Feminist Keywords

In this episode, Karma Chávez talks with Dr. Chandan Reddy, author of the "queer" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr Reddy talks about his own history as a queer activist, the development of the concept of queer of color critique, and the many usages of queer both theoretically and politically. Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Chandan Reddy (he/him) is associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.  Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. (keywords.nyupress.org) Reddy, Chandan. Freedom With Violence: Race, Sexuality, and the US State. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. (https://www.dukeupress.edu/Freedom-with-Violence/) Puar, Jasbir. "Rethinking Homonationalism," International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45.2 (2013): 336-339. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/43302999) Ferguson, Roderick. Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/aberrations-in-black)

In this episode Karma Chávez talks with Harvard professor Durba Mitra, author of the "sexuality" entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Mitra discusses how ideas about sexuality shape modern society, the ubiquitousness of sexuality as a concept, sexuality and identity, and some of the problematic ways sexuality gets taken up to justify war. Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Durba Mitra (she/her) is Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. "Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. (keywords.nyupress.org) Mitra, Durba, Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. (https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691196350/indian-sex-life) Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1990."

In this episode, Kyla Wazana Tompkins talks with Heather Berg, author of "sex work" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Berg emphasizes the importance of sex work in feminist discussions and the lessons it can teach us about power, the state,  and care. Overall, the conversation highlights the intersection of gender, sexuality, sex work, disability studies and labor in academic and everyday contexts.  Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo. Heather Berg (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism and “Left of #MeToo” in Feminist Studies.  keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, host Mishuana Goeman interviews Manu Karuka, an expert in settler colonialism, Imperialism, and Indigenous studies. They discuss the importance of settler colonialism in gender and sexuality studies and the relationship between settler colonialism, the African diaspora, and Indigenous Studies. They also explore the concept of imagining alternative histories and the role of feminism in understanding and challenging settler colonial structures. The conversation highlights the complexity of land and labor in settler colonialism and the need for collective action and relationships in decolonization efforts. Manu Karuka is Assistant Professor of American Studies at Barnard College.  Dr. Mishuana Goeman, daughter of enrolled Tonawanda Band of Seneca, Hawk Clan, is currently a Professor of Indigenous Studies at University of Buffalo (on leave from UCLA’s Gender Studies and American Indian Studies) and President - elect of the American Studies Association.   Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks (1952), (1967 translation by Charles Lam Markmann: New York: Grove Press) Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth (1961), (1963 translation by Constance Farrington: New York: Grove Weidenfeld) Karuka, Manu, Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad (University of California Press, 2019) The Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective, The Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective. Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. .

In this episode, Mishuana Goeman talks with Dr. K. Sue Park, author of the "property" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Park talks about the legal uses of law and how the word has reverberations of colonialism and enslavement of black people into present day organizing around land use and housing. Mishuana Goeman (she/her), daughter of enrolled Tonawanda Band of Seneca, Hawk Clan, is Chair and Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at University at Buffalo. K. Sue Park (she/her) is a Professor of Law at UCLA. keywords.nyupress.org Mark My Words (https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/mark-my-words)  The History Wars and Property Law: Conquest and Slavery as Foundational to the Field. (https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/the-history-wars-and-property-law-conquest-and-slavery-as-foundational-to-the-field)  

In this episode, Karma Chávez talks with Professor Lisa Sun-Hee Park, author of the "migration" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Park discusses the challenging issues facing migrant communities, the way immigration history gets deployed in US society, and the urgent need for feminist and queer methodologies for understanding migration processes and migrant experiences. Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Lisa Sun-Hee Park (she/her) is Chair and Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. (keywords.nyupress.org)  Park, Lisa Sun-Hee, Entitled To Nothing: The Struggle for Immigrant Health Care in the Age of Welfare Reform. New York: NYU Press, 2011. (https://nyupress.org/9780814768013/entitled-to-nothing/) Park, Lisa Sun-Hee and David Naguib Pellow, The Slums of Aspen Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden. New York: NYU Press, 2011. (https://nyupress.org/9780814768037/the-slums-of-aspen/")

In this episode of Feminist Keywords, host Amber Musser interviews Jennifer Nash, the author of the keyword 'Intersectionality.' They discuss the definition and utility of intersectionality, its global travels, and the anxiety and contestation surrounding the term. They also explore the politics of intersectionality, its relationship to Black feminist scholarship, and its misinterpretation by the right. Nash emphasizes the importance of grounding intersectionality in a critical race tradition and reclaiming it as a tool for understanding power and fostering coalition. The conversation highlights the need to challenge dominant narratives and institutions in order to create more inclusive and hospitable spaces. Jennifer C. Nash is the Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She is the author of The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography (Duke University Press, 2014); Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (Duke University Press, 2018), Birthing Black Mothers (Duke University Press, 2021), and How We Write Now: Living With Black Feminist Theory (forthcoming with Duke University Press in  August 2024). Amber Jamilla Musser is professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism (2014), Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance (2018), and Between Shadows and Noise: Sensation, Situatedness, and the Undisciplined (2024).  Crenshaw, Kimberlé.  “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum University of Chicago Law Forum 1 (1989): 139-167. Crenshaw, Kimberlé.  “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review 43.6 (1991): 1241-1299.  Anna Julia Cooper A Voice From the South (https://librivox.org/search?title=A+Voice+from+the+South&author=Cooper&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced) May, Vivian M. Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist. New York: Routledge, 2012: Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (editors: Aren Aizura, Aimee Bahng, Amber Musser, Karma Chavez, Mishuana Goeman and Kyla Wazana Tompkins). 2021 keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, Amber Jamilla Musser talks with Dr. Jane Ward, author of “heterosexuality” entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Ward talks about her own interest in witches and racial justice as part of a decolonial practice to decenter whiteness, the importance of connecting the cultural attachment to heterosexuality with the gender binary, the way that the gender binary is racialized, the rise of the global right’s persecution of trans and non-binary people, and the possibility for shifting out of this regime of oppressive gender politics. Amber Jamilla Musser (she/her) is professor of English at CUNY Graduate Center. Jane Ward (she/her) is professor of Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara. Ward is the author of multiple books, including The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (2015) and Respectably Queer: Diversity Culture in LGBT Activist Organizations (2008). Ward, Jane. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (New York: NYU Press, 2020) D’Emilio, John. John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” in Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin (eds.) The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (New York: Routledge, 1993), 467-476 Seresin, Indiana. “On Heteropessimism: Heterosexuality Is Nobody’s Personal Problem,” New Inquiry, October 9, 2019. (https://thenewinquiry.com.) Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (editors: Aren Aizura, Aimee Bahng, Amber Musser, Karma Chavez, Mishuana Goeman and Kyla Wazana Tompkins). 2021 (keywords.nyupress.org)

In this episode , host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Professor Scott L. Morgenson about the keyword 'heteronormativity.' They discuss the origins of the term in queer theory, its significance in gender and sexuality studies, and how it is intertwined with settler colonialism and white supremacy. Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo. Scott L. Morgensen is associate professor in gender studies at Queens University in Ontario, Canada. Feminist Editorial Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (keywords.nyupress.org)  

In this episode, host Aimee Bahng interviews Jenna Lloyd, author of the "health" entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss how health is often used as a nonpartisan marker of political issues, such as the economy and the environment. They also delve into the concept of healthism, the profitable form of medicalization that emerged in the 1970s, and its collusion with capitalism.The conversation touches on the importance of health in feminist, abolitionist, queer, and trans thought and concludes with a discussion on collective care movements.  Aimee Bahng is professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Pomona College. Jenna M. Loyd (she/her) is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode of Feminist Keywords, host Amber Musser interviews Tiffany King, author of the entry 'Flesh' in the book Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the intersection of Black and Indigenous feminisms, the significance of the term 'flesh', and its resonance in the current political moment. They also explore the connection between flesh and cultural texts, as well as the different levels at which flesh can be understood. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding and valuing the experiences of marginalized communities. Tiffany Lethabo King holds the Barbara and John Glynn Research Professorship in Democracy and Equity and is associate professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Virginia. She is the author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies (2020). Amber Jamilla Musser is professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism (2014), Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance (2018), and Between Shadows and Noise: Sensation, Situatedness, and the Undisciplined (2024).  More Reading:  Awkward-Rich, Cameron The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022). Harjo, Joy. Remember. Strawberry Press, 1981. Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (editors: Aren Aizura, Aimee Bahng, Amber Musser, Karma Chavez, Mishuana Goeman and Kyla Wazana Tompkins). 2021 keywords.nyupress.org Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Kitchen Table Press, 1983. Morrison, Toni. "Beloved. 1987." New York: Plume 252 (1988). Snorton, C. Riley. Black on both sides: A racial history of trans identity. U of Minnesota Press, 2017. Spillers, Hortense J. "Mama's baby, papa's maybe: An American grammar book." diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 65-81.

In this episode, host Karma Chavez interviews Virgie Tovar, author of "fat" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the three dimensions of weight discrimination: institutional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. They also explore the intersection of research and activism, the feminist politics of fat acceptance, and the corporealization of feminism. Additionally, they delve into the history and development of fat studies as an academic field. Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Virgie Tovar American author, activist, lecturer, and weight-based discrimination speaker. keywords.nyupress.org  

In this episode of Feminist Keywords podcast, Aimee Bahng talks with Mimi Thi Nguyen about the keyword 'experience' and its significance in gender and sexuality studies. She explores the limitations and misuse of the concept, emphasizing the need to destabilize and recognize the changing nature of experience. Overall, the episode reflects on the importance of recognizing change in experience, feminist politics, and challenging power dynamics. Aimee Bahng (she/her), Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Pomona College.  Mimi Thi Nguyen (she/her) is Associate Professor in Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. keywords.nyupress.org  

In this conversation, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins talks with Sharon Patricia Holland, author of "the erotics" entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the significance of the keyword 'erotic' in Black feminist discourses, activism, and animals studies. The conversation also touches on the historical context of Audre Lorde's essay 'The Uses of the Erotic' and its relevance during the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The podcast also emphasizes the importance of horizontal relationships and radical thought in Black feminist praxis. Kyla Wazana Tompkins (she/her) is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo. Sharon P. Holland is Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. keywords.nyupress.org  

In this episode, Aimee Bahng talks with Dr. Sami Schalk, author of the "disability" entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Schalk talks about how disability studies and gender studies have been long-time sibling disciplines, the ways that disability studies will have a transformative effect on higher education, and why pleasure activism might be an important element of disability justice work. Aimee Bahng (she/her) is Associate Professor and Chair of Gender and Women's Studies at Pomona College. Sami Schalk (she/her) is Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. keywords.nyupress.org Black Disability Politics (https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-disability-politics)  Bodyminds Reimagined (https://www.dukeupress.edu/bodyminds-reimagined) Kathy McMahon-Klosterman honored for work in special education. (https://www.miamioh.edu/news/campus-news/2014/12/klosterman.html) Pleasure Activism. (https://www.akpress.org/pleasure-activism.html) Rebirth Garments (https://rebirthgarments.com)  

In this episode, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Kemi Adeyemi, author of "deviance" entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. The conversation covers the politics of the dance floor, the history and significance of the term deviance, and the relationship between deviance and resistance. Adeyemi emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexities and nuances of deviance, and cautions against romanticizing deviant subjects. Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo. Kemi Adeyemi is Associate Professor at the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, host Mishuana Goeman interviews Hōkūlani K. Aikau, the author of the keyword "decolonization." They discuss the challenges and complexities of decolonization, including the need to dismantle and reimagine institutions, the relationship between decolonization and feminism, and the importance of everyday acts of change. Hoku emphasizes the need to provide an alternative to colonial structures and to center Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The podcast also calls attention to the importance of empowering students to be change agents. Mishuana Goeman (she/her) is chair and professor of the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Buffalo. Hōkūlani K. Aikau (she/her) is a professor at the University of Victoria in the School of Indigenous Governance. keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, Karma Chávez talks with University of Illinois-Chicago Professor Beth Richie, author of the "carcerality" entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Richie discusses her life long work challenging prisons and mass incarceration, the importance of challenging carceral logics through teaching inside and outside of prisons, and the necessity of a feminist abolitionist politics. Bios: Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin | @queermigrations Beth E. Richie (she/her) is Head of the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Resources: Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. (keywords.nyupress.org) Richie, Beth E. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. New York: NYU Press, 2012. (https://nyupress.org/9780814776223/arrested-justice/) Davis, Angela Y., Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie. Abolition. Feminism. Now. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022.(https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1546-abolition-feminism-now) Kim, Alice, Erica R. Meiners, Jill Petty, Audrey Petty, Beth E. Richie, and Sarah Ross. The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2018.(https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1161-the-long-term)

In this episode of the Feminist Keywords Podcast, host Karma Chavez interviews Kyla Wazana-Thompkins about her keyword, biopower. They discuss the concept of biopower as coined by Michel Foucault. They explore how biopower has been used to regulate and control bodies, particularly in relation to race, gender, and sexuality. Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin. Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo.  keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Hershini Young, author of "agency" entry of Keyworkds for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the complexities of agency and its relationship to freedom, liberation, and feminism. They also delve into the tensions and challenges in studying agency, particularly in relation to race and gender. The conversation concludes with a discussion on motherhood and the role of agency in navigating the world. Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo. Hershini Young is professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. keywords.nyupress.org