Tea Talks series begins 11th year

Now entering its 11th year, the Tea Talks lecture series at Augustana will begin Nov. 13, featuring faculty speakers on a range of topics.The series is sponsored by the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

All lectures are held from 11:10 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Wednesdays in Carlsson Evald Hall in the Great Hall on the first floor.

Lectures are free and open to the public as well as the campus community. Refreshments are served. For more information about the series, contact wgs@augustana.edu.

Schedule

Nov. 13: Dr. Oleski Miranda Navarro, visiting assistant professor of Spanish, "Minerva and the representation of women of color in Cuba."

Description: In 1888 and 1889 in colonial Cuba, the journal Minerva was penned and printed by women of color, providing a unique perspective of society from the viewpoint of black women. Slavery in Cuba had only been abolished two years prior to the creation of the magazine, and its publication represents an exceptional case of female textual production in the Hispanic world.

Nov. 20: Dr. Kiki Kosnick, assistant professor of French, and Vickie R. Phipps, assistant professor of art and graphic design, "On the question of (im)proper pronouns: a provocation for queering linguistic networks."

Description: "In recent years, familiarity with gender-neutral and non-binary pronouns has continued to increase as speakers of English are identifying themselves as “they,” “xe,” and “per” with greater frequency at the same time as many educators and activists are mindful to avoid gender-coded language. Although it is now common in some educational and community settings for folks to share their pronouns as part of routine introductions, at best, one notes a chasm between everyday linguistic practices and the grammatical standards of editorial and scholarly bodies...

"Our provocation intervenes in these ongoing debates by providing an alternate framework that leverages sensibilities already embedded in English grammar (e.g., proper nouns and proper adjectives) while making room for the articulation of queer experience."

Feb. 19, 2020: Dr. Dawn Farmer, assistant professor of music

March 4, 2020: Dr. Bobby Wengronowitz, assistant professor of sociology,  "Valorizing the marginalized: The perils and possibilities of climate activist capital."

Description: "Drawing on observant participation, interviews, and surveys, I present findings from a climate justice campaign against a natural gas pipeline in the northeast USA. This research suggests that some activists valorize the marginalized, that is, they celebrate the dominated in the space of positions. This means — all else equal — that typically disadvantaged individuals are advantaged while typically advantaged individuals are disadvantaged.

"For example, women and gender non-binary identifying individuals and gay and queer folks are celebrated. They are understood to appreciate oppression, disadvantage, and so on, such that they are better activists (or at least could be). This flipped hierarchy garners them the symbolic form of what I call Climate Activist Capital: status-enhancing recognition that has value within the climate activist social space. "

March 18, 2020: Dr. Sharon Varallo, professor of communication studies, "Gender in Prison."

April 22, 2020: Dr. Emily Cranford, visiting assistant professor of French, "Trésor du temps: Fallacies and Femmes in 1970s elementary French textbooks."

Dr. Cranford's research interests include gender and sexuality in early modern France; the intersections of friendship, proto-feminism, and masculinity; monsters, odd bodies, and otherness; and medieval to contemporary writings about plants and animals.