Events
2026 Distinguished Lecture: Doing Feminist Studies Under Surveillance and Censorship
Thursday, February 12th, 2026
4PM
Taft Research Center
This discussion examines how feminist scholars navigate evolving social, political, and institutional landscapes. In a political climate that bans words, legislates gender identity, and criminalizes civil dissent, how do feminists do their work in the classroom, in their communities, and across international borders? Panelists share their experiences, offer strategies for collective resistance, and discuss how current conditions reflect broader cultural anxieties and political shifts.
Panelists:
Dr. LaVelle Ridley (she/her), Assistant Professor of Queer/Trans* Studies, The Ohio State University
Dr. John Rufo (they/them), Assistant Professor of American Studies, Kenyon College
Dr. Cara Snyder (she/they), Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Louisville
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Witch Studies Reader (Virtual)
Wednesday, February 18th, 2026
Time: 3:30pm
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Feminist Forum
Match 11 & April 15
Time: 3:30-5pm
Place: French Hall West 4616
The Feminist Forum is a student-led space for the WGSS community and other interested feminists at UC to explore global strugles for justice, build transnational feminist solidarity, and foster interdisciplinary dialouges
A Brown Bag Talk
Dr. Timothy S. Forest, University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash
'Manning Up' Empires: Gendered Racism and the Rise and Fall of State-Directed Colonization in Canada and Algeria compared, 1871-1894
Date: Feburary 25
Time: 3:30-4:30pm
Dr. Timothy Forest is an assistant professor in Modern British/European History at the University of Cincinnati – Blue Ash. He specializes in how race, gender, and class group identities were negotiated as part of settler colonialism through analyzing state-led colonization efforts involving Irish, Scottish Islander, Flemish and Alsatian settlers in the British, French and Belgian empires in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
A Brown Bag Talk
Dr. Shelina Brown, College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati
Queen of Noise: Yoko Ono’s Musical Activism
Date: March 25th
Time: 3:30 - 4:30pm
Shelina Brown is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (CCM). Shelina completed her doctoral studies in Musicology with a concentration in Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Shelina’s master’s thesis explored musical syncretism in Japanese enka song, while her doctoral dissertation shifted to consider the lasting impact of Yoko Ono’s music and feminist activism. She is currently in the process of adapting this work into a monograph and public-facing digital lecture. At CCM, Shelina teaches popular music studies and has developed courses on Critical Theory & Music, Gender Studies & Music, Feminist Methods, Voice & Embodiment, American Popular Music History, East Asian Perspectives in Global Music History, Women in Rock, and a seminar devoted to the music, art, and activism of Yoko Ono.
A Brown Bag Talk
Dr. J.A. Carter, University of Cincinnati, Blue Ash
Situating Women’s Tackle Football in the Contemporary Sport Landscape
Date: April 8th
Time: 3:30-4:30pm
J.A. Carter is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Behavioral Science Department at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. Her research focuses in the areas of gender and sexualities, especially as they relate to the body, sports, and the health institution. She has examined masculinity in women’s football, sexual health resources on the websites of regional campuses in Ohio, and LGBTQ health education for family medicine residents. Her most recent research focused on teaching and learning, in collaborative projects that examined Transparent Assignment Design and student use of Canvas on the UC Blue Ash campus.
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What Had Happened Was
Therí Alyce Pickens, Bates College
Monday, April 14, 1pm
Elliston Poetry Room, 646 Langsam
This year’s WGSS Distinguished Lecture meets the moment by turning us to poetry as a site for cultural analysis and imaginative strength in the midst of political struggle. Dr. Therí Pickens, Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana at Bates College, is a highly accomplished poet, scholar, and public intellectual. Her work focuses on Arab American Studies, Black Studies, Comparative Literature, and Disability Studies and she has published in a wide range of outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her most recent monograph, Black Madness:: Mad Blackness (2019) is a foundational framework for thinking Black Disability Studies. Dr. Pickens' will be reading from her debut poetry collection, What Had Happened Was, which will be released by Duke University Press on March 28th.