News from the School of IAS

Category: Cultural Studies

Frances Lee publishes free syllabus on critical activist culture

Master of Arts in Cultural Studies alum Frances Lee ('18) published "Woker Than Thou: an experimental syllabus" for a ten-week course on critical activist culture. Frances makes it a free and accessible resource for educators, activists, and organizers to use and adapt to their community needs. The course facilitates open, theory-based discussion of modern aspects of leftist activist culture, including identity, call-outs, cultural appropriation, "wokeness", and ...

August 1, 2018

IAS faculty present at Latinx Studies Association Conference

IAS faculty members Jade Power-Sotomayor, José Fusté, and Yolanda Padilla presented at the Latinx Studies Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Jade Power-Sotomayor presented a paper titled: “Zumba and its Discontents: The Extravagance and Ordinariness of Embodied Latinidad” as part of a panel titled "From Broadway to Zumba: Performing Latinidades Across Sound and Body." José I. Fusté presented a paper titled "María’s Uncounted: Accounting for Boricua Subalternities in the Face of (Un)natural Disasters and Debt Colonialism” as part of a panel titled "Afro-Latinx Studies Now ...

July 23, 2018

Poetry and Persistence: Belonging and Expression for First-Gen Students of Color

“I want to help minoritized students flourish and thrive in higher education. As a Cultural Studies student who wishes to go into Student Affairs, it is important for me to think of the best ways to serve and support diverse populations of students. I am very interested in using poetry as a way to cope, to heal, to create communities, and to make meaning. Being accepted into a university and going to class is not enough to help students succeed in college. All students are knowledge creators, and poetry is just one of the ways in which minoritized students can resist the restrictions of academic institutions.” ...

July 9, 2018

Kari Lerum receives Washington State Labor Research Grant

IAS faculty member Kari Lerum has received a Washington State Labor Research Grant from the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at University of Washington. The grant will fund the first year of her new research project, “Assessing the impact of anti-trafficking legislation on transgender sex workers.” This research comes out of years of community-based work, most recently with the Coalition for the Rights and Safety of People in the Sex Trade and the Seattle LGBQ commission. This project will focus on ...

June 26, 2018

Yolanda Padilla publishes “Literary Revolutions in the Borderlands: Transnational Dimensions of the Mexican Revolution and its Diaspora in the United States”

IAS faculty member Yolanda Padilla published a book chapter, "Literary Revolutions in the Borderlands: Transnational Dimensions of the Mexican Revolution and its Diaspora in the United States," in The Cambridge History of Latina/o Literature. Padilla's chapter uses what she calls a transnational Chicanx studies framework to analyze literary responses to the Revolution by Mexicans in the United States. Taken together, the diverse writings ...

May 21, 2018

Amir Noir Soulkin challenges dominant narratives on perfection

Alum Amir Noir Soulkin (’17, Cultural Studies) published an article, “Let’s change how we define perfect,” on the Rainier Valley Corps’ (RVC) Change-Makers Blog. Soulkin discusses Western ideas of perfection and the limitations they place on marginalized communities. Calling for a new paradigm, he writes, “When you really think about it, the human being is an incredible feat in biomechanical construction that blends mind, body and spirit. Human beings are constantly evolving. Through the mastery of the mind, human beings discover ...

May 17, 2018

Jed Murr publishes exhibition essay for “Collapse: Recent Works by Dewey Crumpler”

IAS faculty member Jed Murr published an exhibition essay for Collapse: Recent Works by Dewey Crumpler at the Hedreen Gallery (Seattle University). The publication, released as a pocket-sized book in conjunction with a public event featuring Crumpler and guest curator Sampada Aranke (Chicago Art Institute) on April 12, explores the ways in which Crumpler's work engages contemporary ecological catastrophe and ...

April 23, 2018