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Happy fall from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies!
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| Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Fall 2024 Newsletter |
Dear WGSS Community,
Happy fall from the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies!
We’re excited to share some of the latest WGSS@SBU news, including highlights from our spring graduation ceremony and announcements about the awards that we’ve been winning, the books we’ve been writing, and the research we’ve been doing.
We know everyone is super busy, but please know that we love hearing from our alumni and friends. If you have a moment, send us a note and let us know what you’ve been up to.
Warmest regards,
Liz Montegary
Associate Professor and Department Chair |
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Graduation Speaker and WGSS Alum:
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May Navarra '18
This year, the WGSS Department welcomed May Navarra back to campus as the keynote speaker for our commencement ceremony. May Navarra is a two-time alum of Stony Brook University. They completed their first degree here – a BA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, along with a minor in biology – in 2018. That year, WGSS selected May as the winner of the Terry Alexander Award to support their plans to pursue a career in health advocacy. May had just been accepted into the Master’s of Public Health program on our campus and had signed on to work at what, at the time, was the new LGBTQ* Center.
Watch May's graduation speech here.
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| 2024 Terry Alexander Award Winner: |
Jonell Ashby
We’re delighted to introduce Jonell Ashby as the 2024 winner of the Terry Alexander Award. Professor Jenean McGee presented Jonell with the award at our spring commencement ceremony. Here’s what McGee had to say about Jonell: “Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Jonell Ashby is a doula, holds an associates degree in biology and is graduating as a Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies major with post grad plans of becoming an OBGYN.” |
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| 2024 Academic Excellence Award Winners: |
Sammie Aguirre
Julianna Goldman
Devin Lobasco
This year, the Department selected three fabulous graduating students to receive Academic Excellence Awards: Sammie Aguirre, Julianna Goldman, and Devin Lobasco. All of the awards were presented at our spring commencement ceremony. |
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| 2024 Vivien Hartog Graduate Student Teaching Award Winner: |
Francesca Petronio
WGSS honored Francesca Petronio as the 2024 winner of the Vivien Hartog Graduate Teaching Award. Professor Liz Montegary presented them with the award at our spring commencement ceremony. Thank you, Frankie, for inspiring us! |
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| WGSS PhD Candidate Wins President’s Award for Teaching Excellence: |
Lizbeth Zúñiga
This past spring, Lizbeth Zúñiga received the Graduate School’s highly competitive President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student. Our Department has known for years that Lizbeth is a fabulous teacher with an unwavering commitment to feminist pedagogy and mentoring. So, we’re absolutely thrilled to see Stony Brook recognizing Lizbeth’s excellence! |
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| WGSS Graduates Five New PhDs in Spring and Summer 2024 |
| This past spring and summer, WGSS graduated five new PhDs: Ashley Barry, Annu Daftuar, Andy Eicher, Tara Holmes, and Melis Umut. We were thrilled to celebrate the end of the academic year with five dissertation defenses – each one bringing together the WGSS community, allies from across campus, and friends and family from all over. Please join us in congratulating our newest doctors! |
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| WGSS Undergrads Showcased at URECA Celebration |
| On April 30, three WGSS students were featured at 2024 URECA Celebration: The Annual Stony Brook Undergraduate Research Symposium. Samantha Aguirre, Gwendolyn Loubier, and V Mancebo prepared poster presentations based on the research they conducted for their WGSS Senior Research Projects. Check out their posters and scenes from the celebration! |
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 WGSS PhD Candidate Ashley Barry Takes 2nd Place in
3MT Challenge
On March 18, WGSS PhD Candidate Ashley Barry took 2nd place in the 2024 Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Challenge. Each year, the Graduate School invites doctoral students to compete in a competition designed to enhance their research and communication skills to more effectively share their work with the wider public. This past spring, 15 Stony Brook students representing a wide range of inter/disciplines, took part in the challenge.
Read more here and watch Ashley’s full presentation here.
WGSS PhD Student AJ Castle Featured in
Lambda-Winning Collection:
This past June, the fantastic zine/collection 2 Trans 2 Furious: An Extremely Serious Journal of Transgender Street Racing Studies won the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ+ Anthology. WGSS PhD student AJ Castle’s essay “The Cipher Cut” is featured in this award-winning volume. We couldn’t be prouder of our Department’s first Lambda winner.
Read more here.
WGSS@SBU Awarded "Affirming Multivocal Humanities" Grant from Mellon Foundation
Our Department was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation’s “Affirming Multivocal Humanities” program. This award will support WGSS program-building activities during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years, including Building a SUNY-wide Network of Gender/Sexuality Studies Programs & Departments and Protecting Academic Freedom, Advancing Social Justice.
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| Professor Lisa Diedrich’s New Book: Illness Politics & Hashtag Activism |
Professor Lisa Diedrich‘s new book, Illness Politics & Hashtag Activism, is now available from the University of Minnesota Press. This small-but-mighty volume shows how illness on social media provides insight into the struggle against ableism and stigma and for care and access.
Join us Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at the Humanities Institute, HUM 1008, to hear more from Professor Diedrich and celebrate the book's release! |
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| Thank you for your support! |
Resources for faculty and students support and strengthen the educational experience. The Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies depends on our alumni and friends to expand field opportunities for our students and provide seed money for senior honors theses and summer research experiences.
Your generosity, whether it’s the renewal of your support or the decision to give for the first time, allows us to do what we do best – innovative, creative research and teaching that’s the hallmark of a great public research university. I hope you’ll consider investing in our faculty and students by making a gift today or speaking with Julianna "Jill" Ashton, director of development, at (631) 632-1455 or julianna.ashton@stonybrook.edu. |
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