We send a big FemTechLab congratulations to DOCTOR Jiacheng Liu! They not only just completed a brilliant doctoral dissertation, “Asia is Burning: Queer Minor Transnationalism and Ballroom Culture in China,” but they are also starting their first semester as Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Media at the University of Memphis! FemTechLab would not have been possible without their generous, collaborative, and capacious thought and camaraderie. Congrats, Dr. Liu!!!!!
The Feminist Technocultures Lab sends our BIGGEST congrats to this year’s graduating seniors, Mahari Blanks, Emma Martinson, and Hannah Yurack! FemTechLab would not be what it is without your vision, participation, and camaraderie, and we wish you nothing but the best as you move on to whatever comes next. We’ll gladly join you wherever that might be 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Kudos to all of our lab members who coordinated and participated in this year’s Graduates in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Conference, “Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health”! And a special congrats to GWGSS President Brandi Lewis and Vice President Kristina Bowers for all of their hard work creating such an intentional, accessible, and inviting space!
On March 4th and 5th, 2025, the Graduates in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (GWGSS) hosted the 2025 GWGSS conference, sponsored by the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Sawyer Seminar Series, and the University Park Allocation Committee. The hybrid conference, Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health, was pleased to bring together an amazing group of scholars, activists, and organizations for critical dialogue on embodiment, corporeality, health, illness, and wellness through the lenses of feminist, trans, and queer studies. Over 150 people joined the conference virtually, and an estimated 50-80 people attended in person over two days. The conference offered two concurrent sessions each day, hosting 70 presenters of undergraduates, grad students, professors, activists, organizers, medical professionals, and policy analysts, discussing a diverse range yet intricately connected series of topics on bodily agency, autonomy, dis/ability, and influences on health and wellness. GWGSS received wonderful feedback about the community, attention to care, and access the conference fostered, and was pleased that so many could attend in person and virtually according to their needs and schedules. As a disability politic, GWGSS’s guiding values were access and community. In addition to the hybridity of the event, the conference was also able to provide free registration and lunch each day.
Tuesday’s Keynote Speaker, Dr. V. Jo Hsu from the University of Texas at Austin, was sponsored by the Sawyer Seminar Series. Dr. Hsu is an alum of Penn State and tied their experience as a graduate student here with their discussion of rhetoric on trans, queer, and disabled bodies and the importance of storytelling in healing. Wednesday’s keynote speaker, Dr. Andrea Miller shared an exploration into the doings of research and the entanglement of disability, grief, practicing research and its environmental situatedness. Both keynotes were well attended and initiated exciting dialogue throughout the conference. Thank you to all who presented, attended, and made this event possible, including our sponsors and the members of the GWGSS who planned the conference, Brandi Lewis (President), Kristina Bowers (Vice-President), Olivia Goldstein (Treasurer), Samrat Sharma and Suleyman Bolukbas (Members at Large). Special thank you to Dr. Alicia Decker, Mariah Younker, Dr. Aparna Parikh, and Dr. Scott Burnett for all of their administrative support and guidance!
A number of our lab members have organized this year’s Graduates in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies hybrid conference, “Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health,” which will take place on March 4th and 5th (next week!). FemTechLab Director, Andrea Miller, will be providing one of the keynote addresses, “On Being Sick and Sad in Feminist Technology Studies.” Please join us for this international conference next week, which we’ll substitute in place of our regular lab time next Friday. Registration link below!
The Graduates in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies are pleased to invite you to the Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health hybrid conference in the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on Tuesday, March 4th and Wednesday, March 5th. All are welcome and attendance is free. Please register in advance here to attend. Zoom links for online attendees will be sent closer to the event. You can find the conference schedule here.
Our current moment serves as an exigence for this conference theme, in a cultural atmosphere of pandemic(s), coerced medical assistance in dying, insufficient and dwindling access to social security and health insurance, the devaluing and abandonment of disabled lives, historical legacy of eugenics, ongoing threats to bodily autonomy, and increasing pressures of neoliberalism. Our conference theme considers whose bodies, abilities, and health are granted protection or treated as fungible. We bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines who are eager to explore the intersections of embodiment and corporeality; health, illness, and wellness; and broad perspectives and frameworks on disability within feminist, queer, and trans studies
We look forward to hosting such an exciting group of scholars and are eager to learn more about their contributions! We hope you will join us online or in-person for one or both days of the conference!
Thanks to all who joined us for our FemTechLab launch on Friday, January 24! We had a robust interdisciplinary attendance and a really grounding, exciting discussion about next steps and directions. Currently, we will meet every other week, with our next official meeting scheduled for Friday, February 7, from 11:30am–12:30pm. If you are an interested undergraduate or graduate student and would like to join us, please email Andrea Miller at andreamiller@psu.edu, and I will add you to our mailing list.
Welcome to the Feminist Technocultures Lab at Penn State. Housed within the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and College of the Liberal Arts, FemTechLab focuses on the critical study of technologies, science, and culture drawing from feminist, queer, and trans scholarly, creative, and applied frameworks. We are committed to collaborative, participant-driven thought and activities as well as creating a generous and welcoming space for undergraduate and graduate student participants.
FemTechLab will meet every other week beginning in January 2025. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Dr. Andrea Miller at andreamiller@psu.edu.