Gender Jawn

Penn community members Serena Mayeri, Carol Tracy, Antoilyn Nguyen, and Alicia Meyer comment on the recent Dobbs ruling that overturned the nearly 50 year precedent of the constitutional right to an abortion. This ep also features excerpts from the work of SaraEllen Strongman, Dorothy Roberts, and Jessa Lingel. Resources mentioned in this ep: Center for Reproductive Rights Our Data Bodies Tech Learning Collective  Electronic Frontier Foundation Penn-specific resources: Penn Reproductive Justice Working Group Penn Association for Gender Equality (PAGE) Penn Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health     Penn If/When/How: Lawyering For Reproductive Justice SaraEllen Strongman's Washington Post article  “Despite antiabortion campaigns, Black feminists support abortion rights” Dorothy Roberts' new book Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World Jessa Lingel in Penn Today article on privacy post-Roe Podcast original music by David Chavannes For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

In this last episode on this year's theme, "Care for the Future," Tamir Williams speaks with Rachel Kauder Nalebuff about her genre-bending book Stages: On dying, working, and feeling. Kauder discusses her experience as an artist-in-residence at an elder care facility in the Bronx, NYC; the lessons she learned from staff members at the nursing home about dying, grief, time, and caregiving; and her expansive dreams for what end of life carework systems could look like in the future. You can purchase Stages directly from Thick Press. And you can pre-order her forthcoming Our Red Book. A recording of the theatrical production that Nalebuff created with staff members at the elder care facility is available.  Episode produced by Tamir Williams. Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com. For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu.

In this episode, the second on this year's theme, Care for the Future, Gwendolyn Beetham and Tamir Williams speak with Hil Malatino about his books Trans Care and Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad. Malatino discusses how his work on care draws from and expands upon the genealogy of feminist work on care ethics and why we should examine not only the positive, but also the negative affects of trans lives - from burnout, to fatigue, to numbness. Malatino also provides an account of the state of Trans Studies today, pointing to the continued marginalization of trans scholars and Trans Studies in the academy. Citing the recent - and nationwide - attacks on trans rights, the episode concludes with a call to provide extensive support for Trans Studies now.  Check out Trans Care and Side Affects: On Beings Trans and Feeling Bad, both from University of Minnesota Press, as well as the most recent edition of Transgender Studies Quarterly, The t4t Issue, edited by Cameron Awkward-Rich and Hil Malatino.You can attend the Side Affects book launch on Tuesday April 12th at 7pm ET.  Episode produced by Tamir Williams. Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com. For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu.

This episode recognizes the fortieth anniversary of two landmark publications for BIPOC queer feminist writing, This Bridge Called My Back and But Some of Us Are Brave—volumes whose foundational insights on the mutual formation of gender, sexuality, race, class, ability, environment, slavery, and colonialism have often been excluded from queer theory's traditional genealogies. As part of the Center's programming theme Care for the Future, invited speakers reflected on these two texts. Kandice Chuh speaks about the ways we are compelled to begin with “we,” and how This Bridge Called My Back asks how and by what means we can be responsible to and for each other--embracing crowdedness despite neoliberal logics of individuality and privatization. Christina León examines positionality as part of doing the work of Bridge and pedagogies of dissent. Amber Musser discusses knowledge made possible by a robust engagement with flesh, putting forth a fleshy methodology for women of color feminism to think about situatedness as a mode of repair and possibilities for brown jouissance. Rod Ferguson shares his relationship with these texts in terms of models for using writing to imagine alternative worlds and institutions and Erica Edwards centers care in foundational queer feminist writing, refusing inclusion on the terms of the established order of women's rights and as a result, women's studies. Check out the full event recordings from this series on the FQT/GSWS YouTube channel. Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

This episode is a celebration of k.d.lang's album Ingénue, which was released 30 years ago this month on January 1st 1992. In conversation with scholar Mairead Sullivan and the admin from the Instagram account Canada.gov.ca, this month's ep covers lesbian politics, Alberta, butch vocality, lang's song writing credit on a Rolling Stones song, lang's showmance with Madonna, and even a little chat about Stompin' Tom Connors. Visit Mairead Sullivan's website to learn about her work and forthcoming book Lesbian Death. Follow Canada.gov.ca on Instagram. Musical excerpts by Stompin' Tom Connors and the one and only k.d.lang. Podcast original music by David Chavannes For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

December's ep features a conversation with Karma Chávez about her new book The Borders of AIDS: Race, Quarantine, and Resistance out now from University of Washington Press. The book tracks how the early years of the AIDS pandemic in the United States saw the development of rhetorical strategies built on alienizing logics that redefined understandings of citizenry, migration, belonging, and quarantine. In this conversation, Chávez also questions the rehabilitation of Anthony Fauci's image, discusses the methodological challenges of recovering archival materials of detained migrants, and considers the coalitional potential to organize against alienization. Check out The Borders of AIDS from the University of Washington Press, Austin's BookWoman, or your local book store. This episode was produced by Tamir Williams. Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

November's episode of Gender Jawn features Courtney Martin, author of the book Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from my Daughter's School in conversation with Gwendolyn Beetham. The book takes a critical look at the state of our segregated school system through the lens of one White family's journey through their local public school. Courtney discusses the particularities of White motherhood and school choice, her own lived attempts at moving beyond the nuclear family model and, ultimately, what it means to take seriously the idea that having the “best” for our children means having the best for all children. Check out Courtney's book Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from my Daughter's School. You can read reviews of the book here and here, and listen to her talk more about Learning in Public on the podcasts Call Your Girlfriend, Integrated Schools, and the New Yorker.  Follow Courtney on Twitter: @courtwrites Subscribe to Courtney's newsletter: The Examined Family For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit https://gsws.sas.upenn.edu/  Original Music by David Chavannes

This month's ep features Kathy Brown discussing her forthcoming book Undoing Slavery: Abolitionist Body Politics and the Argument over Humanity. In this work, Brown continues her career-long attention to the history of the body by documenting how early abolitionist work emerged alongside developments in medicine and law that determined how knowledge about bodies was produced. She discusses Black personhood, motherhood, and reproductive labor following the “official” end of the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, demonstrating how this labor system reproduced itself by colonizing the bodies of enslaved women, and she articulates a body-centered politics to show how material analysis of bodily injustice can work to undo medical and scientific racism. Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

What are deviance studies and what does deviance have to do with queer theory? In season 2 episode 2 of Gender Jawn, Heather Love talks about her new book Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory, tells us how microsociology informs queer method, why it's still all about negative affect, where shame and stigma fit into genealogies of queer theory, and how sexy deviance and sad deviance can't be separated. Check out Heather Love's new book Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory (University of Chicago Press) Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

The season 2 opener of Gender Jawn unpacks the motivations for changing the name of the gender & sexuality research center at Penn from the Alice Paul Center to the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies. Jennifer W. Reiss talks about the importance of discussing the failures of the suffrage movement and Melissa Sanchez, Director of FQT/GSWS, discusses how formative BIPOC poets, artists, and creatives have been to the genealogy of queer theory, what sustainable care work might look like in the future, and her new book project on the productivity of guilt. Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

In May’s episode of Gender Jawn Anthea Butler discusses her new book about the history of evangelicalism in the U.S., how evangelical faith is politically leveraged as a powerful voting block, and why evangelicals vote overwhelmingly for politicians who do not practice what evangelicals preach. She exposes the practices of white evangelical racism in so-called color-blind Christianity to demonstrate how the battle between religion and politics is far from over and she explains the aesthetic & political brilliance of sliding down a stripper pole to hell in Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO (Call ME By Your Name).” Check out Anthea Butler’s White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, her article “Lil Nas X built ‘Montero’ to be the perfect lightning rod for Christian fears,” and her appearance on the upcoming documentary about Billy Graham The American Experience on PBS premiering May 17th. Follow @AntheaButler on twitter Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

This episode offers an overview of the campaign for Penn to participate in a PILOT program with the city of Philadelphia. As a nonprofit, Penn is not required to pay property taxes, which provide a substantial part of the funding for the Philadelphia public school district. Members of Penn for PILOTs Mary Summers, Akira Drake Rodriguez, and Amy Offner make the case for why Penn should make payments in lieu of taxes to fund public education in Philly. Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu For more information on the campaign for PILOTs at Penn, check out pennforpilots.org   Additional sonic material excerpted from 6abc Action News, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, and Good morning America. Testimonies from Penn History professor Ann Farnsworth-Alvear and Central High School student Lin Lin are from the Committee Hearing on Children and Youth in March. Testimony from Education professor Gerald Campano comes from a Penn for PILOTs Update Session.

The March 2021 episode of Gender Jawn features Jack Gieseking in conversation with Gwendolyn Beetham (Associate Director of GSWS) and Davy Knittle (English PhD Candidate and GSWS Graduate Associate). The discussion is centered around the themes of Jack’s recently released book, A Queer New York, which examines lesbian and queer spaces in New York City from 1983-2008. The conversation takes us from long-standing challenges to urban queer communities such as gentrification and racial injustice, to the pleasures of queer space -- queer soup nights, lesbian go-go dancers and, of course, astrology.   Follow Jack Gieseking @jgieseking Access all of Jack's work free of cost http://jgieseking.org/cv  Buy A Queer New York at your local independent bookstore or directly from NYU Press.  Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

In February’s episode of Gender Jawn, Roksana Filipowska, a third-generation tarot reader, educator, and researcher, discusses her own (re)discovery of the tarot, the queer, feminist & colonial history of tarot through the imagery of queer, Jamaican-born artist Pamela Colman Smith, and the importance of establishing mutual networks of care.  The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck was first published in 1909 by the Rider Company in London. Scholar and mystic A.E. Waite wrote the instruction manual and directed the project, though it was artist Pamela Colman Smith who created the now iconic imagery of the cards. Roksana is organizing Tarot beyond the Binary, a virtual conversation & gathering, on Saturday, March 20th, the Spring Equinox. Follow @taroteverywhere for updates and registration. Follow Roksana Filipowska @taroteverywhere Musical clip by musician & hair stylist Ricky Chan @beauty.by.rickles Original Music by David Chavannes For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

This episode is a replay from spring 2020. It features APC Artist-in-Residence Ricardo A. Bracho in conversation with Poet and Comparative Literature Graduate Student Lucas de Lima and APC Interim Associate Director Maria Murphy. Ricardo reads excerpts from his new work Circa, his short play Mi Madre, and his manifesto A Proclamation Of, By, and On Negation. Ricardo discusses the (in)operability of inclusion discourse, growing up as a red diaper baby, articulations of solidarity, how he still believes in the revolution, and the need for faculty to recognize themselves as workers.  Since the recording of this episode, and the onset of COVID-19, the Circa production at Slought Foundation has been canceled. Original Music by David Chavannes.  For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

The December 2020 episode of Gender Jawn features ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Jorge Sánchez Cruz. APC Interim Associate Director Maria Murphy asks Jorge about his work on undocu-queer aesthetics, his book project Aesthetics of Dissent: AIDS and Sexual Politics in the Americas, Oaxaca’s festival of reciprocity, and the indigenous performance of everyday living.  This show includes the musical works “Jarabe Del Valle” & “Tanguyu,” and Jorge reads "Sick in America" by Alan C Pelaez Lopez.  Original Music by David Chavannes.  For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

The November 2020 Alice Paul Center (APC) podcast episode of Gender Jawn focuses on the practices and politics of self-care. APC Interim Director Maria Murphy interviews UPenn GSWS Associate Director Gwendolyn Beetham and GSWS/APC Program Coordinator Shana Bahemat about meditation and writing as self-care, care work advocacy in the university, and facilitating care work as part of a holistic approach to pedagogy.   Readings include excerpts from Judith Butler’s Undoing Gender and Solange Knowles’ “Solange Knowles: Reflections on Stillness, Joy, and the Year That Changed Everything.” Shana Bahemat www.shanabahemat.com Instagram: @saffronbby Shana’s meditation/yoga/healing resources: Maryam Ovissi Michelle C. Johnson Sebene Selassie Liberate Meditation App Studio Ānanda Daphne Lyon Original music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

The Alice Paul Center (APC) podcast series relaunches as Gender Jawn with original music composed by the first ever APC Graduate Artist in Residence, David Chavannes. APC Interim Associate Director Maria Murphy asks David about his performance and scholarly work, which critical theorists he’d rather sing to, write with, or drink with, and his take on making research in the North Atlantic academic industry. This show includes the works “mel’s son” (2018) by David Chavannes as well as “different” (2019) and “la dame aux chapeaux” (2019) by David Chavannes and Talie Cerin. Original Music by David Chavannes: www.dchavannes.com Talie Cerin’s new album Solèy Midi: https://taliemusic.bandcamp.com For more information about the Alice Paul Center visit www.gsws.sas.upenn.edu

Stay tuned for our first episode with artist & scholar David Chavannes, the first ever Alice Paul Center Graduate Artist in Residence