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.
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).
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.”
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.