ISU Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

10/28/2026

See our recent news article on WGSS instructor, Dr. John Hawkins! 📰

What can the relationship between a person and their animal teach us about gender, power, and the way we relate to the world around us? The seminar course Gender & Power in Human-Animal Relationships will once again be offered in the spring semester and examine this question.

For Dr. John Hawkins, that question began with their dog, Banks.

Hawkins, who works with graduate writers through Illinois State’s Graduate School and affiliates with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program, began thinking seriously about human-animal relationships while completing their Ph.D. in English at Loyola University Chicago. Their relationship with Banks felt loving and reciprocal, but it also raised questions about power. Hawkins legally owned Banks and ultimately held more power in the relationship.

What can the relationship between a person and their animal teach us about gender, power, and the way we relate to the world around us? The seminar course Gender & Power in Human-Animal Relationships will once again be offered in the spring term of 2027 and examine this question.

10/13/2026

Drop by the Rachel Cooper Art Gallery to see the latest exhibit: Looking At Men by AJ Westley!

The artist reception takes place November 3rd at 4pm in Rachel Cooper 237.

About Westley: AJ Westley is from Washington, Illinois and is a senior majoring in Art History and Fine Arts with a focus on painting and experimental textiles. He works primarily in portraiture, creating narratives of failure, care, and transformation. His textile work incorporates second-hand materials and considers how the materials’ physical history can shape the meaning of a piece. He currently serves as a student gallery assistant at University Galleries where he works on programming, events, and the galleries’ permanent collection. Westley has also organized several art exhibitions at the Central Illinois Regional Airport and continues to facilitate community workshops for both youth and seniors. In 2026, he was the winner of the Marshal Delaney Pitcher Award, which honors outstanding students in the visual arts.

10/06/2026

Join Latin America and Latina/o Studies in celebrating Latinx Heritage Month by learning about Livia Stone’s book, Without Masters: Autogestión, Anarchist Ethics & Mexico City Punk!

The book launch takes place Friday, October 16, at noon in Williams Hall 314. 📖

Without Masters is an anthropological history of the radical ethical and political principle of autogestión as it traveled around the world in the 20th century and came to be popularized in Mexico City in the early 2000s. A political term that first arose in 1962 Algeria traveled across continents until it landed in Mexico City’s anarcho-punk scene in the 1980s, where it eventually came to be associated more with zines, music, art, and Zapatismo than with its origins in anarchism or syndicalism. The book brings the true history of autogestion and the quiet radicalism of Mexico City’s autogestive collectives to an English-speaking audience for the first time.

10/05/2026

Reminder: Registration begins on October 12! We have a list of courses available through WGSS, which can count towards the WGSS minor, Q***r Studies Certificate, and WGSS Graduate Certificate.

Full list of classes and electives: https://wgs.illinoisstate.edu/academics/ #:~:text=Current%20Course%20Offerings

If you need advising help, contact [email protected].

09/29/2026

Join us for this year's Take Back the Night!

TBTN is an international event and demonstration to protest gender-based violence. Like previous years, ISU’s march is organized to “Demand Safety on Campus for All,” in recognition that many people experience violence and harassment at night and have the right to safely access public space.

The march takes place on Thursday, October 15, beginning in McCormick Hall 184:

- 5:30pm: SERC presents the history of TBTN
- 6:30pm: Poster-making supplies available for signs and banners
- 7:00pm: March begins
- 7:30pm: Survivor vigil led by YWCA’s Stepping Stones and Mid Central Community Action

RSOs and community groups will provide resources related to sexual violence and civic engagement during the history and poster-making sessions.

If you need an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please contact the WGSS Program at (309) 438-2947 and [email protected]. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.

08/25/2026

We are on the quad today and tomorrow, 8/25 & 8/26, so stop by for information, buttons, and other WGSS swag!

08/17/2026

Welcome back Redbirds!!

Next Friday, we are hosting a social for students and faculty of WGSS, African American Studies, and Latin American / Latinx Studies! 📚

Drop in anytime between 1 - 2:30pm, Aug 28 at the WGSS Resource Center, 237 Rachel Cooper Hall. Snacks provided! ☕

04/20/2026

Recent news article on Dr. Sarah Ensor, the keynote speaker for this Friday's WGSS Symposium! 📰

The WGSS Program at Illinois State University will host the 29th annual WGSS Student Research Symposium on Friday, April 24. The symposium invites students, faculty, and community members to explore an important question: What does it mean to imagine collective life at a time when the future feels so uncertain?

This year’s keynote will feature Dr. Sarah Ensor, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Ensor will present a talk titled “Q***r Extinctions: Or Learning How to Last” at 1:30 p.m. in the Bone Student Center’s Circus Room at Illinois State.

Turning to q***r literature, Ensor explores forms of persistence that emerge “at the last”: at the end of a life, a lineage, or even a species. Her work revisits two historical periods marked by experiences of q***r extinction: the 1890s and the 1980s.

By examining literature and cultural history from these two eras, Ensor identifies models of care, continuance, and collective action that emerge in times “when the future feels uncertain.” Her talk invites audiences to rethink how communities endure, organize, and imagine possibility amid environmental and social cataclysm, which often involves either safeguarding the future (as we think we know it) or, alternatively, speculating and working toward alternate futures. Ensor considers what becomes possible when we take our eyes off that nominal futuristic prize, setting our sights elsewhere and directing our energies otherwise.

Read the full story: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2026/04/lasting-at-the-edge-of-the-extinction-2026-wgss-student-research-symposium-is-friday-april-24/

Remember to register!

Register for the Annual WGSS Student Research Symposium on April 24, 2026.

04/14/2026

Next Friday is the WGSS Student Research Symposium! 📚

Come support students from across ISU as they present their WGSS research.

Registration and the full 2026 Program are available on our website and the link in our bio. 🔗

You can preorder Dr. Sarah Ensor's book Q***r Lasting (2025) from !

04/10/2026

Want to build an online collection or database but not sure where to start? Have you digitized some rare items and want to create an online catalog but need to figure out the best way to do it? If so, this workshop is for you! It chronicles a semester-long Digital Humanities Fellowship sponsored by Milner Library with Dr. Whitesel’s archival research on fat-gay men’s clubs.

This workshop is free and open to the public. You can find the lunch registration link in our bio. 🔗