Research and Scholarship
Throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, Illinois State University highlighted research, presentations, and scholarly efforts dedicated to promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and access.
University Galleries published three exhibition catalogues focusing on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Jen Bervin: Shift Rotate Reflect is Queer artist and poet Jen Bervin’s first monograph, a 192-page hardcover book, features selected solo and collaborative projects demonstrating her research on legacies of women artists and writings, relationships between text and textiles, and abstractions of language and landscape. Bethany Collins: A Pattern or Practice is Artist Bethany Collins’s first monograph, a 112-page hardcover book, features work about the intersection of race and language. An Infinite and Omnivorous Sky–this group exhibition features 30 works by 19 artists from Egypt, Peru, India, England, Mexico, Scotland, and the United States, critically engaging in poetic, scientific, and geopolitical views of the cosmos.
Milner Library Digitization Center, in conjunction with the Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives and ISU ReD, seeks Illinois State alumni and current or former faculty and staff persons from minoritized backgrounds interested in being interviewed for Milner Library’s ongoing oral history project. Now in its third year, this project aims to preserve and provide long-term access to the memories of Illinois State affiliates in their own voices and on their own terms.
Edmund Hammah Ankomah, PHI, presented “Dreaming of Elsewheres: Contemplating the Alien Body and Extra-Spatiality in Black Futurist Imaginary” at the Society for Comparative Literature and Arts annual conference in Cincinnati.
Marta Ascherio, CJS and WGSS, published “An Intersectional Analysis of System Avoidance” in Gender & Society.
Winfred Avogo, SOC, made a presentation at the Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting in New Orleans on “Community Characteristics and Adolescent Reproductive Health Transitions in West Africa” in Session 161 “Adolescent Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Alison Bailey, WGSS and PHI, gave the talk “On Whiteness, Privilege, and Anesthesia” at the Feminist Ethics and Social Theory Conference in Tampa, Florida.
Khadidja Belhadi, ENG, authored the article, “Humanizing doctoral mentorship during the pandemic: Transnational women creating feminist spaces through rhetorical listening and reflexivity,” in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics.
Jason Whitesel, SOC and WGSS authored the article “On Becoming a Queer Scholar Doing Body-Image Research,” in Racial Democracy, Crime & Justice Network: Our Stories. Whitesel also gave an invited presentation “Weight Bias and Fat Stigma,” at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
Melon Tanui, SOC, presented “Perspectives of Kenyan Women who Underwent Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision (FGM/C),” at the Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Charles Bell, CJS, was selected as a finalist for the 2021 C. Wright Mills Award for his book Suspended: Punishment, Violence, and the Failure of School Safety. The award, given by the Society for the Study of Social Problems, is one of the most prestigious, coveted, and competitive awards given in the social sciences.
John Blakeman, MCN, co-authored “An Analysis of the Use of the Terms Sex and Gender in Research Reported in Nursing Journals” for Advances in Nursing Science.
Christopher Breu, ENG, authored the review “Rethinking Masculinity Studies,” in masculinities studies in American Literary History.
Christopher De Santis, ENG, edited a collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by famed Harlem Renaissance author Langston Hughes in the book Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes.
Katherine Ellison, ENG, presented “Masculinity and Foppish Information in Restoration Comedy,” at the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference in St. Louis.
Laura Freyman, Advancement, and Elena Roth, EMDH, were honored at the Association for Women in Communications annual Crystal Awards. Freyman won the Communication Innovation Award, and Roth won the Emerging Communicator Award.
Audrey Heffers, presented, “The Radical Possibility of Queer Imagination,” at the Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, and “Queer Love, Queer Life: On Transcending Genre” at the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association Conference 2022.
Dawn Beichner, CJS, co-authored “Prioritizing the Elimination of Violence Against Women Worldwide: Lessons From the 65th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women” in Violence Against Women. Beichner also presented “The Researcher-Policymaker Dialogue: International Feminist Criminology and United Nations Commission on the Status of Women” for the American Society of Criminology.
Dan Lannin, PSY, co-authored the journal article, “Examining links between black women’s intersectional identities and career interests,” in the Journal of Career Development.
Ali Riaz, POL, authored a book chapter titled “Bangladesh in the midst of vaccine diplomacy,” in The Covid-19 Crisis in South Asia: Coping with the Pandemic. He also presented at the Inauguration of the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University. The event titled “Marginalization and Inclusion in South Asia: Economics, Politics, and Culture” explored economic, political, and cultural aspects of several countries in South Asia.
Amy Robillard, ENG, published Misogyny in English Departments: Obligation, Entitlement, Gaslighting (Peter Lang, 2023).
Derek Sparby and Ela Przybyło, ENG and WGSS, presented “Ace Gaze: Asexuality on Tiktok” at the National Women’s Studies Association 42nd Annual Conference.
Jim Stanlaw, ANT, presented “Pronoun Problems and Pronoun-Envy,” at a conference on Gendered Expression and Gendered Perspectives: Perceptions and Experiences in Cincinnati.
Christine Varga-Harris, HIS and WGSS, published the article “Soviet Women and Internationalism in Socialist Travel Itineraries in the 1950s and 1960s” in Diplomatic History.
Chang Su-Russell, FCS, coauthored the article, “Mainland Chinese Mothers’ Autonomy Support Across Four Caregiving Contexts” in Journal of Child and Family Studies.
Laura Sweeney, ENG, presented “Radical Women Self-Portraitists: An Intersectional Exploration of the Poetic Form,” at the National Women’s Studies Association 2022 conference.
Women of Distinction: Several Illinois State University faculty and staff were nominated for the YWCA McLean County Women of Distinction awards, which honor women who are trailblazers in their professions and pathfinders for social justice. Nominees included Victoria Harris, ENG emerita; Angell Howard, Division of Student Affairs; Rocío Rivadeneyra, College of Arts and Sciences dean’s office; Elisabeth Reed, Office of Sustainability; and Diane Zosky, College of Arts and Sciences dean’s office.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Annual Report for Illinois State University