FemTechLab at the 2025 GWGSS “Feminist Perspectives on Body, Disability, and Health” Conference

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!

FemTechLab Launch Follow-up

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 Feminist Technocultures!

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.