2017 Gender Conference
2017 Gender Studies Conference Program
9:00 to 9:15 AM
Introduction
Auditorium
Dean DoVeanna Fulton, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
9:15 – 10:15 AM
EXAMINING MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Aaron Gillette, UHD
Navodka Carter, UHD, “Coming to Voice as ‘Other’: The American Way, Excluding the
Unincluded”
Todd Snider, UHD, “On the Origin of Deformity in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI and Richard III”
Gallery Martinez Reyna, UHD, “Towards an End of Transgender Untouchability: Modern Masculinity’s Construct of the Hijra in Post-Colonial India”
10:30 – 11:30 AM
GENDER AND THE BODY
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. Sucheta Choudhuri, UHD
W. Denae Powell, UHD, “Black Femininity: From Hottentot to Miss America”
Cynthia Gilmore, UHD, “Negotiating Power across Gender”
Courtney Schmitt, San Jac, “Transgender Bodies”
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM
NEGOTIATING POWERS OF FEMALES IN NON-PROFIT MANAGEMENT
A-300, BUFFALO BAYOU
Moderator: Ms. Ashley Lawson, UHD
Ruth Githumb, Executive Director of Trees of Hope, Houston
Marylyn R. Harris, RN, MBA, Founder and Executive Director of the Women Veterans Business Center
Ashley Lawson, UHD, Graduate Intern at the Center for Critical Race Studies
Cherry Steinwender, Executive Director of the Center for the Healing of Racism
OPPRESSION WITHOUT BORDERS: THE GENDERED VIOLENCE OF WOMEN OF COLOR IN ETHNIC AMERICAN
LITERATURE
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. Vida Robertson, UHD
Arbene Harper, UHD, “The Price of Ugly: Examining Pauline in The Bluest Eye”
Gallery Martinez Reyna, UHD, “The Imprisonment of Black Femininity: Black Women's Battle with Eurocentric Ideals in The Bluest Eye”
Peter Eze, UHD, “I Hate Shirley Temple: Claudia’s Struggle for Self-Love”
GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES: REDEFINING MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Tammis Thomas, UHD
Alfred Grimaldo, UHD, “Chrissy”
Araceli Robles, UHD, “Bloody White”
Miguel Sanchez, UHD, “RuPaulslickskin”
1:30 – 2:30 PM
LET THE CHARACTERS SPEAK: RACE AND GENDER IN AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATER
A-300, BUFFALO BAYOU
Moderator: Professor Rachel Dickson, UHD
Gabriel Morales, UHD, “Day of Absence”
Faith Pruneda, UHD, “The Mojo and the Sayso”
Teria Millhouse, UHD, “The Colored Museum”
INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE: A CRITICAL RACE EXPLORATION OF GENDERED OPPRESSION, SPONSORED
BY THE STUDENT ASSOCIATION FOR RACIAL AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. Vida Robertson, UHD
Lindsay Ware, UHD, “Institutionally Disabled: A Woman's Fight for Education”
Randy Torres, UHD, “Sticks and Stones: Patriarchal Religion and the Use of Language as Violence
Wanda Fortson, UHD, “Black Girl Magic: Black Women Negotiating American Culture”
GENDER AS A PERFORMANCE
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Robin Davidson, UHD
Sara Whittemore, UHD, “Performing Gender: Deconstructing the Identity and Ideology of Gender”
Allyson Simmons, UHD, “Coming to Voice as ‘Other’: The Black Woman’s Struggle for a Legacy”
Jasmine Huynh, UHD, “The Unheard of and Unseen Interior of the Machine”
Joshua Johnson, UHD, “Unmasking Unmasking Laocoön: How Masculine Beauty is Opposed
by Strife”
2:45 – 3:45 PM
RE/CLAIMING SELF AND MAPPING SURVIVAL IN AFRICAN AND DIASPORA WOMEN’S LITERATURE
A-300, BUFFALO BAYOU
Moderator: Dr. Novella Brooks de Vita, TSU
Novella Brooks de Vita, TSU, “Inside Out: Identity and Resilience in African and Diaspora Women’s Literature”
Gabriel Cisneros, TSU, “Misperception of Strength: The Subjugation of Women in African American Fiction”
LaCresha Douresseaux, TSU, “Betrayal before Survival: The Empowerment of Women in African Diaspora Literature”
THE BLACK WOMAN AND THE HBCU: A LEGACY OF ASPIRATION AND STRUGGLE
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. M. Clay Hooper, PVAMU
Aliya Steele, PVAMU, “The Continuing Struggle for Female Empowerment on HBCU Campuses”
Mecca D. Price, PVAMU, “The Politicized Black Woman on the HBCU Campus”
Jeaiza M. Quinones, PVAMU, “Letters to My Sisters”
Reconfigurations of Masculinity and Femininity in "Little Red Riding Hood”
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Tammis Thomas, UHD
Archie Gayle, UHD, “Howl”
Charles Scott, UHD, “Wolf”
Angel Lopez, UHD, “Little Red Fabulous Boy”
ENGENDERING CREATIVITY IN POETRY, ART, AND COMICS
A-350, AUDITORIUM
Moderator: Dr. Katharine Jager, UHD
James Wilson, UHD, “Protect and Serve” & “Cold World”
Sarahy Umanzor, UHD, “Mayan Culture Facing Colonial Gender Norms”
Roman Bible, UHD, “Ballade: An LGBT Comics
ANNIHILATION AND THE REBUILDING OF BODY AND SOUL IN AFRICAN AND DIASPORA LITERATURE
A-300, BUFFALO BAYOU
Moderator: Mr. Jeremy Eugene, TSU Jeremy Eugene, TSU
“God’s Arrow Seeks a Target” Brianca Hadnot, TSU, “A God of My Own: Construction of
the Religious Self in Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes
Were Watching God”
Gloria Williams-Mitchell, TSU, “The Power of the Kongo Cosmogram in Reading Race and Gender in Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks”
BAD-ASS FAIRY TALE FEMALES: RECONFIGURATIONS OF CINDERELLA
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. Tammis Thomas, UHD
Alondra Morillon, UHD, “Cinderella”
Cymone Caldwell, UHD, “Tinderella”
Susana Garcia, UHD, “Cinderfella”
CULTURAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF GENDER
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Edmund Cueva, UHD
Katy Guillen, UHD, “The Word as Feminist Intervention”
Yadira Gamez, UHD, “Who Is to Blame: How Gender Roles Influence the Story of La Llorona”
Salina Sanchez, UHD, “Positive and Negative Effects on Perceptions of Male Beauty”
5:15 – 6:15 PM
FAIRY TALE TRANSFORMATIONS AND REAL WORLD PROBLEMS
A-300, BUFFALO BAYOU
Moderator: Dr. Tammis Thomas, UHD
Hannah Batayneh, UHD, “Amir H’mar”
Christian Tijerina, UHD, “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing”
Elizabeth Gonzalez, UHD, “The Little Girl Who Cried Wolf”
SELLING IMAGE: GENDER PERFORMANCE IN MODERN AMERICA
A-300, HOUSTON
Moderator: Dr. Erlanger Turner, UHD
Angeli Andres, UHD, “Gender Performance and the Repercussions of Breaking Character in Boys Don’t Cry”
Magge Nunez, UHD, “Can’t Like a Lady, Grip Like a Man”
Monica Orellana, UHD, “Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Toys”
Kayla Brown, Sam Houston, “What’s Gender Got to Do with It? Presidential Campaigns through Social Media and Interviews”
VOICING GENDER IN DIFFERENT EPOCHS
A-300, WHITE OAK
Moderator: Dr. Chuck Jackson, UHD
Yadira Gamez, UHD, “Black and White: Finding Rena in ‘The House Behind the Cedars’”
Stephanie Torres, UHD, “The History of the ‘New Woman’ and the Novel Dracula”
Cymone Caldwell, UHD, “Queen Elizabeth I, Her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, and
Gender”