The Diversity Research Café
An interdisciplinary and inclusive community of scholars
The Diversity Research Café experience is intended to incubate new interests, curricular offerings, insights into classroom approaches, research ideas, and collaborative projects. The Diversity Research Café is a space for faculty, staff and graduate students to join an inclusive interdisciplinary community of scholars sharing research, pedagogy, and insights about diversity, gender, women, and sexuality in a relaxed setting.
M. Cristina Alcalde
Feminist Practices and Intersectional Approaches in the Service of Institutional Change: Challenges and Opportunities
In October 2019, the University of Delaware welcomed Cristina Alcalde, Ph.D., to the Diversity Research Cafe, hosted by the Department of Women and Gender Studies. Alcalde is a professor of gender and women's studies and Marie Rich endowed professor; associate dean of inclusion and internationalization with the College of Arts and Sciences; and director of the online graduate certificate in diversity and inclusion at the University of Kentucky.
Her discussion questions were:
- What are some of the contradictions of working within academia and towards inclusivity?
- How can we apply our research interests, methodologies, and feminist practices to bring about institutional change?
Efforts that place the responsibility of diversity, equity, and inclusion on one individual, program, or office are less likely to succeed in the long term than those in which these efforts are embedded throughout and among groups and policies. Moving beyond individual persons, programs, or offices requires developing and deploying allies and strategies, and access to resources, across differences of identity, discipline, ideologies, and career and life stage.
Alcalde’s discussion referenced her research on gender violence, migration, exclusion, and race and racialization as a gender studies scholar and anthropologist and as an administrator to foreground challenges and opportunities in applying feminist practices and intersectional perspectives in working towards structural change from within the university system.
Alcalde's research areas include gender violence, migration, exclusion, and race and racialization. She has been an invited visiting professor in the Gender Studies Program at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Peru and in the Gender Studies Program at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany. Her most recent book is Peruvian Lives across Borders: Power, Exclusion, and Home (2018), and other books include The Woman in the Violence: Gender, Poverty, and Resistance in Peru (2010) and Provocations: A Transnational Reader in the History of Feminist Thought (2015, with Susan Bordo and Ellen Rosenman). She has also published widely in articles and book chapters. Her current research project examines contemporary Chinese-Peruvian experiences of identity, belonging, and exclusion both in Peru and transnationally.
Lisa Bowleg
The Intersectionality Tool Kit
On April 25, 2019, The Diversity Research Café welcomed Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D., professor of applied social psychology at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and director of the social and behavioural sciences core, D.C. Center for AIRS Research.
Bowleg discussed "The Intersectionality Tool Kit," a project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Project to develop equitable policies for women and children. Bowleg also leads "Team Represent," a multidisciplinary research team that uses innovative theoretical perspectives (such as intersectionality, resilience, and social ecological theories) and multiple research methods (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and geospatial analytics) to develop culturally-relevant programs, interventions, and policies to reduce health inequities and improve health and wellness for people in understudied Black communities.
Duchess Harris
Teaching in the Era of Black Lives Matter
In September 2018, the University of Delaware welcomed Sharon Block, Ph.D., to the Diversity Research Cafe, hosted by the Department of Women and Gender Studies. Block is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.
Her discussion questions were:
- From large lecture classes to graduate-level seminars, what choices can instructors make to reframe how learning happens?
- How do our classroom structures promote or inhibit full engagement as we teach controversial and traumatic subjects such as genocide, human enslavement, and sexual violence?
Block shared her expertise in the digital humanities in a discussion of a variety of pedagogical choices than can tie historical subjects to students' modern concerns as instructors strive to reach students across political, ideological, and academic spectrums.
Sharon Block
De-Policing the Classroom: Teaching Race, Sexuality, and Colonialism
On April 25, 2019, The Diversity Research Café welcomed Lisa Bowleg, Ph.D., professor of applied social psychology at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and director of the social and behavioural sciences core, D.C. Center for AIRS Research.
Bowleg discussed "The Intersectionality Tool Kit," a project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Project to develop equitable policies for women and children. Bowleg also leads "Team Represent," a multidisciplinary research team that uses innovative theoretical perspectives (such as intersectionality, resilience, and social ecological theories) and multiple research methods (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and geospatial analytics) to develop culturally-relevant programs, interventions, and policies to reduce health inequities and improve health and wellness for people in understudied Black communities.
Aída Hurtado
Feminism in the Age of Trump
In October 2018, the University of Delaware welcomed Aída Hurtado, Ph.D., to the Diversity Research Cafe, hosted by the Department of Women and Gender Studies and co-sponsored by UD ADVANCE Institute. Hurtado is a professor and Luis Leal Endowed Chair in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her discussion questions were:
- Feminism's hard-won battles and revolutionary changes are under threat as elected officials pass legislation that removes many of the advances of the last 40 years. What role should feminist mobilization play in future social change?
- What did we learn from the 2017 Women's March?
Aída Hurtado's discussion engaged brainstorming and possibility, informed by her research as a social psychologist focused on intersectional feminisms, processes of racialization, and Latinas/os educational achievement.
Rebecca Davis
Sexing in Public: History, Podcasting, and Our Political Moment
In February 2018, the University of Delaware welcomed Rebecca Davis, Ph.D., to The Diversity Research Café. Davis is an associate professor of history at UD with a joint appointment in the Department of Women & Gender Studies.
Davis discussed "Sexing in Public: History, Podcasting, and Our Political Moment." During the gathering with faculty, graduate students, and community members in the Memorial Hall Dome, Dr. Davis discussed the origins of the podcast and the importance of making history relevant with storytelling as the foundation, as in her work as producer and editor of the podcast “Sexing History.”
As political battles rage over sexual assault and workplace harassment, reproductive rights, and gender equality, “Sexing History” invites listeners to hear how voices from the past grappled with similar issues—and what we can learn from them.
In an article in The Review by Senior Reporter Bianca Thiruchittampalam, Davis noted the podcast format is a refreshing and effective approach to telling stories. “Listening is a very personalized experience,” Davis says. “I think there’s something that’s simultaneously private and connected about a podcast. I think there’s an artistry to it.”
In the podcast, Dr. Davis addresses the politics of sexual harassment and assault, the #MeToo movement and the sexualization of women in the workplace, gender, and race.
