 2: GENDERED VIOLENCE AND GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS I

Moderator Ashleigh McKinzie, Sociology, MTSU

“A Feminist Analysis of Women’s Empowerment in Humanitarian Programs for Refugees in Turkey” Kinga H. Karlowska, University of Massachusetts, Boston

“White Wednesday Hijab Protests: Transgressing Boundaries Between Virtual and Physical Space”
Sarah Boroujerdi, San Francisco State University

“Domestic Violence and Transnational Families: A Case Study of the Situation of Asian Indian Migrants” Sonia Kapur, University of North Carolina, Asheville

Student Luncheon Break Out Groups - Lunch served at 12:40 p.m.

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.    
Second Level Student Union Ballroom
Students are invited to attend one of our breakout group discussions. A self-serve buffet will be available beginning at 12:40 to take into sessions.

Group 1: Students Meet Author
Student Union Ballroom
Moderator
Daisy Hernández
Writing Biography as a Political Act
Creative writer and journalist Daisy Hernández will discuss writing as a medium for political action and personal empowerment, reflecting on her experience writing her memoir, A Cup of Water Under My Bed.

Group 2: Mentoring in STEM
Student Union Ballroom

Million Women Mentors: How to succeed on your STEM career path.
Million Women Mentors is an international movement to spark the interest and confidence of girls and women to pursue and succeed in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers and leadership opportunities through the power of mentoring. 
Moderators
Lisa Reaney, WISTEM Board Member
Helena Horsman, Deloitte
Susan Lewis, Deloitte
Catherine Thompson, Deloitte

2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 3: GENDERED VIOLENCE AND GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS II

Moderator Meredith Dye, Sociology, MTSU

“Terrorism and Gender-Based Violence in North-East, Nigeria: Implications for Girl-Child Development and National Security” Imoukhuede Benedict Kayode and Owoputi James Ayodele, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria

“Caste of Women – An inquiry into the Differences in Inter-caste Marriages in an Adivasi samaj” Dhiraj Kumar, Centre for Development Practice, Ambedkar University, Delhi

"The Correlations between Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Microfinance Programs in Rural Bangladesh: Economic Disempowerment and Deteriorating Social Health in Rural Women" Muhammad Hassan Bin Afzal, Kent State University

“Micro-Aggressions and Immigrants” Jackie Gilbert, Middle Tennessee State University

KEYNOTE Event
Student Union Ballroom

4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Conference Welcome
Vicky MacLean, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies, MTSU

Entertainment
4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Nashville In Harmony
Nashville in Harmony – Don Schlosser, Artistic Director
A city chorus for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and their allies.

Speaker Introduction
Ashleigh McKinzie, Sociology, MTSU

Hernandez

Keynote Address - Intimate Resistance: Migration, Memoir, and Queer Latinidad
4:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
Creative Writer, Daisy Hernández
Author of the Award-Winning Memoir, A Cup of Water Under My Bed

Book Signing Reception

6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
 

FRIDAY, March 29th                             
STUDENT UNION BUILDING

8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Registration, Coffee, and Conversation

9:10 a.m. - 10:05 a.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 4: GLOBAL LITERARY EXPRESSIONS OF GENDER AND PLACE

Moderator Laura White, English, MTSU

“The Representation of Arab Women: Woman and Patriarchy in Rabih Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman” Majed Alenezi, Middle Tennessee State University

“Globalized Movements: Reading the “I” in #Metoo and French Autofiction in the 21st Century” Kathryn E. Devine, Vanderbilt University and Université Paris 8

“Borderlands: The Body as a Political Space in Ken Bugul’s The Abandoned Baobab
Leah Lyons, Middle Tennessee State University

“British Empire, 1850-1930: Patriarchy, Citizenship and Women’s Travel” Becky Ardrey, University of South Alabama

10:20 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 5: RETHINKING GENDER IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSNATIONAL KOREA: ASPIRATIONS, LANGUAGE PRACTICES, AND CHALLENGES

Moderator Jid Lee, English, MTSU

Kirogi, Ten Years After: Language Ideologies and Identities in the Case of Korean Immigrant Mothers” Hakyoon Lee, Georgia State University

“Bilingual Identity of Transnational Adolescent Girls” Myoung Eun Pang, Georgia State University

“Gender Role Representation of English as a Foreign Language: Textbooks of South Korea”
Jee Hye Park, Gertrude Tinker Sachs, and Gyewon Jang, Georgia State University

“Korean Mother’s Role and Engagement in Maintaining their Returnee Children’s English Proficiency in the EFL Contexts” Ji Hye Shin, Georgia State University

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Student Union Ballroom
THEMATIC PANEL
GENDERED BODIES AND INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE IN THE BORDERLANDS

Organizer and Moderator
Roberta Chevrette, Communication Studies, MTSU

Panelists
rand
Jacki Thompson Rand, University of Iowa
American Indian and Native Studies, Indian Law and Policy

hall
Lisa Kahaleole Hall, Victoria University
America Indian and Indigenous Studies, Hawaiian Feminism

gutierrez
Robert Gutierrez-Perez, University of Nevada-Reno
Communication Studies, Queer Chicanos/Xiconas, Critical Performance Studies

chilsen
Paul Chilsen, Middle Tennessee State University
Women and the Brazilian Amazon, Cinema Theory and Aesthetics

1:10 p.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 6:  GLOBAL FEMINIST PEDAGOGY AND TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS

Moderator Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, Religious Studies, MTSU

“Drawing the Line: Keeping Colorism Out of the Classroom” Paris Love, University of Phoenix

“Transgressive Learning: The Importance of Internships and Experiential Learning for Women and Minority Students” Tierra Brooks, Middle Tennessee State University

2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Student Union Ballroom
Session 7: THE LEGACY OF TRAUMA AND VIOLENCE IN IMMIGRANT HISPANIC FAMILIES—A THERAPIST’S PERSPECTIVE

Moderator Diana Perez, Communications and Development Specialist for the Sexual Assault Center

Counselors
Alicia Bunch Vargas, Sexual Assault Center, Nashville
Adrianne McKeon, Insight Counseling Centers, Nashville
Aleyda Sanchez, Central Care Counseling Services, LLC, Nashville
Hannah Feliciano, Insight Counseling Centers, Nashville

3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. 
Film Screening
Student Union Ballroom
BIRTH ON THE BORDER – by Trailer
BIRTH IN PIECES - Trailer

Welcome and Introduction
Chandra Story, Health and Human Performance, MTSU

Moderator and Discussant
Adelle Monteblanco, Sociology, MTSU

 birth

 Birth in Pieces Poster


SATURDAY, March 30th                          
LEVEL 2 STUDENT UNION BUILDING

8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Registration, Coffee and Conversation

9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 8: GENDERED SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SOCIAL CONTROL, AND RESISTANCE

Moderator
Rebekka King, Religious Studies, MTSU

“Resistance and Reconciliation: Religious Violence and Queer Faith” Tyler Kibbey, University of Kentucky, and Roddy Biggs, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Customary Stigma and Identity Collapse among (LGBTQ) in India—A Study on Transgenders in Kerala” V.A Haseena, Kalladi College, Kerala, India

“’Medically Policing Black Female Bodies’: Black Women’s Experiences with Birth Control” Savannah Scott, Southwestern University

“Caught in the Grip of State-Sponsored Terror? Reflecting on the Daunting Realities Of Women and Children in the Anglophone Cameroon Crisis” Avitus Agbor, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa

10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 9: WOMEN AND GLOBAL POLITICS

Moderator Ida Fadzillah, Anthropology, MTSU

“Puerto Rican Women Before and After Maria” Donna M. Dopwell, Middle Tennessee State University

“Anti-Immigration Rhetoric, Populism, and FemoNationalism in Anti-Gender Campaigns” Alina Hechler, University of Kentucky

“It is not a Scarf! The Hijab, Rhetorical Battleground, and American Muslim Culture” Patrick Richey, Middle Tennessee State University

12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Parliamentary Room
Session 10: AFRO-CARIBBEAN WOMEN STUDIES IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION IN THE CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURES

Moderator Akia Jackson, English, MTSU and University of Iowa

“Beyond Borders: Negotiating Spaces in Afro-Brazilian Women Writers” Luciana Prestes, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Nuances of Race: An Examination of Afro-Latina Writers” Eduardo Garcia, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Representation of Caribbean Women through Literature” Patty Campbell, Middle Tennessee State University

“The Role of Motherhood in Black Women’s Literature in Latin America and the Caribbean” Stella Himmelreich, Murfreesboro, TN

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Session 11: CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER
Parliamentary Room

Moderator L’Oreal Stephens, Communication Studies, MTSU

“Is Imitation Really the Greatest Form of Flattery? A Discussion on Intellectual Property Protection, Women, and the Fashion Industry” Aimee Jones, University of Tennessee, Martin

“Narrative Stories of Bereaved Mothers of Sons Lost to Police Shootings” Elizabeth Stephens, Middle Tennessee State University

“Denaturalizing ‘Natural’ Disasters: Advocacy and an International Ethics of Safety” Cindy LaCom, Slippery Rock University, and Sara Naughton, University of Northern Iowa

“Black Women and their Two-Fronted Struggle for Equality” Kimberly Neal, Mississippi State University 

2:45 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Session 12: CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER IN THE MEDIA
Parliamentary Room

Moderator Allie Sultan, Media Arts and Video Production, MTSU

“Gender Under Cover: How Gender is Made Meaningful on the Covers of Time and Newsweek” Liala Lynell Syler, Motlow State Community College

“The Evolution of Disney Princesses from Fair Maidens to Modern Women” Teresa Collard and Lisa LeBleu, University of Tennessee, Martin

“Third Gender Portrayal in Bollywood: An Analysis of Select Films” Toyeba Mushtaq, Media Education Research Centre, University of Kashmir, India

“A Scary Time for Men?:  #HimToo and the Fear of False Sexual Assault Allegations”
L’Oreal Stephens, Middle Tennessee State University

 

Contact Information:

Women's and Gender Studies
Box 498
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN   37132

Phone:  615-898-5910
Email: womenstu@mtsu.edu
Fax: 615-898-5289