Please help us in celebrating the 2019 Feminist and Gender Studies minors: D Adams, Kathryn Chase, Abby Diess, Madi Doerre, Lauren Larrabee, and Jabu Ndlovu
and the 2019 FGS Majors: Amelia Eskenazi, Eden Lumerman, Christie Ma, and Niyat Ogbazghi
In their time at CC, Amelia has been involved with FemCO, Relations: The Play, and is currently the co-chair of the Llamapalooza Music and Arts Festival. After graduating in May, Amelia will be moving to New York City where they will be working as a studio assistant for Wardell Milan. In assisting Milan, Amelia will aid in archiving past work, photographing works-in-progress, and organizing studio space, among other responsibilities. In addition to working for Milan, Amelia will also be doing freelance photography.
In her time at CC, Eden has been double majoring in Feminist & Gender Studies and Political Science. She has been especially interested in studying nationalism and its effects on citizens’ affective attachments to the nation-state. After graduation, Eden is hoping to study international human rights law and journalism and work towards the criminalization of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
Following graduation, Christie is working to immerse herself in activism and the arts. She is drafting designs for various women-of-colour-owned businesses and international collaborations while promoting equity in sport as an ambassador for Upwind Ultimate. Her essay “Fucking White People: A Phrase, An Action, An Ethics” is set for publication in the Mary Shepherd Conference on Feminist Philosophy journal in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 2019. As a member of the Hong Kong U24 National Team, Christie will also be competing at the World Ultimate U24 Championships in July 2019 in Heidelberg, Germany.
Post-graduation, Niyat plans to work as a writer for a Colorado magazine for one year. During that year, she plans to take the GRE and apply to graduate school, hoping to attend graduate school for Journalism beginning in Fall 2020.
My name is Niyat Ogbazghi, and I am a Feminist and Gender Studies major. I am so grateful for finding the Feminist and Gender Studies program at CC because I feel like I have found my true passion. Taking FGS classes at CC has been the highlight of my time here. I am indebted to all the FGS professors who have cultivated my knowledge in the field. By the end of this year, I want to start a podcast and then post-graduation, I want to become a journalist. My latest concern: I’m going to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z in September, and I DON’T know how to act. WHOO!!!!
My name is Eden Lumerman, my home town is called Lod and it’s located right in the center of Israel/Palestine. I am a Feminist and Gender Studies and Political Science double major and I’m a senior at CC! This summer I was doing research for my FGS Capstone Project. As part of my research, I was interning in the Israeli parliament in the office of Labor Party member Merav Michaeli. Throughout my time in the parliament, I paid particular attention to the way in which liberal and secular feminist politics operate as a political line of offense against the current ruling government, and especially how this political opposition cements a discursive binary of orthodox vs. secular; progressive vs. backward; universal values vs. oppressive values. I am particularly interested in the way in which the secular outcry against the growing religionization in Israel is intersecting with the liberal and secular feminist campaign for gender equality in the military. Through this project I am hoping to dive into a deep analysis of liberal feminist politics, shed light on some of its blind spots, and illuminate the way in which feminist politics give hand in the normalization of state violence and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. I am both very excited and a bit nervous to start processing everything I have gathered this summer, and am also so lucky to have my fellow FGS majors and amazing professors with me in this journey. In my free time I like hanging out in my apartment with my cute roommates and making delicious foods.
My name is Amelia Eskenazi. I am a Feminist and Gender Studies major with a minor in Studio Art and REMS. I am one of the co-chairs of the Llamapalooza committee and a former cast member of Relations the Play. I spent this summer doing a video/photo project with Dr. Heidi R. Lewis and an art residency in Berlin. My thesis will be exploring queerness as a method of dealing with photography as an artistic practice. My goal is to interrogate the Western queer art canon by putting my work in conversation with existing queer artists as well as feminist theorists, queer theory, and critical visuality studies. My project seeks to illuminate the ways in which “queer art” is only validated when reliant upon portraiture that displays sex, drag, or portraits of queer community as well as question the ways in which I too am feeding into the very imagery and institutions I am questioning as an artist. I am so excited to do this project through the FGS department and look forward to collaborating with my peers as well as receiving the brilliant mentorship from Dr. Nadia Guessous, Dr. Rushaan Kumar, and Dr. Heidi R. Lewis. In my free time, you can find me ranting about astrology, hanging out with my leopard gecko Gert, and making clothes out of trash.
Christie is a lot. Hailing from Canada, Hong Kong, and Wales, she is a storyteller, activist, tree-climbing, dirty-feet-in-unkempt-grass-er, and a bit of a strategically charming button-pusher. doesn’t like holding things. can’t listen to music when studying – can’t study very well. can only sit still, really still, to sketch. been thinking about anger as issue as placebo as hurt as healing, lately. conflates restlessness with recklessness; reckons her whole life is a fight. drinks copious amounts of yorkshire tea (one sugar and a dash of milk). loves a difficult riddle or treasure hunt. exhales ultimate frisbee. only eats meat that she catches/kills/guts/cooks. strongly believes in chasing stars. has trouble sleeping. enjoys cold ocean swims, broccoli, and singing a particularly ancient welsh song in the shower. her favourite tool is a hammer, she wears a seabird fossil around her neck, makes an intricate mushroom risotto, and frequently indulges in banter, cheeky dialogue, a bit of good conversational fun, and the occasional pleonasm. dares say rules are only guidelines, considers coriander an abomination, and feels heartstrings look like the twilight sky.
We woke up to the pitter-patter of the rain once more, looking out the window, saddened by the gray skies greeting us. After all, it was Alejandra’s 20th birthday, and we were looking forward to celebrating later. At 8:07, we frantically tried to find a route to the Reichstag that would allow us to take some form of public transportation, preferably the U-Bahn, seeking the dry sanctuary of the train. Luckily enough, Baheya was able to find a subway route that got us partially there. So, I trudged out of the house with my fellow FemGeniuses, regretting the fact that I did not have a raincoat and the fact that I had not planned further in advance, as the prospect of finding an umbrella to buy at 8:15 am seemed unlikely.
At the Reichstag, we met our tour guide, Dr. Iris Wachsmuth, a self-identified lesbian and feminist activist. She is a member of the group Miss Marple’s Sisters, a “network for local women’s history.” Founded in 1989 around the goal of researching women’s history, this group of female historians seeks to “think [of] women’s history as [the] center of historical analysis” as well as “acquire symbolic competence.” Dr. Wachsmuth began the tour by explaining that her goal was to “find traces that don’t belong to the mainstream” and expose new stories. This reminded me of Dr. Maisha Eggers’ idea in “Knowledges of (Un) Belonging” about “contesting racist representations towards dismantling legitimized and historicized racialized knowledges” (1). Dr. Eggers continues to write,
Hegemonic knowledge systems around Blackness (as well as around gender and sexuality as intricately linked to Blackness) have tended to be deeply implicated in a form of projection in which Blackness is marked and scrutinized to actually produce constructions of whiteness” (12).
Similarly, Dr. Wachsmuth told us that on November 15, 1884, the Berlin West Africa Conference began and took place for months after in Berlin. This conference was organized by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany, as a means of mitigating arguments surrounding the furthered colonization of Africa. Africans, however, were excluded from this conversation, while various countries, including Germany, Belgium, England, the United States, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, discussed the division of Ethiopia and Liberia. Before leaving the site commemorating this conference, Dr. Wachsmuth explained that the Herero were demanding reparations after the genocide from 1904-1907 as a result of the Herero Wars. Few people know that several dead bodies were also brought back to Germany for research purposes. Nevertheless, Germany has not formally recognized these actions as genocide. Now, that’s something you don’t learn about in history class!
I found it interesting that Germany has candidly acknowledged the history of the Holocaust, yet is still resistant towards the recognition of a genocide that took place over a century ago. Germany’s history, drenched with the filth of white supremacy, must be admitted in full. It is not enough to attest to atrocities when it is advantageous. As R. Ruth Linden notes in “Troubling Categories I Can’t Think Without: Reflections On Women in the Holocaust,” “By defining certain historical and cultural subjects as epicentral while regarding others as peripheral,” gender is “universalized” (18). She continues to ask: “How do our locations as knowers, including our feminist commitments, shape the questions we ask, and hence, the knowledge we produce?” (18). If we claim to value the history of all women, why is more focus placed on some narratives over others? Furthermore, how are specific narratives used as a convenience for covering other lived experiences?
As the tour continued, the rain lingered, seeping through my black boots, my socks sloshing with every step. We eventually had to stop inside of an S-Bahn station after a quick coffee break because of the deluge. Here, Dr. Wacshmuth explained that the beginning of Berlin’s governmental leadership was a constitutional monarchy made up of strictly white men. It was not until after the First World War in 1918 that the government was a democracy and women delegates were able to partake. Nevertheless, women were not able to be on committees involving finance or the economy, only social committees such as education. This seems to be quite ironic, however, considering the fact that women were not able to attain any higher education in Germany until the early 1900s. Even then, many women were seen as guest students and were required to go through side doors in order to get to their classes. This was nearly 60 years after the first Women’s Movement in Germany, during which women from rich families demanded an increase in rights as well as the ability to obtain an education. While most women in Germany now are able to obtain an education, an important question to consider remains: who are the women who lack this privilege today, and why?
During our tour, Clara Zetkin, German socialist and advocate for women’s rights was brought up several times. Zetkin was instrumental in organizing International Women’s Day and impacted Germany enough to have a street named after her (though it was changed for some time while the Berlin Wall was up under the influence of the GDR). According to Karen Honeycutt in “Clara Zetkin: A Socialist Approach to the Problem of Woman’s Oppression,” Zetkin was a proponent of “bringing working-class women together on a regular basis for organized activities separate from those of their male colleagues” (136). This made me think about working class women, immigrants, and women of color in Germany today. Have their rights been elevated alongside upper-class white women?
I began to wonder about the space that women of color are allotted in the prominent history of Germany. Why is it that two different walking tours did not mention a single name of a woman of color? There was never a mention of the struggles of Turkish women or the authors of Farbe Bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out), for example. I would like to end, then, with an expansion of Linden’s question from earlier: How do our locations as knowers influence the knowledge we value and the consequential subjectivities we ignore?
Amelia Eskenazi is a rising sophomore at Colorado College from Indianapolis, Indiana with a major in Feminist and Gender Studies. In their free time, Amelia is a fan of film photography, making zines, and listening to punky girl bands. While in Berlin, they look forward to eating vegan pastries, exploring flea markets, and documenting all of the street art.
The gray skies and chilled temperature greeted us this morning as we hustled out of our apartment at 8:15 trying to decide whether or not we wanted to ride the bus this morning. Quickly becoming Google Maps pros, we decided to walk, weaving through the streets of West Berlin to the Reichstag, where we were supposed to meet the rest of our group and our tour guide, Ryan, who leads the Queer Berlin Walking Tour.
Ryan began our tour by explaining how it had changed since the FemGeniuses took the tour last year: “It used to be the history of gay men in Berlin tour, but we changed it because it’s a queer history tour.” Pleasantly surprised, we began the tour near Hotel Adlon where Ryan told us a story about prolific artist Francis Bacon and his stay at the infamous hotel. According to Ryan, one morning when the room service was delivered and Bacon was in bed with his male partner at the time, the person delivering the food “didn’t blink an eye.” This is apparently when Francis Bacon knew that Berlin was the city for him. But as a white gay man, any city that markets to queer culture markets to him. While Berlin is oftentimes described as the “queer capital of Europe,” we must ask ourselves, whose queerness is valued and whose is diminished within this so-called progressive culture?
As we walked towards the U-Bahn station to catch a train to the “notoriously gay” neighborhood of Schöneberg, we learned about some of the legislation behind LGBT criminalization in Germany. Ryan explained to us that when the separate states of Germany were unified in 1871, Section 175 of the German penal code was written, criminalizing sodomy across the country. When the Nazis were in power, they utilized Section 175 as a means of persecuting homosexual individuals. On our walk, we passed a memorial for homosexual individuals who were persecuted along these lines during the Holocaust. The memorial, designed by Ingar Dragset and Michael Elmgreen consists of a concrete cube with a five-minute video of a gay or lesbian couple kissing projected on the inside. When the memorial was first created, the only videos used showcased gay men. According to Ryan, after some public outcry by individuals living in Berlin, videos of lesbians were added and the videos are now rotated every six months. Due to the pervasiveness of gay male culture in Berlin, this addition later on is not uncommon. Unfortunately, due to construction, we were not able to view the videos.
Schöneberg, the first neighborhood we went to, has been notorious for being lesbian and gay friendly since the 20s and 30s. About ten years ago, however, the owner of a Dolce Freddo, a local ice cream shop, threw out two gay men after one of the men kissed the other’s cheek while ordering ice cream. The next day when the owner walked from the subway stop to his ice cream shop, he saw hundreds of lesbian and gay couples kissing—the result of a kissing protest that had been staged in response to his requests for the couple to not publicly display affection in his shop. According to Ryan, the Mayor of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Ekkehard Band (who was openly gay), stated that these “types of action were no longer welcome in Berlin.” Spectacles of queer affection, like this one, have been used as a means of sexual assimilation throughout Berlin for the last few decades. According to Jin Haritaworn in “Queer Injuries: The Racial Politics of ‘Homophobic Hate Crime’ in Germany,” the use of kiss-ins are used as a means of exemplifying progressivism. “Today’s kissers occupy space very differently. Rather than sick perverts outside the law, they are state-sponsored envoys” (76). She continues to claim that “the vulnerable, respectable body of the gay kisser brings home the need for a military and police apparatus to protect the safety of the vulnerable and to defend ‘our’ hard-won values of freedom and diversity” (83). But Berlin’s use of gay and lesbian history as a means of marketing modernism does not stop at commemorating public displays of affection in parks and support from political figures.
While in Schöneberg, we visited the former home of acclaimed author Christopher Isherwood. Similar to Francis Bacon, Isherwood was not originally from Germany; he came to Berlin after hearing about the openness of the gay and lesbian community in the 20s and 30s. While in Berlin, Isherwood developed a relationship with a man named Otto Dix. He stayed in Berlin for a few years, writing short stories and developing relationships within the gay community of Schöneberg and Kreutzberg. Two of his most famous books, Goodbye to Berlin and Christopher and His Kind, are focused on his experiences in Berlin. According to Ryan, Isherwood left Berlin in 1933, the night after the Nazi book burning. Though Isherwood’s relationships and literary accomplishments were quite significant for Berlin’s lesbian and gay community, Ryan did not mention any people of color who have also impacted marginalized communities within Berlin, especially LGBTQ communities.
Part of the reason why the FemGeniuses study in Berlin is because for many years, Audre Lorde came to Berlin each summer, teaching, working, and writing with women of color, especially Black German women. Her presence in Berlin was so impactful that a group of Afro-German women, including May (Opitz) Ayim and Katharina Oguntoye co-edited a book entitled Farbe Bekennen: Afro-Deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Gechichte in 1986 with Dagmar Schultz as a means of documenting their experiences and diasporic herstories individually and collectively. This book was the first published edited collection of autobiographical writing by Black German women. Despite this accomplishment, neither Lorde’s impact nor her times in Berlin were mentioned on our tour. As Lorde writes in the foreword of Farbe bekennen, “Racism cuts a wide and corrosive swath across each of our lives. The overt climate that racism takes can alter according to society and our national situations…[A]s members of an international community of people of color, how do we strengthen and support each other in our battles against the rising international ride of racism?” (x). Although queer and trans people of color throughout Berlin and all over Germany have been working to create a cohesive and well-known community, the lack of recognition on a tour from a well-advertised company becomes a lack of acknowledgement.
In a place that has been so influential for LGBTQIA+ history in general, we must analyze the way in which these subjectivities have been evicted out of mainstream history. Due to the focus of this class being the intersections of identity within Berlin, it is important to know the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals. Nevertheless, the way in which this history is framed and who frames it is important to critique. Along these lines, in “Knowledge of (Un-) Belonging: Epistemic Change as a Defining Mode for Black Women’s Activism in Germany,” Dr. Maisha Eggers writes, “Narration is considered central to changing perceptions of normalcy. Since narration creates and conserves normalcy, dismantling legitimized and historicized dominant knowledges requires counter-narration” (7). Regarding Berlin, these counter-narrations are widely written, spoken, and known. The issue now is shifting the whitewashed epicentral focus to one that includes voices that are oftentimes forgotten in dominant discourses.
Nevertheless, the traps of marketed neoliberal queerness within Berlin are hard to avoid and easy to get excited about. However, at the end of the day, they are not an accurate depiction of the various intersections of queerness within Berlin. Without acknowledging these intersections, the dominant narrations appear to be the sole narrations. Over the last few days, I have begun to question my role in perpetuating the normalcy of prevailing discourses. As a white queer individual, I’ll end with this question: How am I contributing to the hegemonic discourses already in place?
Amelia Eskenazi is a rising sophomore at Colorado College from Indianapolis, Indiana with a major in Feminist and Gender Studies. In their free time, Amelia is a fan of film photography, making zines, and listening to punky girl bands. While in Berlin, they look forward to eating vegan pastries, exploring flea markets, and documenting all of the street art.
I first became familiar with Grace Montesano (Feminist & Gender Studies and Political Science ‘17) when they wrote “Attention, Straight Allies” for the Block 2 2013 Monthly Rag. In it, they write, “Being a good ally doesn’t mean you will tolerate two men kissing in privacy, it means you actively fight the hetero and cis sexist power structure under which we all live. Don’t expect extra points from queer people just for putting up with us.” After reading that, I thought, “Wow! Who’s this fierce young buck?” Not long after, they enrolled in my Critical Race Feminism course during Half-Block 2014, making them the eldest member of the FemGeniuses in this course. Soon after, we connected on Facebook, and the rest is history. There are few students on Facebook that I enjoy “watching” more than Grace, especially because they are one of the smartest and most hilarious people I know. They’ll go from posting a scathing and fierce critique of white heteropatriarchal capitalist supremacy to posting about their Queering Fashion blog to posting hilarious thoughts about Justin Bieber. Grace is just all the things. Grace was also a student in my Feminist Theory in Block 6 2015. Always the leader, they served as the Editor for Guns & Rosie, along with 2015 FemGeniuses in Berlin member Jazlyn Andrews, which, according to them, “is a magazine for women in the military to read and relate to, because no matter what our theories about the military, the women on the ground need a place of sisterhood to deal with this taxing occupation.” I wasn’t surprised that Grace and their team chose to write about matters that are just as important outside of the academy as inside of it—if not more—because they’re always thinking intersectionally, even when they’re not in class. This is probably why Grace was as instrumental part of “The Stonewall X,” along with Baheya, and Black Women Matter with Ivy. For these reasons, I know Grace will benefit greatly from this course, and I’m looking forward to seeing their intellectual growth in Berlin and back on-campus. [UPDATE: Never one to let a mistake slip, and they shouldn’t be, Grace reminded me today that we actually met when they took my Critical Race Feminism course during Half-Block 2014. I guess I really am getting old. Hahahaha.]
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Cheanna Gavin (Feminist & Gender Studies ‘18) took her very first college course, Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies (First-Year Experience), with me during the fall 2014 semester. She was also a student in my Feminist Theory course this past spring. Not long after FYE, Cheanna decided to major in Feminist & Gender Studies and I serve as her adviser, so we’ve also gotten pretty close over the years. It’s been a pleasure watching her grow over the years—from a very quiet and shy first-year student to a strong, confident young woman who’s really thoughtful and intelligent. I was particularly impressed with the thinking she illustrated in “Miley Cyrus and the Madonna-Whore Dichotomy,” the final video project she produced with her classmates in FYE, which “problematizes mediated analyses of Miley Cyrus that rely primarily on the Madonna-Whore dichotomy.” Not long after, she started to “come out of her shell” when she published “Domestic Violence and the NFL,” a courageous think piece, in the Block 2 2014 Monthly Rag. More specifically, she writes, “The fact that it took a video of [Ray Rice] punching his wife to bring the severity of the issue into perspective is a huge problem. Both young boys and girls get the message that this is not a big deal. Young boys see that they won’t be severely punished without visual proof, and young girls see that their voice alone will not be heard.” Most recently, Cheanna served as a Journalist for Artisan, the final magazine project she produced with her teammates in Feminist Theory. For Artisan, Cheanna wrote “Revolutionary Feminist Hip Hop,” which introduces readers to hip hop artists Shadia Mansour and Ana Tijoux in order to explore the relationship between feminism and hip hop. Along these lines, her interest in art is one thing that I think will really motivate her during this course, especially since so many intellectuals in Berlin value artistic expression, and I hope her interests strengthen in this course and throughout her time in college.
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Alejandra Hernandez (Feminist & Gender Studies ‘18) was also a student in my fall 2014 FYE course. She also declared the Feminist & Gender Studies major soon after, and I’ve served as her adviser ever since. I should also mention that she and Cheanna are best friends and that I affectionately refer to them as “The Bopsy Twinz.” It’s funny to think about our advising sessions when I would ask them, “Y’all gon’ take every class together?!” On a serious note, though, Alejandra is an extremely special young woman. She’s super shy and very quiet, but she is one of the smartest students I’ve ever had the pleasure of teaching. She may not talk often in class, but when she does, she causes even me to think more closely and carefully about our studies. As a first-year, she contributed a great deal to “Behind the Scenes: The Hyper-Sexualization and Objectification of Women during Fashion Week,” the final group video project she produced with her teammates that “explores hyper-sexualized and objectified constructions of women during New York’s Fashion Week.” Most recently, in Feminist Theory, Alejandra served as the Editor for Artisan, writing, “Using a feminist perspective, we aspire to seek, explore, and critique works of art that do feminist work in hopes of showing you, our reader, that feminism can go beyond the walls of a classroom. Artisan hopes to spur and inspire new thoughts and conversations. Our team strives to create a space that spotlights, shares, and celebrates powerful works of art dedicated to empower women and gender non-conforming individuals.” I cannot tell you how proud I was to see Alejandra step into a leadership role and to take her role as a leader as seriously as she did. Due to her leadership, that magazine has become one of my favorites, and I can’t wait to share it with students in Feminist Theory next year and to see how the great work in Artisan influences them to create a fabulous magazine.
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Ivy Wappler (Feminist & Gender Studies ’18 and The Monthly Rag Editor, 2016-2017) was also a student in my FYE with Cheanna and Alejandra. She was also a student in my Critical Media Studies course just two blocks after FYE and in my Feminist Theory course this past spring. She’s also a Feminist & Gender Studies major and I serve as her adviser, so we’ve gotten to know each other really well over the past couple years. Ivy is energetic, humorous, and kind. She’s also very thoughtful and smart and willing to continue learning as she figures out who she is and who she wants to be. I first became intrigued with Ivy’s curiosity when she co-created “Sorority Life: Corrosion of Female Empowerment” for her final group video project in FYE. In this video, the group “explores how mediated constructions of primarily white sororities ignore the ways in which these organizations often perpetuated hegemonic gender norms.” Subsequently in Critical Media Studies, Ivy and her team produced “Act Like A Man, Man!: An Examination of Old Spice Ads,” which critiques the ways Old Spice advertisements perpetuate heteronormativity and hegemonic whiteness. Most recently, Ivy served as the Graphic Designer for the final group magazine project in Feminist Theory, helping her group to create GREEN QUEEN, a magazine that aims “to create a safe place for all people to read and learn about ecofeminism!” Outside of the classroom, Ivy’s commitment to theorizing and problematizing these and various other forms of oppressions led her to take an active—albeit careful and critical—role in the Black Women Matter demonstrations on our campus, illustrating her ability to seriously think about and examine problems that are relevant both within and outside of the academy. I think this is a big reason why she’ll appreciate this course, and I sincerely hope that she remains committed to that trajectory throughout and after her college career.
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Baheya Malaty (Feminist & Gender Studies ‘18), whom I affectionately refer to as “HeyHey,” and I first met when they were a student in my Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies course just over a year ago during Block 5 2015. I knew then that they would grow to become an intellectual force to be reckoned with. They didn’t talk a whole lot in class—something they’re very careful about—but when they did, they almost always said things that made the whole class stand at attention. At the end of the course, Baheya produced “The Solo Exception: The Implications of Categorization of Female Athletes in the Media,” the final group video project they produced with their classmates that “explores the various categorizations in which female athletes are pigeonholed based on gender norms.” Since then, Baheya has been very particular about making intersectional analyses paramount to their academic and personal life. For instance, they were an instrumental part of what I refer to as “The Stonewall X,” a group of students committed to shifting the Colorado College culture to be more reflective of our important and ever-growing LGBTQIA student population. Additionally, Baheya co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Colorado College, which aims “to promote the cause of justice and speak out against oppression.” It wasn’t surprising, then, when Baheya chose to become an Editor for the student magazine project in my Feminist Theory course this past spring and helped to produce The PWIssue, which, according to them, resists the popular institutional model of “adding color” to college campuses rather than “fostering healthy, inclusive, and diverse communities.” I know that Baheya will learn a great deal about intersectional leadership from our comrades in Berlin, and I am eager to see how their learning in this course manifests in their intellectual work both on-campus and off.
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Nitika Reddy (Economics & Business ‘17) and I first met when she was a student in my Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies course during Block 5 2015 with Baheya. Subsequently, she decided to declare a Feminist & Gender studies minor, and I serve as her minor adviser. Nitika is one of the brightest students I know, and I mean that intellectually and personally. It’s nearly impossible to be in a “bad” mood around her, which is something that I know her classmates and I will appreciate while we’re abroad. She’s also especially smart, having produced one of my favorite student group video projects to date, “Collard Greens & a Side of Gender Rolls,” which “explores constructions of gender roles on the Food Network’s Southern at Heart starring Damaris Phillips and Good Eats starring Alton Brown.” The very next block, Nitika continued pursuing her intellectual commitment to Feminist & Gender Studies when she enrolled in my Feminist Theory course. There, Nitika advanced her collaborative skills by serving as the Editorial Assistant for Wave: A Fem Rag, along with Inaugural FemGeniuses in Berlin member Kadesha Caradine, which aims “to shed light on feminist topics in a way that is empowering and productive in our advancement for the equal opportunity of women.” Whenever we get a chance to talk privately about issues related to my classes, Nitika always expresses a deep concern with being able to conduct intersectional analyses that consider race, gender, sexuality, class, and other markers. Hence, I think her participation in this course will have a deep impact on the ways she is able to converge her interests in Economics & Business and Feminist & Gender Studies all while having a great time.
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Amy Valencia (Political Science ‘17) was also a student in my Block 5 2015 Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies course with Baheya and Nitika with whom she helped produced “Collard Greens & a Side of Gender Rolls.” Like Nitika, she continued her journey into Feminist & Gender Studies by taking Feminist Theory during Block 6 2015. In that course, she served as Editor for College Grrrl: An Alternative Magazine for the Liberal Arts Woman, along with 2015 FemGeniuses in Berlin Willa Rentel, Jade Frost, and Spencer Spotts, which, according to Amy, “provides access to knowledge that is not immediately accessible on liberal arts college campuses, and empowers those who identify as women to acquire agency for change and improvement.” Most recently, Amy was a student in my Critical Media Studies course this past spring and produced one of my favorite student media projects to date, “The Production of an Enemy: Misrepresentations of Muslims in the News,” which examines a Time magazine cover and CNN news story in order to argue, “The constantly vilified images of Muslims spur not only anger and tension, but also a misunderstanding of Islam. Due to this media bias, the numbers of Islamic extremists and Islamophobes have grown rapidly, perpetuating hatred, violence, and conflict.” Along with her classmates, Amy also produced a new magazine cover and brief news story that aim “to humanize Muslims by opening a platform for the silenced narratives of victimization and fear, not only spurred by the attacks but also due to misplaced responsibility.” One thing I really appreciate about Amy is her ability to take her learning very seriously. She pays careful attention to the reading materials I assign and our conversations during class in order to conduct multidimensional analyses that challenge various forms of oppression. Since Amy is clearly invested in doing work that is valuable both within and outside of the academy, I know she will appreciate taking this course and learning from intellectuals that occupy myriad spaces in Berlin in order to affect change.
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Amelia Eskenazi (Feminist & Gender Studies ‘19) and I first met when I called “The Stonewall X” into my office for a “come to Jesus” meeting. One of the things I appreciated most about Amelia then and even now is their ability to be attentive to critique as they find their intellectual place. For that reason, Amelia is always, always, always doing their best to learn. They’re as good a listener as they are a talker—and yes, they talk quite a bit (haha). So, I wasn’t surprised when Amelia showed up in my Feminist Theory course this past spring and served as a Journalist for Artisanand wrote one of my favorite student magazine articles to date, “The ‘Art Hoe’ Movement: Co-Opting, Empowerment, and Reclamation.” Here, Amelia writes, “We must analyze the ways in which the movement’s original goal has been skewed into a series of posts about color schemes, clothing patterns, and sunglass styles, fueling consumerism and capitalistic values rather than a furthering of the discussion concerning the erasure of people of color in mainstream media and art.” Did I mention that Amelia is a first-year student? Pretty impressive, right? Still, Amelia also realizes that they have a lot of learning to do in order to achieve their intellectual goals, and I’m confident this course will help them pursue their passions more saliently.
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I first met Lila Schmitz (Film & Media Studies ’18) when she was a student in my Critical Media Studies course and produced “The Production of an Enemy: Misrepresentations of Muslims in the News” with Amy. She was also a student in my Feminist Theory course, serving as Graphic Designer for Artisan. Artisan is showing up quite a bit, huh? Perhaps I should call these students the Artisans in Berlin. Haha. I was thrilled when Lila first told me she was interested in taking this course, because I really appreciate her intellect and humor. She always makes insightful comments in class and asks some pretty important questions—one of my favorite things. Further, she always finds a way to make me laugh, something I’ll really appreciate while we’re abroad. While I’m still getting to know Lila, I’m confident that she’ll learn a great deal from this course and that her learning in Berlin will have powerful implications for the learning I’m sure she’ll do when we come back to campus and for the rest of her life.
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While Amanda Cahn (Feminist & Gender Studies ‘17) hadn’t taken a class with me prior to this one, we first met during the spring 2014 semester when she decided to declare a major in Feminist & Gender Studies and asked me to serve as her adviser. Hence, I’m looking forward to getting to know her more in Berlin. Amanda has a great deal of experience traveling abroad, but I am positive that her learning in Berlin will be especially unique and fulfilling. Along these lines, I was particularly struck by Amanda’s response to a question on her application for this course: “Photographs are great to have for memories and for sharing with people back home, but there are also experiences lost when the camera is the focus.” In this way, Amanda seems to be acutely aware of the distinctions between being a so-called “traveler” and a “tourist,” and I’m hoping that she’ll share her wisdoms—even as she continues to learn—with me and her classmates.
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Claudia Harrison (Classics/History/Politics ‘17) is the newest member of the FemGeniuses crew, as this is her first class with me and this will be our first experience getting to know one another. While it is risky for a professor to take a student abroad with whom they have little to no relationship, Claudia doesn’t worry me one bit. Aside from the fact that she and Nitika are good friends, I was particularly impressed by her application for the course. For instance, in response to one question, Claudia wrote about a great experience she had taking Elementary German with my colleague Christiane “Ane” Steckenbiller. Her experience was especially great because “Ane” helped her realize that learning language is inextricably linked to learning about a country’s many cultures. More specifically, Claudia wrote, “Having only taken Latin as a language in the past, I never noticed how much of modern culture is embedded in language and how the language we use affects how we treat marginalized communities.” This kind of thinking will be particularly valuable for Claudia, her classmates, and me while we’re in Berlin. And I’m looking forward to Claudia sharing her previous knowledge with us so that we have as rich and full of an experience as possible.
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I’m also excited to announce that Dana M. Asbury will be serving as our Course Associate this summer! Dana and I became fast friends when we met in 2013, because she is one of the smartest, sweetest, most thoughtful, kindest people I know. Presently, she lives in Memphis, TN with her beloveds: human, feline, and canine. She’s currently West Tennessee Organizer with Healthy and Free Tennessee, a statewide coalition of people and organizations building grassroots power for sexual health and reproductive freedom in the U.S. South. She’s also a photographer who has had the luck and honor to document various events and actions in beloved communities across the country and Caribbean including, but not limited to, those organized by the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO) at Yale, New Haven Rising Community Union, New Elm City Dream, Free 2 Spit poetry slam, Youth Day Project, the Transnational Black Feminisms Retreat in the Dominican Republic, ALIVE Rescue Memphis, and the Fight for $15 fast food and home care worker’s living wage campaigns in Tennessee. She’s particularly proud to have photographed Landlines,created and performed by friend and artist Ana-Maurine Lara. And I’m more than happy that she told me she’s “so joyously excited to get to be a part of FemGeniuses in Berlin!”
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Last, but certainly, not least…guess who else is joining us in Berlin this summer? My mama, Robin, and my kids, AJ and Chase! I figured that’d be a great idea since this will be my third time teaching the course, and I have things figured out a lot more than I did the past two years! The most exciting thing is that AJ and Chase had to get passports for this trip, so this is their first time traveling outside of the U.S.! I really appreciate all of my friends in Berlin sharing in this excitement, so much so that my kids have friends there waiting for them that they’re so excited to meet and play with! It may even be that daddy gets to sneak away from work (hardest working man I know) to spend a bit of time with us, which would be great since he hasn’t been to Berlin since 2013! If not, though, he promises to try really hard to reconnect with the city and our beloveds living there in 2017!
As for my mama? Wow! She’s traveled outside of the U.S. but never to Europe, so I’m really thankful to be able to share this experience with her! In the words of Jay-Z,
Mama, I made it! You know how I do it like the doc do it! I fly through it! That’s how I operated! Mama, I made it! Ghetto like the grease when you gettin’ your hair braided, sweeter than your sister Kool Aid is! Hooray, it’s the underdog! Now, my feet under desk! I’m the presidential favorite! Can’t believe I got away with my earlier stages to bein’ on stages, havin’ my way with the world! Congratulations! Ya baby [girl’s] a made [woman]! I’m a hold the fam down, least 3 generations! I’m talkin’ when spaceships are around, and ya great, great grands reminiscin’ ’bout foundation you gave ’em! For repairin’ my relationship with my pops ‘fore he pass, all I ask is you raise your glass in a celebration! Toast to the most beautiful girl in the world, my inspiration! Thanks for the information! Mama, I made it!
—Jay-Z, “I Made It” (Kingdom Come, 2006)
