Call for Applications for Campus Visit by 2022 Distinguished Feminist Lecturer
Dr. Georgiann Davis

Deadline to Apply: May 13, 2024

Committee Chair: Dr. Ophra Leyser-Whalen (oleyserwhalen@utep.edu)
Selection Subcommittee Chair: Koyel Khan (kkhan@tamu.edu)

The 2022 Feminist Activism Award Winner, Dr. Georgiann Davis, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, will make one campus visit during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Dr. Davis’ research, teaching, and activism are at the intersection of medical violence and feminist theories. She describes herself as a feminist sociologist and intersex activist who is dedicated to four goals: 1) raising intersex awareness, 2) educating future doctors, 3) ending the genital mutilation doctors often subject intersex people in order to surgically squeeze the intersex body into the arbitrary sex binary, and 4) challenging dominant narratives about white upward mobility. She is currently working on a feminist autoethnography tentatively entitled Five Star White Trash where she discusses the complexities of intergenerational mobility, whiteness, gender dogma, and the ways in which anti-fatness is rooted in anti-Blackness.   

Dr. Davis’ scholar-activism has also been recognized with the 2017 Feminist Scholar-Activist Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Sex and Gender as well as the 2016 Donald W. Light Award for the Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology. 

Outside of the university, she has served as board president of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth from 2017-2020 as well as a past-president of InterConnect Support Group from 2014-2015, which is one of the largest intersex support groups in the world. 

You can read more about her research, teaching, and activism on her website at www.georgianndavis.com.  

Applications from all types of institutions are welcome. Priority will be given to campuses with departments with a focus on feminist activism, social movements, sociological practice, and/or activist research, or those who are working towards building and centering these subfields. The selection subcommittee will look especially favorably on campuses that are committed to gaining the widest possible audience for these visits. This may be demonstrated by evidence of:

• Collaboration with other departments and programs on campus
• Multiple-campus cooperation
• Community partnerships 

SWS will fund a portion of the expenses for the campus visit, thus institutions should not let resource scarcity prevent them from applying. SWS will fund up to $750 toward domestic travel and a maximum of $1500 toward international travel. The host campus is responsible for the costs associated with meals and lodging for the duration of the campus visit.

If you are interested in applying to host a campus visit, please submit your application letter by May 13, 2024 here: https://sws.memberclicks.net/campusvisit-georgianndavis. 

The application should include the following information:

1. An explanation of your interest in hosting Dr. Davis and the merits of awarding a campus visit at your institution.
2. A description of the type of presentation you are interested in hosting. Dr. Davis is available to talk about 1) the lived experiences of intersex people in contemporary U.S. society or 2) her feminist autoethnography, Five Star White Trash, where she centers the power and privileges of whiteness in a vulnerable and theoretical analysis of her personal history with medical abuse, familial trauma, and the criminal legal system.
3. The number of days you will ask the awardee to stay.
4. The target audience or audiences for Dr. Davis’ presentation.
5. A description of how local costs (lodging and meals) will be met.
6. Tentative dates for Dr. Davis’ visit. 

If you have any questions, please email Dr. Koyel Khan, kkhan@tamu.edu. We look forward to receiving your applications!

Call for Applications for Campus Visit by 2022 Distinguished Feminist Lecturer

Dr. Marlese Durr

Deadline to Apply: May 1, 2024

Committee Chair: Dr. Ophra Leyser-Whalen (oleyserwhalen@utep.edu) 

Selection Subcommittee Chair: Dr.  Jaime Hartless (hartlejn@farmingdale.edu)

The 2022 SWS Feminist Lecturer Awardee, Dr. Marlese Durr, is a Professor of Sociology at Wright State University, a Senior Fellow of the Yale University Urban Ethnography Project, and a Research Associate at the Center for the Elimination of Minority Health Disparities at the University at Albany. We are now accepting applications for Dr. Durr’s campus visit, which will occur in Spring 2025.

Dr. Marlese Durr has had an illustrious career of feminist research and service. Her compelling intersectional research centers African-American women, exploring the emotional labor they do while working managerial positions in public institutions, their outcomes in the labor market, their position within urban neighborhoods, and how they navigate stressful life events, such as HIV diagnoses. Her published works include: The Donut Hole Experience: Using a Discerning Eye while Walking in Cities (Temple University Press), “Small Town Life: A Study in Race Relations” (Ethnography), “Sex, Drugs, and HIV: Sisters of the Laundromat” (Gender & Society), and African American Women: Gender Relations, Work, and “The Political Economy in The Twenty-First Century” (Gender & Society). 

Dr. Durr has served as President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) and Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). She was a founding member of The Sociology of Race & Ethnicity editorial board and has also served on the boards of the American Sociological Review, Gender & Society, Social Forces, and Social Problems. Her other honors include serving as a Franklin Fellow and Social Science Advisor to UNESCO, being selected as a Postdoctoral Fellow on Stressful Life Events and Addiction Recovery in the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Program at the National Development Research Institutes (NDRI), being recognized as an Ohio Public Health Leadership (OPHLI) Institute scholar, and working with the U.S. Census.

This campus visit is intended to celebrate feminist scholarship and inspire social activism on college campuses. A key goal of the program is to bring feminist voices to campuses where such perspectives are unusual or embattled. We welcome applications from all kinds of institutions. However, priority will be given to campuses that are rural, under-resourced, HBCUs (i.e., historically Black colleges and universities), Hispanic- or AAPI-serving institutions, and/or located in states where feminist, queer, and DEI-centered educational initiatives are under attack. 

The selection committee will look especially favorably on campuses that are committed to gaining the widest possible audiences for these visits. Applicants can demonstrate evidence of this through:

• Collaborations with other departments and programs on campus
• Partnerships with other local campuses
• Community partnerships

Institutions should not let resource scarcity prevent them from applying. Although the host campus will be responsible for the cost of meals and lodging for the awardee, SWS will pay up to $750 for domestic travel and up to $1500 for international travel.

If you are interested in applying to host a campus visit, please submit your application letter by April 16, 2024 here: https://sws.memberclicks.net/campusvisit-marlesedurr. 

Your application letter should include the following information:

1. Why you want to bring Dr. Durr to your campus and why your institution should be selected for this visit
2. A description of the type of presentation you would be interested in hosting
3. The number of days you will be asking the awardee to stay
4. The target audience(s) for Dr. Durr’s talk
5. An estimated budget for the visit (e.g., meals and lodging) and how costs will be met
6. Tentative dates in Spring 2025 for Dr. Durr’s visit

Applicant letters should be approximately 5 pages in length. 

If you have any questions, please email Dr. Jaime Hartless (hartlejn@farmingdale.edu). We look forward to receiving your applications!