This virtual symposium explores groundbreaking, interdisciplinary, feminist scholarship from some of the University of Michigan’s most promising graduate students.

The IRWG/Rackham Community of Scholars Fellowship is a prestigious and highly competitive program that has been running since 1997. PhD candidates from across the Ann Arbor campus who are pursuing research, scholarship, or creative activities with a focus on women and/or gender are eligible to apply.

To encourage cross-disciplinary exchange, the fellows participated in a weekly seminar in May and June, during which they discussed their work-in-progress. In July and August, they dispersed for research and writing. They reconvene for the annual Community of Scholars Symposium, to share the product of their summer’s work with each other and a broader audience.

The fellows have designed the panels for this symposium to showcase the conversations across disciplines and fields that emerged during the summer seminar.

Schedule (more details coming soon):

Panel 1: Contesting Institutional and National Histories
Hanah Stiverson, PhD Candidate, American Culture, College of LSA: 'Relentlessly Patriotic’: Branding White Nationalism in Militant Communities
Jasmine An, PhD Candidate, English and Women’s & Gender Studies, College of LSA: “The blue ink runs out”: the Aesthetics of Opacity in Southeast Asian Diasporic Poetry
Sauda Nabukenya, PhD Candidate, History, College of LSA

Panel 2: Regulating the Family
Gabrielle Peterson, PhD Candidate, Sociology, College of LSA
Adriana Ponce, PhD Candidate, Sociology, College of LSA: “Power Moves”: Interactional Power in Everyday Caregiving within Child Custody Arrangements
Grace Argo, PhD Candidate, History and Women’s & Gender Studies, College of LSA: “To Become Good Wives and Mothers”: Redeeming Incest Victims at the Illinois State Training School for Girls, 1890-1930

Panel 3: Representing Youth
Sara Abelson, PhD Candidate, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health: Protective Policies at Colleges and Universities and Psychosocial Outcomes Among Gender Diverse Students
Ana Sofia Cruz Bento, PhD Candidate, English and Women’s & Gender Studies, College of LSA: "Strawberry Jam Cookies’ and ‘Inventory": Adventures in Life Writing and Physicality
Lolita Moss, PhD Candidate, Joint PhD Program, School of Social Work & Psychology, College of LSA
Casidy Campbell, PhD Candidate, American Culture, College of LSA: ‘Murderous Inclusion’: On Sakia Gunn, Accountability and Care in the Black LGBT Blogosphere