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28th Annual WGSS Student Research Symposium

Friday, April 25, 2025 - Bone Student Center Prairie Room   9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Call for Papers submission link for the 2025 WGSS Student Research Symposium

2025 Keynote Speaker Dr. Nada Elia 

Dr. Nada Elia has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Purdue University. She also chaired the Global Studies minor at Antioch University-Seattle, before moving to Fairhaven College in 2017 to teach Arab American Studies and Comparative Cultural Studies. She regularly writes editorials on Palestine, gender, activism, and transnational struggles for Mondoweiss and Middle East Eye.  Dr. Elia is the author of Trances, Dances, and Vociferations: Agency and Resistance in Africana Women’s Narratives, and is currently completing her next book Beyond Apartheid: Notes from the Global Intifada. She co-edited the Critical Ethnic Studies: A Reader and her award-winning The Revolution Will Not Be Funded.  She recently contributed a chapter to  Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.

" All events are free and open to the public. For more information please contact Alison Bailey (baileya@ilstu.edu) or Jamie Anderson (jlande4@ilstu.edu).

Further information for the 28th Annual Symposium upcoming...

Climate and Inclusion Statement

The organizers of The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Symposium are committed to providing a harassment-free symposium experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, national origin, ethnicity, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

  • Verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, ethnicity, religion.
  • Sexual images in public spaces
  • Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following
  • Harassing photography or recording
  • Sustained disruption of talks or other events
  • Inappropriate physical contact
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior
  • Use of a recording device (mobile phone, camera, etc.) to capture images or presentations, chats, demonstrations, etc. taking place during the annual conference.

Land Acknowledgement

Illinois State University was built on and has benefitted from the land stolen from multiple Indigenous Nations. These lands were the traditional birthright of Indigenous Peoples who were forcibly removed and dispossessed of their land by settlers. Normal, IL is on the lands of the Peoria, Kaskasia, Piankashaw, Wea, Miami, Mascoutin, Odawa, Sauk, Mesquaki, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe Nations. As settlers, we recognize that we have a responsibility to continue to learn, teach, and understand Indigenous histories and present-day realities as they pertain to these Nations as well as to confront the ongoing violence of settler colonialism.

Past University Research Symposia

2024 WGSS Symposium

Friday, April 12, 2024
Prarie Rooms, Bone Student Center

The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Student Research Symposium is a day long celebration of student scholarship, creative work, and ideas that are underrepresented in Illinois State University's traditional curriculum.
All events are free and open to the public. For more information please contact Alison Bailey (baileya@ilstu.edu) or Jamie Anderson (jlande4@ilstu.edu).

2024 Program Book Dr. Lauren Gutterman's Profile

The WGSS Symposium is sponsored by:

  • The Alice and Fannie Fell Trust
  • Antiracism, Identity, and Belonging (AIB) Grant
  • ISU Philosophy Department
  • ISU English Department
  • ISU Psychology Department
  • ISU Social Work Department
  • ISU Sociology and Anthropology Department
  • ISU Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Queer Coaltion

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2023 WGSS Symposium

Thursday, April 27, 2023
Prarie Rooms, Bone Student Center

The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Student Research Symposium is a day long celebration of student scholarship, creative work, and ideas that are underrepresented in Illinois State University's traditional curriculum. This year the keynote speaker Dr. Kate Manne, PhD will deliver "He Said, She Listened: On Epistemic Entitlement, Mansplaining, and Gaslighting". All events are free and open to the public. For more information please contact Alison Bailey (baileya@ilstu.edu) or Jamie Anderson (jlande4@ilstu.edu). E-poster option viewing of projects in the Circus Room - 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

2023 Program Book Dr. Kate Manne's Profile

The WGSS Symposium is sponsored by:

  • The Alice and Fannie Fell Trust
  • ISU Philosophy Department
  • Harold K. Sage Foundation Fund
  • ISU English Department
  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Queer Coaltion
  • ISU Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program

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2022 Queering Gender: The 25th; Annual WGSS Student Research

April 1st - 15th, 2022
Brown Ballroom, Bone Student Center

The symposium is a two-week long celebration of student scholarship and creative work designed to center scholarly texts, projects, and ideas that are underrepresented across Illinois State University's traditional curriculum. Our theme "Queering Gender," is inspired by recent scholarship and creative projects focusing on the lives of LGBTQAI+ people and their communities. The symposium runs from 1-14 April and will be accompanied by an curated WGSS Symposium Historical Retrospective Exhibit in Milner Library. All events are free and open to the public.

2022 Online Program Guide
Dr. Arlene Stein Profile Dr. Veronica Ivy's Profile Dr. Karma R. Chávez's Profile Maia Kobabe's Profile

The WGSS Symposium is sponsored by:

  • MECCPAC: A Dean of Students Diversity Initiative
  • Harold K. Sage Foundation and Illinois State University Foundation Fund
  • Alice and Fannie Fell Trust
  • Philosophy Department
  • History Department
  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Milner Library
  • Queer Coalition

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2021 WGSS Symposium

The 2021 Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Symposium was a virtual week-long celebration of student scholarship, creative work, and ideas that are underrepresented in Illinois State University's traditional curriculum. Our theme "Reconcile, Rebuild, and Recover," was inspired by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's call to action with poem "The Hill We Climb,";. Gorman's words remind our campus and surrounding community not to lose sight of how our collective spirits have been challenged. The symposium serves as an invitation to navigate our frustration, exhaustion, and doubt with the courage to "find light in this never-ending shade." It prompts us to pause and "rebuild, reconcile and recover." Thank you to those who joined us in this celebration.

2021 Online Program Guide Dr. Tristen Johnson's Profile Harsha Walia's Profile Laina Reese Carney, MFA

The WGSS Symposium is sponsored by:

  • MECCPAC: A Dean of Students Diversity Initiative
  • Harold K. Sage Foundation and Illinois State University Foundation Fund
  • Alice and Fannie Fell Trust
  • Philosophy Department
  • History Department
  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • Milner Library
  • Queer Coalition

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