Graduate Conference
Graduate Student Conference
Rethinking Health and Well-being: The Politics of Collective Care and Body Sovereignty
✨32nd Annual Emerging Scholarship in Women's and Gender Studies Graduate Student Conference, at The University of Texas at Austin.✨
March 25-26th, 2025
The Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies annual conference offers graduate students the opportunity to share their research with students and faculty, The University of Texas at Austin community, and WGSS community partners.
We hope you will join us on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 25-26th, 2025.
Rethinking Health and Well-being: The Politics of Collective Care and Body Sovereignty
The deep and persistent racial and cisnormative disparities in health have long been condemned by grassroots movements, scholars, and other activists. In the U.S., Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women (CDC), with reports of under diagnosis, obstetric and medical violence. Transgender and non-binary individuals, especially Black and Latinx trans people, face staggering barriers to healthcare, including fear of discrimination, mistreatment and lack of support from medical providers on trans and gender-affirming care, to name a few.
However, we know that healthcare and well-being disparities do not exist in a vacuum. Healthcare and well-being (or lack thereof) are deeply embedded within broader systems of racism, sexism, and cisnormativity, which subject marginalized communities to daily violence—both physical and psychological, and in turn, poorer health outcomes. Historically, systems of criminalization and incarceration have compounded these harms, linking premature death and prolonged suffering to structures that perpetuate cycles of oppression.
Recent legal and political shifts have further entrenched these disparities. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the erosion of the constitutional right to abortion has profoundly undermined bodily autonomy of pregnant individuals. Simultaneously, state-level legislation, particularly in Texas, has escalated attacks on gender-affirming care, further marginalizing trans and gender-diverse communities from medically necessary assistance from insurers.
Despite these challenges, collective care and well-being remain at the heart of feminist and anti-racist goals, which envisions health as a form of social justice. These practices open up critical conversations around wellness and health justice. As a case in point, we are particularly focused on emancipatory practices—social movements’ resistance, activism, art, and media production—that challenge oppressive systems, medical and state violence and reimagine health as a collective goal. More specifically, we invite participants to reimagine well-being and frame it as a goal rooted in interconnectedness, body sovereignty, and collective healing.
As bell hooks (1999) reminds us in All About Love, "Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.".
We invite submissions that address the following questions:
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How can feminist practices reshape our understanding of health and well-being?
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How have feminist and anti-racist movements questioned medical and structural violence across time and enacted collective care?
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What strategies can dismantle harmful systems to women of color and gender minorities’ well-being?
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How can poetics, media, and art promote healing and wellness?
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How can grassroots movements and collective care bridge healthcare gaps for marginalized communities?
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What role does body sovereignty play in resisting gendered and racialized violence in healthcare?
We invite panels and individual, co-authored papers, creative writing and artistic posters, media production, and performance pieces from participants in any discipline whose research focuses on women's, gender, sexuality, transgender, and/or queer studies. Presentation at this conference will count towards the WGS MA Program, the WGS Graduate Portfolio Certificate and/or the WGS Graduate Portfolio Certificate-LGBTQ Studies Track.
We will consider work previously presented at another conference or produced during coursework, and especially encourage (but do not require) submissions relevant to this year’s theme. Co-authored papers are also permitted.
Conferences proposals are due by Friday, January 24th 2025.
For more information, contact conference organizer: Brenda Marques, brendamarques@utexas.edu
