Feminist Keywords

In this episode Karma Chávez talks with Harvard professor Durba Mitra, author of the “sexuality” entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Mitra discusses how ideas about sexuality shape modern society, the ubiquitousness of sexuality as a concept, sexuality and identity, and some of the problematic ways sexuality gets taken up to justify war.

Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin.

Durba Mitra (she/her) is Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.

“Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. keywords.nyupress.org

Mitra, Durba, Indian Sex Life: Sexuality and the Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691196350/indian-sex-life

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1990.”

In this episode , host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Professor Scott L. Morgenson about the keyword ‘heteronormativity.’ They discuss the origins of the term in queer theory, its significance in gender and sexuality studies, and how it is intertwined with settler colonialism and white supremacy.

Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Scott L. Morgensen is associate professor in gender studies at Queens University in Ontario, Canada.

“Feminist Editorial Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. keywords.nyupress.org.

Scott L. Morgenson, Spaces Between Us, U of Minnesota Press, https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/spaces-between-us”

In this episode of Feminist Keywords, host Amber Musser interviews Tiffany King, author of the entry ‘Flesh’ in the book Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the intersection of Black and Indigenous feminisms, the significance of the term ‘flesh’, and its resonance in the current political moment. They also explore the connection between flesh and cultural texts, as well as the different levels at which flesh can be understood. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding and valuing the experiences of marginalized communities.

Tiffany Lethabo King holds the Barbara and John Glynn Research Professorship in Democracy and Equity and is associate professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Virginia. She is the author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies (2020).

Amber Jamilla Musser is professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism (2014), Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance (2018), and Between Shadows and Noise: Sensation, Situatedness, and the Undisciplined (2024).

More Reading: 

• Awkward-Rich, Cameron The Terrible We: Thinking with Trans Maladjustment (Durham: Duke University Press, 2022).
• Harjo, Joy. Remember. Strawberry Press, 1981.
• Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies, NYU Press, 2021. (editors: Aren Aizura, Aimee Bahng, Amber Musser, Karma Chavez, Mishuana Goeman, Shona Jackson and Kyla Wazana Tompkins). 2021
• keywords.nyupress.org
• Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Kitchen Table Press, 1983.
• Morrison, Toni. “Beloved. 1987.” New York: Plume 252 (1988).
  Snorton, C. Riley. Black on both sides: A racial history of trans identity. U of Minnesota Press, 2017.
• Spillers, Hortense J. “Mama’s baby, papa’s maybe: An American grammar book.” diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 65-81.

In this conversation, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins talks with Sharon Patricia Holland, author of “the erotics” entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the significance of the keyword ‘erotic’ in Black feminist discourses, activism, and animals studies. The conversation also touches on the historical context of Audre Lorde’s essay ‘The Uses of the Erotic’ and its relevance during the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The podcast also emphasizes the importance of horizontal relationships and radical thought in Black feminist praxis.

Kyla Wazana Tompkins (she/her) is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Sharon P. Holland is Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

keywords.nyupress.org

In this episode, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Kemi Adeyemi, author of “deviance” entry of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. The conversation covers the politics of the dance floor, the history and significance of the term deviance, and the relationship between deviance and resistance. Adeyemi emphasizes the importance of understanding the complexities and nuances of deviance, and cautions against romanticizing deviant subjects.

Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Kemi Adeyemi is Associate Professor at the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.

In this episode, Karma Chávez talks with University of Illinois-Chicago Professor Beth Richie, author of the “carcerality” entry in Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Richie discusses her life long work challenging prisons and mass incarceration, the importance of challenging carceral logics through teaching inside and outside of prisons, and the necessity of a feminist abolitionist politics.

Bios:

Karma R. Chávez (she/her) is Chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT Austin | @queermigrations

Beth E. Richie (she/her) is Head of the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Resources:

• Feminist Keywords Collective, Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2021. keywords.nyupress.org
•  Richie, Beth E. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. New York: NYU Press, 2012. https://nyupress.org/9780814776223/arrested-justice/
•  Davis, Angela Y., Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie. Abolition. Feminism. Now. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1546-abolition-feminism-now
•  Kim, Alice, Erica R. Meiners, Jill Petty, Audrey Petty, Beth E. Richie, and Sarah Ross. The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2018. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1161-the-long-term

In this episode, host Kyla Wazana Tompkins interviews Hershini Young, author of “agency” entry of Keyworkds for Gender and Sexuality Studies. They discuss the complexities of agency and its relationship to freedom, liberation, and feminism. They also delve into the tensions and challenges in studying agency, particularly in relation to race and gender. The conversation concludes with a discussion on motherhood and the role of agency in navigating the world.

Kyla Wazana Tompkins is Professor and Chair of Global Gender Studies at the University at Buffalo.

Hershini Young is professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

keywords.nyupress.org