CSWS Annual Review

Stephen Rodgers, Professor and Edmund A. Cykler Chair in Music, holding the copy of his book, "The Songs of Clara Schumann"

The Songs of Clara Schumann

by Stephen Rodgers, Professor and Edmund A. Cykler Chair in Music, School of Music and Dance

In April 2023, Cambridge University Press published my book, The Songs of Clara Schumann, the first book in Cambridge’s Music in Context series to be devoted to the music of a woman composer. Clara Schumann was one of the most talented musicians of the 19th century—a formidable pianist who maintained an active career as a concert performer for 63 years, and a composer who wrote piano music, songs, choral works, chamber music, and instrumental music. But to this day she lies in the shadow of her more famous husband, the composer Robert Schumann. My book places Clara Schumann’s music front and center, focusing on her small but extraordinary output of songs.
Jina Kim, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literatures

Airing It Out: Women’s Role in Korean Radio Broadcasting

By Jina Kim, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literatures

In recent years, Korean TV dramas have become a significant presence on the international television circuit, so much so that some of the most watched shows on over-the-top (OTT) platforms are Korean TV dramas. The Netflix-produced Korean drama Squid Game (2021) and The Glory (2023) are just two of many that have received critical and widespread acclaim, bringing much attention to Korean dramatic storytelling texts. However, what often gets overlooked in these televisual texts are the scenarists who pen these successful stories, many of whom are women writers.
A health outreach worker at an encampment in Eugene / photo by Mackenzie VanLaar.

A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis of Women’s Houselessness in Eugene, Oregon

by Lesley Jo Weaver, Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies, and Mackenzie VanLaar, PhD, Department of Anthropology

Elsie, a woman in her mid-twenties who is struggling with opioid dependency on the streets of Eugene, Oregon, spiraled out earlier this year when police swept her camp, cutting her off from the mentor and friend she refers to as her “street dad.” “Like, my dad, my street dad—he’s somebody that really helped me,” she explains from the doorway of her tent. She begins crying. “Without him, now I’m crashing and burning even more because I can’t just go see him, you know what I mean? Some people are really, really big influences on what people do in their life—like, they make a huge difference.”
Sangita Gopal, Director of CSWS

An Invitation from the Director of CSWS

by Sangita Gopal, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema Studies

CSWS turns 50 in AY 2023-24! We invite you to a thrilling year of events themed “Feminist Futures” that look to the future while commemorating the past. We will celebrate the cutting-edge interdisciplinary scholarship on gender and intersectionality that the Center has sponsored and disseminated for five decades, and showcase feminist collaborations across the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology that imagine feminist futures to negotiate the challenges of the next fifty. 

Opening reception for the Ghost Forest photography exhibit, which included Bellona's sound installation Wildfire—a 48-foot-long speaker array that plays back a wave of fire sounds at speeds of actual wildfires.

Haunting Ecologies

During spring term, CSWS presented Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present, and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire. This two-week event series included the 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture as well as a panel discussion on “Native Ecologies.” Both events were presented in conjunction with Ghost Forest—a photography exhibit by Eugene artist Sarah Grew, featuring Jon Bellona’s sound installation Wildfire.
Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2022—A protester carries a sign at a protest for Mahsa Amini, freedom in Iran, and solidarity with Iranian protesters.

Women’s Visual Protest Movements in Iran: A Conversation with Parichehr Kazemi

Parichehr Kazemi is a political science PhD candidate at the University of Oregon. She received a 2019 Graduate Student Research Award from CSWS and was the Center’s 2022 Jane Grant Dissertation fellow. Kazemi researches women’s resistance efforts, social media, and social movements across the Middle East, focusing on the ways that women use social media images as a means of protest in Iran. As a CSWS Advisory Board member last year, she drafted the Center’s statement declaring solidarity with demonstrators in Iran who protested the tragic death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian morality police.
Rosa M. O'Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

Disclosing Enslaved Women’s Resistance in Puerto Rico’s History of Slavery

by Rosa M. O’Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

On February 20, 1824, a mayor in Puerto Rico writes to Governor Miguel de la Torre pleading for support to apprehend a fugitive slave referred to in the colonial documents as “Negra Martha.” According to the letter, Negra Martha ran away from the grips of her enslaver, Daniel Peterson, two years before the letter was written describing the maroon woman’s whereabouts.
Annie Ring, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy

White Women’s Linguistic Terrorism

by Annie Ring, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy 

J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things with Words demonstrates that language is not just descriptive but in some cases is performative. That is, Austin’s speech act theory argues that language itself performs, changes, or does things in the world. Speech act theory classically considered institutions like marriage, where a pronouncement weds people into a legally binding relation, or boat christening, where naming and blessing a boat before the maiden voyage protects its passengers (Austin).

W. Jamie Yang, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

A Queer Quantitative Inquiry: Sexual Injustices and Social Contexts

My dissertation builds on a stance that views pleasure and safety as fundamental human rights. I am motivated by a wish to democratize pleasure for all, and specifically the questions, “What prohibits individuals from fully enjoying the sexual aspect of their humanity,” and “When it comes to sexual encounters, why do some groups of people consistently have a better and easier time than others?” I use critical feminist theory and queer quantitative methodology to examine how social contexts influence young adults’ experience with sexual injustices and sexual victimization.
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