A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

Things you should know:

Believe it or not, voting happens in a few very short weeks. Early voting begins November 3rd. The presidential election is important, but so are the 469 Congressional seats up for re-election! That’s a lot! Stay informed and get there to vote!

Article of the Week:

We’re only 3 days from Halloween!!! For those that are going out, be safe! Be sure to check out Everyday Feminism’s article “Is Your Halloween Costume Racist?” This is a really cool guide for making sure our costumes are not making fun of or being disrespectful to people of other cultures, religions, races, etc.

UMBC Happenings:

This week was Critical Social Justice! There were a ton of amazing events all pertaining to our theme, ‘Home’. It was an amazing time, especially with our keynote speaker Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. If you missed the events, some of them are available to watch on the Critical Social Justice Facebook Page. Even though Critical Social Justice is over, we want to encourage all of you to continue to be critical and cognizant of how UMBC is or isn’t a home to the students, faculty and staff it houses!

Also, the theme of Home is really resonating with many of us in the Women’s Center as we watch and pay attention to what is happening at Standing Rock. We’re working on a round-up of resources we’ll post on the Critical Social Justice blog so you can learn more about the Native American and indigenous people in America, the water protectors, the social justice issues related to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Song of the Week:

I’ve been listening to really great music recently, and I want to share that with all of you! This week’s song is Laputa by Hiatus Kaiyote ft Anderson.Paak.

Until next week! Happy Halloween! 

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

October 20th was the last of the Presidential Debate series. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and soon it’ll be time to vote. While it’s too late to register online, you can register in person (if you live in Maryland) on November 3rd.

Critical Social Justice is NEXT WEEK! Be sure to join us, and our campus partners, during the CSJ events happening from October 24th- 28th. Also, check out our series on the Women’s Center Blog on things you need to know about our Keynote Speaker, Disability Justice and Residential Segregation.

Equally important, I want to make sure we are all taking care of ourselves. Engage in whatever self-care practices make you feel the best. Express and allow yourself to feel the emotions you have! The Women’s Center, The Mosaic Center, the Queer Student Lounge and the Counseling Center are campus resources that are here to help with that process.

Until next week!

The Women’s Center has officially kicked off our roundtable series for the fall semester! We call this series Our Bodies, Ourselves, specifically focusing on personal embodiment and the intersections of identity that come along with existing as a body. This event, specifically called Beauty Embodied, introduced the semester-long discussion of diverse embodied experiences.

our beautiful roundtable flyer

Beginning this ongoing series, The Women’s Center invited three panelists to open up the conversation of embodied beauty. Alumnus Crystal Ogar, Dr. Medulene Shomali of the Gender and Women’s Studies department, and our very own assistant director Megan Tagle Adams served as our panelists!

We spent the next hour complicating the notions of beauty, femininity and privileges associated with who gets to embrace ideals of beauty. All panelists spoke about the privilege and racialization of specific beauty standards and stereotypes. We discussed at great length who has access to conventional beauty. Women of color specifically have a lot of challenges associating with conventional beauty, as the hegemonic view of westernized beauty is white, thin and able-bodied. All panelists identified as women of color, and were able to draw upon their various identities to share their experiences with racially exclusionary beauty.

Crystal encouraged us to find the beauty within everyone, to notice the little things that make a person beautiful, and to complicate beauty further by understanding that looks are not the complete picture of a person, as there are so many factors that go into being a beautiful human outside of external appearance.

Our roundtable panelists, photo by jess Myers

Both Megan and Dr. Shomali allowed the group time to deconstruct our definitions of beauty. Beauty and femme identity isn’t inherently a feminist stance to take, and shaving your legs or putting on makeup in the morning doesn’t necessarily have to be a feminist act. No one is more or less of a feminist for the way that they present their bodies. Megan said it best- instead of the feminist manifesto being written in red lipstick, she suggested that it could be written while wearing red lipstick. The act of wearing lipstick is not what makes or breaks a feminist, and the most important thing is to allow personal expression to be encompassed in ideals of beauty.

Dr. Shomali took it even further, proposing the radical notion that beauty isn’t actually necessary. Instead of trying to broaden the term of “beauty” to include all walks of people, we could decide to throw out beauty as an important concept to begin with. Both Crystal and Dr. Shomali posed that ‘ugly’ should not equal “bad”, and that it is perfectly fine to not be beautiful- it does not take away of a person’s humanness to not have access to or even care about beauty.

Overall, Beauty Embodied was a great success, with lots of dynamic discussion from the panelists and the women’s center communities. We questioned and unpacked our notions of beauty and femininity, engaging with our own experiences of living in an aesthetic world.

Want to read more? Below are some links further discussing beauty through a feminist lens:

• What Is Feminism Without The Femme? On Why Are We Scared To Embrace Our Feminine Styles
• Living With Contradiction: Beauty Work and Feminism
• Pretty Unnecessary: Taking Beauty Out of Body Positivity (Bitch Media)

Don’t miss out! The Women’s Center’s next roundtable, Queer (De)Coded, on October 20th! 

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

This week I watched Do I Sound Gay? on Netflix. It’s an interesting documentary which explores the origin of the ‘gay voice’. It’s also available on Youtube.

As we prepare for the October Roundtable, Queer (De)coded, some of the Women’s Center staff are re-reading Women’s Center staff member, Daniel Wiley’s post on ‘Gay Hair‘. Check it out!

Finally, in worldly news, President Obama shortened the sentences of 102 inmates who committed non-violent crimes. This makes 774 commuted sentences in the entirety of his presidency! We applaud Pres. Obama’s commitment to prison reform!

Continue to slay! See you next week!

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened this week in Washington DC! Watch the Grand Opening Ceremony, as President Obama welcomes the Museum to the DC mall.

On Monday September 26th, the first presidential debate  took place at Hofstra University. If you missed it, the full debate is available, along with fact check.

Stay lovely and dry! See you next week!

A weekly round-up curated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

In the spirit of my friend, who gave us the glorious name ‘Slaying on the Weekly’, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay!

Courtesy: Twitter.com, @adamrhew

 This week’s news:

This week I will be focusing on the protest surrounding the death of Keith Lamont Scott. Anti-police brutality protests have started in cities all over the country, the loudest taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is now in a state of emergency.

I also just read this important and powerful post by fellow UMBC Retriever, Vanessa… please read it and consider the ways in which Black Issues Are Retriever Issues. 

Equally important, I want to make sure we are all taking care of ourselves. Engage in whatever self-care practices make you feel the best. Express and allow yourself to feel the emotions you have!

Finally, the Women’s Center and the Mosaic Center will be holding a community safe space on Tuesday 9/27. Meet in the Mosaic. Affected communities and allies are encouraged to come!

Until next week!

 A short reflection by Shira Devorah, Women’s Center student staff.

I bought my own copy of Dirty River (even though the Women’s Center has a copy you can loan now thanks to the UMBC’s LGBTQ Faculty & Staff Association recent donation), and I’m really glad that I did. I got to underline the poetry and the words that really resonated with me. I carefully applied sticky notes to the parts I loved, the difficult areas I wanted to come back to, the short mix of music I have to check out.

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

Dirty River, A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, is a memoir, but it is also so much more. It is a story of escape, of survival, of scraping by and fighting to exist. This book is more poetry than prose. It is incredibly difficult, dealing with (trigger warning!) incest, abuse and intimate partner violence. It is also difficult because there is so so much. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha feels everything so much. She discovers herself and pulls you in through all the twists and turns. 

This book explores her complicated and celebrated  identity as a queer disabled femme Sri Lankan woman of color. Each facet of herself is carefully explored, every insecurity, every  moment of triumph bursts onto the page. She will not apologize for existing, for running away, for her commitment to activism and celebrating the voices and authorship of queer people of color. She introduces us to the many complex people who hurt her, abused her, raped her and to the people who cared for her and called her family, who stuck in her life. She withers away on one page and blossoms on the next.

Her narrative is fluid, skipping from one point in time to the next. Each chapter is something a little different, a new window to peek through. You have to work through this book – you have to earn Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s story. This book is daunting and incredibly rewarding. I ask you to stick with it, because reading this book makes you feel full inside. It took me longer to read Dirty River than I had anticipated. Though there are only 232 pages, they are filled to the brim with poetry and difficulties and survival.  It is overwhelming, and it is beautiful.

Need more Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha in your life? Good news, she has a bunch of poetry books and  spoken word on Youtube! Even better news? She’s slated to be the keynote speaker for the 4th annual Critical Social Justice: Home coming to UMBC this October!

Her performance of Sins Invalid from 2009. Part 1  Part 2 Part 3 

This is an amazing interview she did last year on the Laura Flanders Show

Leah also has books of poetry available! Love Cake, Consensual Genocide, and Bodymap

Pick up our new copy of Dirty River, A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home at the Women’s Center’s lending library. And, save the date for October 25th to see her in person at UMBC at Critical Social Justice 2016! 

This short blurb is part of our Summer Reading Challenge. Check it out and happy reading!

A top 10 favorite things list about the United State of Women Summit complied by Women’s Center director, Jess Myers.

Maybe you heard about this little thing that happened in Washington, D.C. this week called the United State of Women Summit. If not, just to fill you in, it wasn’t little at all – it was a Pretty Big Deal. The Summit which was developed out of the White House Council on Women and Girls was the first of its kind with a charge to rally women and their allies together to celebrate what women have achieved and create solutions to help keep moving women’s issues and gender equity forward. I had the privilege of being one of the 5000 people in attendance as a representative of ACPA’s Coalition for Women’s Identities. In their opening remarks, Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen compared a meeting such as the USOW to the Seneca Falls Convention. And while, I’m not quite sure the Summit will have the same lasting historical event, it was nonetheless an important day for women and one which I’ll never forget.
I thought about my UMBC and Women’s Center families throughout the entire day and wanted to give you a little taste of the experience – some of my favorite things, you might say (wink wink, Oprah). Please note, this is not a critical analysis of the day’s events and speakers (you can google search for the think pieces later).

Joe Biden’s Call to End Rape Culture
Vice President Biden’s appearance at the Summit served as the kick-off to the big day. I’ve always felt conflicted in my feelings about good old Joe and his time at USOW proved no different. It certainly was a yes/and experience. Yes! Thank you, Vice President for your deeply held passion in speaking out on behalf of survivors of sexual assault. Yes! Thank you for calling men and bystanders away from complacency and into action. And, you took up a lot of space, Joe. You went over your allotted time by quite a bit and each minute you extended your time was another minute reduced or shifted for all the women following you throughout the rest of the day AT A SUMMIT FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN. It truly was the embodiment of white male privilege and I couldn’t help to feel frustrated even though I kept nodding and agreeing with his passionate and declarative call to support survivors. Yes, we need to create more space for rape culture to be discussed AND there’s a way it can be done without silencing the voices of survivors and women. But don’t let me discourage you from hearing what he has to say, he really was fired up… Listen to Vice President Biden’s speech here.

A Platform for Naming and Calling Out Rape Culture
Joe wasn’t the only one fired up about rape culture. There were a ton of other women throughout the day who did speak to their experiences and survivors and advocates for survivors. Mariksa Hargitay spoke to the importance of ending the backlog on rape kits by saying that the testing of rape kits sends a crucial and fundamental message to survivors that they matter. It’s On Us Activist, Jess Davidson, declared that we “We can change the world by getting mad” and sexual assault has made her mad enough to commit to a lifelong goal of fighting to end rape. Others such as Jaha Dukureh, founder of Safe Hands for Girls, spoke to the global epidemic of violence against women to include the fight to end child marriages and female genital mutilation. While Planned Parenthood president, Cecile Richards, wasn’t speaking directly to rape culture when she said “You only get what you fight for,” it was clearly palpable throughout the entire day that this summit of women and allies were ready to fight to end rape culture.

The Powerhouse of Young Girls!
Y’all, what were you doing when you were 11 years old? Probably not introducing the President of the United States, like Mikaila Ulmer, am I right? You probably also weren’t like Marley Dias collecting 7000+ books about black girls and working to create a culture of inclusion in children books. Yeah, me either. The awesome thing, though, is that there are real life 11 year olds doing just that and they are my newest role models! My takeaway, you don’t have to wait to grow up to do important things and be a change agent. Like Mikaila said, “BE(e) fearless. BE(e)lieve in the impossible. And dream like a kid.” To watch Mikaila intro scoll to 6:42:29 of the live stream feed and to watch Marley, scroll to 10:2230.

Can you imagine being 11 years old and introducing the President of the United States?! When asked if she was nervous, Mikaila responded, nah, “I spoke to 11,000 people last week.” This is the future, my friends!

Podcast IRL Alert!
So, I couldn’t get a selfie with Amy Poehler (who am I kidding, I mean, Leslie Knope) but I did get the chance to meet Cristen Conger, one of the ladies from my favorite podcast, Stuff Mom Never Told You. As someone who constantly cites this podcast as a source of much of my cool lady and gender knowledge, this was a pretty big deal. So of course I walked over and introduced myself, offered up a podcast topic suggestion (a history on campus-based women’s centers, of course) and got me a selfie. Listening to SMNTY will never feel the same again. Magical.

IRL for sure… I spotted Cristen (right) when she was speaking to Emily from BossedUp.Org who was featured on the SMNTY podcast earlier this year. I think I actually used the line “oh my gosh, it’s a podcast come to life!” as my awkward intro.

The Barbie Commercial
Okay okay… I know. Barbie is problematic and I know this commercial did everything it was supposed to do to my heartstrings in the name of capitalism AND in this moment, I don’t care. I played with Barbies growing up until an age that I’m too embarrassed to name. My Barbies scooped ice cream, went to the hair salon, and rode in a convertible because that’s the narrative of Barbie and what womanhood was about that was given to me as a young child. It wasn’t my imagination playing at all. Capitalistic or not, I’m just happy that perhaps some girls when playing with their Barbies will feel embolden to tell a different story. And, if you can’t go with me on this, that’s okay… if you only watch it for the line that references unicorns, my job here is done.

Nancy Pelosi and Women in Congress
The past two weeks have been hard. I’m mad that a convicted rapist only received a 6 month jail sentence. I’m heartbroken about the horrific acts of hate and violence that were enacted against the Orlando LGBTQ community. I’m also thinking about (some of) the solutions and it keeps going back to voting. We must support people who will hold up and push forward our values to run for office and then we must vote for them. As Nancy Pelosi said in her speech, “I promise you, I assure you and guarantee you this: if we increase the level of civility and reduce the role of money in politics, we will elect more women, more people of color, more LGBT and more young people – and America will be the better because of it.” I believe it too. She then invited her fellow Congresswomen to join the stage with her and it was just pretty darn rad. But I also agree with you, Nancy, I want more women! You can read her speech here.

Photo credit shoutout to Twitter!

President Obama: “This is what a Feminist Looks Like.”
The last time I “saw” Barack Obama was in October 2008 when he was campaigning to become President of the United States of America. I saw a tiny fleck of his collar from time to time in between the yellow falls leaves on the oval of Colorado State University’s campus. It was a dream come true to finally see him in person again almost 8 years later as my president and hear him speak to me and my identity as a woman living in the US. He made me laugh. He made me cry. He made me proud. As he’s said so many times in the past, I do believe, he has my back. I read through his speech too many times to find a good pull quote and I can’t pick just one… so find what speaks to you. Watch President Obama’s speech here. You can also read the full transcript here.

I know. I know. I got a little excited and POTUS is like “whoa whoa whoa, calm down.” But I couldn’t help myself when he’s name dropping women like Shirley Chisholm, Audre Lorde, Alice Paul, Paulie Murray, RBG, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

“Working Women” and the Representation of the Labor Movement
Growing up in a Teamster family and surrounding myself with friends committed to the labor movement, it’s fair to say, I love me some union workers (who doesn’t love their 8-hour workdays and weekends?!?!)! In a summit that featured many privileged and wealthy women, it would have been easy enough to only talk about “having it all” and the joys of flexible paid leave and substantial benefits of the corporate and tech worlds. I’m glad that wasn’t the only story that was told and we got to hear from women like tradeswoman, Kevin Burton who is student-debt free because she has access to a living wage to work her way not only through her undergrad career but also through law school. To watch the conversation on working families economic policies, scroll to 7:25:50 in the live stream.

The First Lady Michelle and Oprah Love Fest
The moment we had all been waiting for all day finally arrived and IT. WAS. EVERYTHING. As a white woman, I know #BlackGirlMagic isn’t for me, but I love what it means to and for black women. It was an honor to witness the magic of love, support, and friendship between these two women. It was privilege to hear Michelle speak to the power of knowing one’s self-value and self-worth, how she practices self-care, and what she is most proud of during her time as First Lady. Oprah, as always served as the perfect midwife is helping the stories come into being and into our hearts. My takeaway… Be Better. You just must watch it for yourself. You can also get a brief summary of some of the gems of the conversation here.

I wasn’t lying that it was the perfect and most beautiful love and affirmation fest! Shine theory galore!

5000 Women!
Oprah ended the armchair discussion between her and the First Lady with more love for Michelle by quoting a line from a Maya Angelou book, “You make me proud to spell my name. W-O-M-A-N.” Yes. Yes! Yes!! From spending time with one of my favorite mentors, Mollie, to living out my Leslie Knope girl crush to its fullest, to meeting badass women I had never heard of until that day, there was an undeniable satisfying power of being in a room with 5000 women. 5000 trailblazers. Watch out world, here we come… we’re only just getting started.

Indeed, You make me proud to spell my name. W-O-M-A-N.

5000 women strong! Here’s some women from the ACPA Coalition for Women’s Identities to include my mentor and former Women’s Center director, Mollie Monahan-Kreishman.

For more on the Summit, check out all the social medias using #StateOfWomen #USOW or visit the website. 

 A list by student staff member, Shira Devorah 

Summer is here, which means I finally have time to do some leisure reading!  While I’ve been known to indulge in guilty pleasure novels, I know that there are a lot of amazing feminist books out there that I haven’t taken the time to read yet.

This summer,  I plan on undertaking a feminist book club challenge! I encourage anyone reading this to come along and read with me. There aren’t any real rules to this challenge – the challenge I’m proposing to myself is to read at least 10 books that contribute to my knowledge on feminism, activism and social justice. The list of possibilities is truly extensive, so I’m going to choose just a handful of books that I think i’ll enjoy reading. Each picture will be linked to a purchasable copy on Amazon, just in case you would like to read long with me (or even better, shop local)! 

* This list isn’t in any particular order, and I’m not sure which book I’m going to read first ( or simultaneously). They’re just numbered for convenience sake.* 

1.) The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley 

Image from Amazon.com

I was given this book as a present once, but I never got around to reading it, and eventually my father accidentally gave it away. Fortunately, I’ve recently acquired a new copy. This is a novel that centers on the stories of the female characters in Arthurian legend, focusing on the antagonist of King Arthur, Morgan le Fay. Instead of being portrayed as a one-dimensional evil woman, her story is fleshed out and given substance.

2.) How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez 

I’ve heard of this book before, but I’ve never sat down to actually read it. This novel follows the lives of four Dominican sisters in reverse chronological order. I’m really excited to delve into the themes of acculturation, immigration and identity that the Garcia sisters face in this novel.

3.) Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde 

Amazon.com

Audre Lorde is a feminist hero, and I think it is massively important to read her, especially if I’m going to call myself an intersectional feminist. In this collection of 15 essays and speeches, Lorde covers a broad range of important topics, including race, classism, sexism, ageism and homophobia. I’ve read an essay or two, but I’m ready to experience Lorde’s full power.

4.) The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

Amazon.com

I can’t believe that I’ve never read this book. I’ve picked it up a few times and read the back, but I’ve never actually sat down and read it. It’s a classic that focuses on mental illness and identity, and I cannot wait to finally take the time to read it.

5.) Redefining Realness, Janet Mock 

Amazon.com

This is a memoir by the fantastic Janet Mock, discussing her identity as a trans woman of color. I’ve really enjoyed “Her Story“, and the creators mentioned the immense  influence of Janet Mock during a talkback at UMBC.  I haven’t read too many memoirs, but this New York Times bestseller is about to change that.

6.) Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay 

Amazon.com

I often feel like a feminist killjoy. I know that once you begin to see the world through an intersectional feminist lens, all of your faves become problematic. This book of essays will hopefully help teach me how to enjoy things in life while continuing to be critical.

7.) Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, Joyce Carol Oates 

Amazon.com

When I was a senior in High School, my english teacher suggested that I read this book. I distinctly remember going to the library and finding it, but putting it back on the shelf because I thought that it looked too boring. I don’t know how a thriller about a girl gang in the 1950s seemed boring to 17-year-old me, but I think now is a good time to revisit this novel.

8.) Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples 

Amazon.com 

I’m a sucker for a good graphic novel,  yet I haven’t gotten my paws on this one just yet. Saga is a series about two lovers from different worlds trying to raise their daughter in a war-torn society. It’s beautiful, full of fantasy and sci-fi, and apparently has amazing representations of  ethnicity, gender and sexuality during a fictional war. It’s also illustrated by Fiona Staples,  a woman of color who is regarded as the  #1 female comic book artist of all-time by readers of Comic Book Resources in 2015. I can’t wait to finally read this installment (as well as the rest of the story).

9.) Gender Trouble, Judith Butler 

Amazon.com

I’ve read (and watched) a bit of Judith Butler in class, and I’m super interested in Queer Theory. This book came out in 1990, but is still important as a fundamental reading for queer theorists, so I’m going to attempt to make it through some dense vocabulary and learn a bit. I plan for mass amounts of annotation, that’s how I tend to get through theory-heavy books.

10.) Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

I have recently fallen for the poetry and all-together awesomeness of Piepzna-Samarasinha. While I’ve watched a bunch of her spoken word, I haven’t really gotten to know her outside of that. Remember how I said earlier that I haven’t read too many memoirs, and now there are two on my list? Wild, right? I’m just happy that Piepzna- Samarasinha has shared this journey of hers, I can’t wait to learn more about her.

So that’s my list!  Feel free to join in on this challenge and read these books during the summer, too! I’ll be back in a few months to tell you all how this little reading adventure went. If you want more than what’s listed here, check out this goodreads list of feminist books. Happy reading!

*********
Fun Fact! Did you know the Women’s Center at UMBC has a lending library where you can check out some of these books for free?! Stop by this summer and stock up on your favorite feminists reads this summer. 

A resource round-up provided by Women’s Center staff members Meagé and MJ

In case you missed Tuesday’s roundtable on (In)Visible Disabilities and Women (or if you were there and want to keep the conversation going), we thought it might be useful to summarize some of the discussion in addition to linking some useful reading materials and resources.

As with all of our roundtables, we reached out to our panel members and asked them to keep a few guiding questions in mind as they shared their stories and examples. Some of these included:

• Where do the intersections of (in)visible disabilities and gender show up for you personally? In the classroom, peer networks, etc.?

• How does disability relate to issues like reproductive justice, sexual violence, or gender socialization?

• How is the way we talk about disability influenced by gender and sexuality?

• How does ableism impact women with visible vs. invisible disabilities differently?

• Why is this a social justice and/or feminist issue?

On Tuesday, our panelists shared their definitions and experiences of disabilities and their intersection with gender. Rina Rhyne of Voices Against Violence, elaborated on the array of sexual assault/violence perpetrated towards people with disabilities. “Sexual violence is not always physical. Caretakers and partners can manipulate the power and control they hold in relationship.” (See the Power and Control Wheel: People with Disabilities and their Caregivers)  Dr. Julie Murphy spoke to the ways in with ADHD are diagnosed (or not) and the ways in which gender socialization impact the ways in which people respond or react to with women with ADHD. Dr. Kate Drabinski reflected on teaching disability studies and encouraged us to learn more about the social model of disability. Student Leader, Prachi, shared her experience as a Deaf student here at UMBC. She explained the duality of deafness, “it is both an invisible and visible disability.” Prachi also spoke to what it means to be Deaf as a woman of color and called for a change in the way we view disabilities saying, “deafness is not ugly nor is it negative.”

With only an hour to spend together, there’s still so much more we could have discussed and learned together. Below are just a few resources to help us continue to engage in self-reflection and growth.

Thanks to our panel members for the important and rich conversation!

From Stuff Mom Never Told You

• When America’s “Ugly Laws” Hid the Disabled Poor From the Public Eye
• Disabled Sexuality Podcast

From Everyday Feminism

• How Mainstream Feminism Continues to Perpetuate Ableism (And How We Can Change That)
• I’m Not a Person with a Disability. I’m an Disabled Person
• 4 Ways to Be an Ally to People with Invisible Disabilities

News and other articles

• #SolidarityIsForTheAbleBodied, and Feminism’s Ableism Problem
• The hidden victims of campus sexual assault: Students with disabilities
• The Place of Women with Disabilities in Feminist Movements

Helpful Legal Services/ Information on Disability Rights and Accommodations

• Maryland Disability Law Center
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Pro Bono Resource Center – Maryland
• Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service
• JAN Network – Job Accommodation Network
• ADA – Americans with Disabilities Act
• Rape,Abuse & Incest National Network: Sexual Abuse of People with Disabilities
• Power & Control Wheel:People with Disabilities and their Caretakers

On-campus Resources

• Student Disability Services
• AOK Library Assistive Technology
• UMBC Counseling Center
• Voices Against Violence

Read more from other roundtable roundups:

Trans Identities + Mental Health (March 2016)

Black Trauma + Mental Health (February 2016)

White Womanhood + Critical Whiteness (September 2015)