Message from the Director

Dear UB Gender Institute Community,

We have just learned that the right-wing political commentator Michael Knowles, who recently spoke at CPAC and called for the “eradication” of transgenderism “from public life,” is scheduled to speak at UB this Thursday at the invitation of Young Americans for Freedom. The Gender Institute has posted a letter to UB's President Tripathi calling for Knowles' invitation to be rescinded and for the event to be canceled on the grounds that Knowles' call for genocidal violence against trans folk clearly contradicts UB's stated core values of diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect. If you are a UB student, faculty member, member of staff, alumnus, or member of the Western New York community and would like to add your name to the letter, please use the link below.

Letter to President Tripathi

Thank you for your support,
Carrie
 
Carrie Tirado Bramen (she/her)
Professor of English
Director, UB Gender Institute
University at Buffalo

Dear UB Gender Institute Community,
 
Like many of you, I am saddened and outraged by the mass shooting that occurred at Club Q, a club for the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs, this past weekend. It occurred on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day dedicated to the victims of anti-transgender violence, especially Black, Brown, and Indigenous trans women and femmes, who are the most vulnerable to such violence.
 
I was moved and heartened to read Ben Fabian’s powerful statement on behalf of UB’s LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association and I have his permission to share with our community. Please share with your networks. 

In Response to Great Tragedy in Colorado Springs

In solidarity,
Carrie
 
Carrie Tirado Bramen (she/her)
Professor of English
Director, UB Gender Institute
University at Buffalo

This year we reach a number of important milestones. First, the UB Gender Institute celebrates its 25^thAnniversary! It began as a faculty and graduate student reading group in the 1990s to become the only research institute in the SUNY system devoted to the study of women, gender, and sexuality. 2022 also marks the 50^th anniversary of the Women’s Studies department at UB, which was one of the first in the country. During that same year—1972—Title IX was enacted, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding. Although there is still unfinished business regarding Title IX and the struggle for gender equity continues, this legislation has nonetheless transformed the lives of girls and women. In 1972, for instance, approximately 300,000 girls nationwide played high school sports every year. Today, that figure is three million. For college women athletes in 1971, the scene was grim. Only 15% of NCAA student athletes were women. Today, that number is 44%.

And yet in the midst of all of these important signs of progress, we continue to see our country move backward on fundamental rights including the right to abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, trans rights, and civil rights.  With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO), more than 36 million women of reproductive age, and more people who can become pregnant, in 26 states have already lost or will soon lose access to abortion. And those in blue states are not safe either. Although New York has vowed to be a sanctuary state for abortion rights, the Supreme Court in the future could overturn this state law just as we saw them overturn NY’s gun licensing law in NYSRPA v Bruen this summer.

This grim picture also includes the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ policies at the local and state levels ranging from Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to the Texas GOP platform. But of the nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed in 2022, the vast majority of them target trans people. Most of these bills eliminate or ban trans people from accessing public life, education, and gender-affirming care.

It is at this critical juncture that the UB Gender Institute will celebrate its 25^th anniversary, and I use “celebrate” here advisedly to acknowledge the important work that we do as a community whether it is sharing our published work or engaging in conversations on contemporary issues at one of our events. Now more than ever such connections are needed. To this end, the Provost has increased the UB Gender Institute’s budget to include more funds for our research, which will go toward faculty projects, as well as toward an increased investment in our dissertation fellowships. Details will be forthcoming.

To assist with programming during our anniversary year, the UB Gender Institute received a generous Baldy Center Conference Grant for a year-long series of lectures, book events, and panel discussions on the theme of “Social Reproduction: Labor, Social Justice, and the Value of Human Life.” The series, which will be in-person with a virtual option, will kick off on Thursday, September 22^nd with Silvia Federici, co-founder of the International Feminist Collective and an organizer of the wages for housework campaign in the 1970s. She will discuss her most recent book Patriarchy of the Wage. In 1980, she received her doctorate from the Philosophy Department at UB and the Philosophy has generously agreed to co-sponsor this event. On Thursday, October 27^th, Premilla Nadasen, Claire Tow Professor of History at Barnard, will speak on her most recent work on social reproduction. Thanks to the English and History Departments for co-sponsoring this event.

We will also continue our New Books, New Feminist Directions series for a second year with two exciting events. Katja Praznik (Arts Management) will discuss her new book Art Work (Toronto 2021), which demystifies the romantic notion of creating art as an act of love without financial concerns, and looks instead at art as a form of labor. Silvia Federici will offer commentary on Friday, September 23^rd.

The second book event will feature Miriam Thaggert’s forthcoming Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad (U of Illinois P, 2022), which highlights Black women’s experiences as passengers and workers on or near the American train from 1860-1925. Madhu Dubey at the U of Illinois, Chicago will serve as commentator. This will be a virtual event on Thursday, November 17^th.

Finally, our Feminist Research Alliance Workshop continues for its 12^th season. We have a wonderful line-up of UB faculty from a wide range of disciplines, beginning with Shaanta Murshid (Social Work) on “Transnational Bangladeshis in love, desire, and violence” on Thursday, October 6^th at noon. Other workshop participants include Anne B. Curtis, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the School of Medicine, who will speak on gender disparities in patients with cardiac arrhythmias on November 3^rd at noon, and Deborah Reed-Danahay, Jean Monnet Chair, Anthropology, who will speak on “Life Stories of Middle-class French Women in 21^st-century London” on December 1^st at 12 noon. All will be virtual events.

As you can see, we have an exciting year ahead! To find out more about the Institute, check out our website and join our listserv. I look forward to seeing you at our events this year.

Carrie Tirado Bramen
Director of the Gender Institute
Fall 2022