Academia, Gender and Sexuality

UT Austin sociology at SWS in Denver

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by Jamie O’Quinn and Katie K. Rogers

Several feminist sociologists from UT Austin and members of the department’s gender working group, Fem(me) Sem, enjoyed the weekend at the annual winter meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Brenda Allen leads a plenary workshop for white folks at the conference on identifying and mitigating implicit bias in academia.

This year’s conference offered presentations, sessions, and workshops that engaged the theme of “Building Solidarity: Celebrating the Past, Navigating the Present, and Preparing for Our Futures.” 2019-2020 SWS President Tiffany Taylor (Kent State) convened plenary sessions on topics such as self care, implicit bias (for white SWS members) and surviving academia (for SWS members of color).

(Left to right) UT Austin sociology alums Megan Tobias Neely (now Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University) and Kirsten Dellinger (now Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi).
(Left to right) Professors Emily Kazyak, Carla Pfeffer, K. Scherrer, Laura Hirschfield, and Zakiya Luna lead the panel: “Feminist Strategies for Academic Advancement: Dialogues about what We are Glad/Wish We Knew”

For the annual Banquet and Charity Auction, SWS members raised money for Girls Rock Denver, a local volunteer organization whose goal is to “empower girls and gender expansive youth through music education, creation, performance and community, working to put instruments in their hands to unveil what they already possess in their feet, fingertips, vocal cords, hearts and minds.”

(Left to right) PhD candidates Chriss Sneed (UConn, outgoing SWS Student Rep), Katie Rogers (UT Austin), and Emma Mishel (NYU) at the SWS banquet.

UT Austin feminist scholars also participated in individual paper presentations and as roundtable discussants.

A list of UT Austin graduate student participation in SWS is as follows:

Kathleen Broussard: “Embodied Experiences of Surgical and Self–Managed Medication Abortion Care in a Highly Restrictive Context”

Jamie O’Quinn: Discussant, Roundtable on Sexuality

Katie K. Rogers: “She Can Hang: College Women, Drugs, and the Patriarchal Bargain”

Jamie O’Quinn is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and researches sexualities and social inequality. Her current project investigates U.S. child marriage.

Katie K. Rogers is a sociology PhD candidate at UT Austin studying emerging markets, work inequality, and critical criminology. Her dissertation examines race and gender inequality in the U.S. legal cannabis industry.

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