Join the University of Michigan Spectrum Center for a roundtable of scholars and practitioners to discuss how to support and serve queer and trans students in U.S. higher education at this time of our nation’s history. As the policy landscape shifts rapidly and higher education institutions move to shutter gender and sexuality centers and end critical programs and services, queer and trans students persist on our campuses. What does current scholarship indicate these students need to survive or thrive? What are centers and programs that still exist doing to preserve knowledge of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and continue to support these populations? How can we bridge theory and praxis to center QT communities and encourage people of all genders and sexualities to work for more just and welcoming campuses? Our panelists, Dr. Kris Renn, Dr. Antonio Duran, and Dr. Kristopher Oliveira, represent innovative and student-centered scholarship and praxis. We encourage researchers, scholar-practitioners, and graduate students from U-M and beyond to be a part of this important conversation.

Please note that this webinar will be live only and will not be recorded or sent to participants.

PANELIST BIOS

Jesse Beal, (they/them/theirs) Jesse Beal is the director of Spectrum Center. They joined as associate director in November 2021 and were named the director in December 2022. Prior to arriving at the University of Michigan, Jesse served as the director of the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center at Michigan State University. Jesse is an experienced student affairs practitioner, who brings over a decade of experience leading student-facing affinity-based resource centers at Amherst College, Brandeis University, Suffolk University, and MSU. They bring a demonstrated history of working towards equity and inclusion in higher education with a practice that is collaborative, student-centered, intersectional, and justice based. Jesse has been a social justice and LGBTQIA2S+ activist, educator, and consultant for the past fifteen years. They present regularly at national conferences and at many colleges, universities, and nonprofits. Jesse serves as the director of community and advocacy for the Consortium of Higher Education LGBTQ Resource Professionals, a member-based association working toward the liberation of LGBTQ people in higher education. Jesse is also a PhD student in the Michigan State University Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) program studying LGBTQIA2S+ populations in higher education. They possess a Master of Arts in women's and gender studies from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Arts in women's and gender studies and government from the University of Texas at Austin. As the director, they provide campus-wide leadership on strategies to advance equity, and inclusion with regard to gender and sexuality. Jesse drives our strategic planning, sets unit goals, and oversees the operation of the center and our programs and services

Antonio Duran, PhD (he/him/his) is an Associate Professor of Higher and Postsecondary Education, as well as a 1L JD student at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. His research agenda addresses how issues of inequity shape institutions of higher education and what practitioners, faculty, and students do to resist them. He is especially interested in applying frames that expose how intersecting systems of oppression affect multiply minoritized people and their navigation of these social institutions. As a JD student, he strives to explore how research informs legal practice (and vice-versa) to advance equity and justice.

Kristopher Oliveira, PhD (he/him/his) is Director of the LGBTQ+ Equity Center at the University of Maryland and a faculty affiliate. A sociologist and higher education leader, he has previously directed LGBTQ+ centers at Princeton, the University of Kansas, and St. Cloud State University. His research examines Queer and Trans (QT) resource centers and practitioners, exploring programmatic and academic outcomes for QT students and the experiences of Black and Queer professionals in higher education. He is co-editor of the forthcoming volume Championing Trans and Queer Inclusion Beyond the Campus Resource Center and serves as Practitioner-in-Residence for ACPA’s Coalition for Sexuality and Gender Identities. Kristopher has also held leadership and volunteer roles with the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, the Trevor Project, and the Human Rights Campaign. When not working, he enjoys traveling, all things Oz, and time with his husband, Alfredo, and their chihuahua, Scooby Doo.

Kristen Renn, PhD (she/her/hers) is University Distinguished Professor of Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education at Michigan State University. With a background in student affairs administration, including inaugurating the role of LGBTQ resource provider at Brown University, she has for the last 30 years focused her research on the identities, experiences, and development of minoritized students in higher education. She was co-PI of the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success, a two-phase study of LGBTQ college students comprising a mixed methods survey/interview phase and a four-year longitudinal interview phase conducted with LGBTQ students.

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