". . . became an important way to stay in touch with each other from afar.
The GSF Graduate Scholars Colloquium carried on through the turbulence of this pandemic year and, though we missed food and in-person fellowship, became an important way to stay in touch with each other from afar. Picking up on the final cancelled event from the 2019-2020 season, co-leader Maggie McDowell (Duke English) led our transition to virtual colloquia with her talk “F*cking Machines: Wish Fulfilment for the Unimaginative.” Caoimhe Harlock (fellow co-leader, also Duke English) delivered a generous response that further broke down Maggie’s research on robots and asexuality, to the point that her non-academic family and friends following along on Zoom basically understood what was at stake in the paper.
Caoimhe designed a second eye-poppingly provocative poster in October for Jessica Gokhberg (Duke Literature) and her paper “Anyone Can Be Pussy Riot,” H. Bondurant (Duke Philosophy) respondent. Focusing on the group’s transnational critiques of the Putin-Trump coupling, their music videos, and literary publications, Gokhberg dispelled the idea that Russia is too enigmatic to engage with, and offers a counter to existing scholarship on Pussy Riot by tracing the complexity of their transmedial strategies in the context of liberalism’s international decline. Zoom proved a fruitful format for receiving participant feedback as Gokhberg workshopped her paper, which had received a revise and resubmit notice from an exciting journal in the field.
In November Zoom allowed us to expand our reach as we welcomed Evelyn Rosengren-Hovee from UNC’s Global Studies program to present “The Global State of Monogamy,” in which she drew on consensual non-monogamy and polygamy case studies in the United States to argue monogamy has been a hidden but powerful marker of national identity within the United States as distinct from polygyny practiced in the Global South. Jaqueline Allain (Duke History) gave a response that provided post-emancipatory feminist perspective to supplement Rosgren-Hovee’s global studies background. The virtual event format was further exciting to us in November because Angela Wiley, author of Undoing Monogamy, invited members of her undergraduate class on a similar topic to attend.
The Colloquium entered the second calendar year of online meetings with a February talk from Natalie Gasparowicz (Duke History) on "The Sexual Ethics of Liberation Theology: The Catholic Women's Counter-Conference at Puebla (1979)." During one of our most robustly attended events of the year, Natalie and her respondent, Dr. Saúl Espino Armendáriz of El Colegio de México, explored the crucial international significance of the titular conference and generously fielded questions about a wide variety of theological and reproductive health issues and their intersections with gender and women's rights.
March brought us a scintillating talk from Blake Beaver (Duke Literature) called "Radio, Television, Cellphone: The Electronic Family in America's Partisan Millennium." Adopting a deep focus on the ABC family melodrama, Brothers and Sisters (2006-2011), Blake asked us to imagine the role of the televisual serial in shedding light on political polarization and familial atomization in America. Carolin Bennack (Duke English) then offered a thoughtful response that served as the catalyst for a night of stimulating discussion amongst Duke grad students and faculty.
Finally, the Colloquium wrapped up its 2020-2021 season in April with a talk from Amber Manning (Duke English). With "'Old Mama Mammemory long lingering:' Aftermath, Afterbirth, and Afterlife in H.D.'s War Writing," Amber asked us to rethink how we understand the concept of "reproduction" in literature, grounding the often-abstract term in bodily as well as cultural dynamics of exchange. Following a response from Hunter Augeri (Duke English), Amber fielded questions and helped us to see how we as readers participate in a "literary afterlife" that imbues the work of the modernist poet with new and visceral meaning.
2021-2022 co-organizers Maggie McDowell and Lorenza Starace (Romance Studies) are planning a new year of talks as we await with bated breath conclusive word from Duke about how to navigate in-person events safely. Absent this certainty, we’re grateful for the new ways this year has taught us to be together and to expand our community.
Gender, Sexuality Feminist Studies