44th Annual Gender Studies Symposium

We are now accepting submissions for presentations at the next symposium. Please review the Call for Proposals for complete guidelines.

The 44th Annual Gender Studies Symposium, “[No] Hard Feelings,” will investigate how we are moved by emotions in relation to gender and sexuality, exploring how feelings bridge subjective experience and collective change. Beyond emotions, “feelings” can refer to our impressions, sensations, experiences, and identities. We are curious about rage, love, despair, joy, envy, and confusion—and those moments when we feel most scared or safe, proud or ashamed, neglected or nurtured, euphoric or hopeless. The symposium will delve into how feelings influence and are influenced by gender and sexuality on an individual and societal level. Some questions that arise from this topic are:

• What do we consider “hard feelings”? How do societal expectations around femininity, masculinity, age, race, and disability influence who is allowed to express challenging emotions and who isn’t? How can we decenter historically overvalued voices and pivot to those often left unheard?
• How do feelings and emotions inform gender and sexual expressions and identities?
• What narratives do we ascribe to our feelings and emotional journeys? How are these narratives shaped by our gendered and sexualized bodies? 
• What social realities are obscured when we focus on individual emotional fulfillment? What hegemonic forces benefit from an emphasis on personal comfort? How might empathy serve as a counterweight to these tendencies?
• How do gender- and sexuality-based movements and communities draw on and provide space for participants’ emotions?
• How can emotions be used to empower feminist and LGBTQ+ resistance and resilience? How might they restrict or mislead us? What might be the potential pitfalls or limitations of emphasizing feelings?

This year’s symposium aims to bring clarity to the murky world of feelings, and to explore how we use our emotions and sensations as inspiration for coalition building and social change. We hope participants feel moved to consider the value of their own stories and to turn their gaze outward to the radical potential of feelings, both personal and shared.

2024-25 student co-chairs:
Alex Chew ’25, Logan Drain ’25, Grace Marchant ’25, and Zoë Smith ’25