Queer and Trans Studies Working Group Mini-Symposium: Queer and Trans Histories/Futures for Our Times
March 12, 2025
9:30 AM - 1:00 PM CDT
Location
UIC's Insititute for the Humanities, Suite 153 BSB
Address
1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607
Cost
FREE
Calendar
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UIC’s Queer and Trans Studies Working Group is planning a mini-symposium for Wednesday morning of March 12th at the University of Illinois Chicago. Structurally, the event will have two components. The first will bring together a panel of speakers who will touch on how their work in queer and trans studies intersects with public health, militarism, erotics, artivism, and more. And the second component will be an artivism workshop where attendees will be able to make screen prints with Marimacha Monarca Press, the queer and trans people of color artist collective based in Chicago's Southwest Side since 2017.
**Masks are highly encouraged.
Tentative Schedule:
- 9:30 -1 0:00 am Mingle/coffee/tea get to know folks time
- 10:00 - 11:30 am Panel
- 11:30 am - 12:00 pm Break
- 12:00 - 1:00 pm Artivism Workshop
Speaker Bios:
- Nathaniel M. Tran, PhD (they/he) is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Administration (HPA) in the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health. Dr. Tran is a nationally-recognized expert in LGBTQ+ population health with over 10 years of experience in public health research, implementation, and evaluation. Their research has been featured on PBS to raise awareness of health challenges among LGBTQ+ older adults, cited by the United States District Court to advance LGBTQ+ civil rights, and cited by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure safe learning environments for LGBTQ+ young people. Dr. Tran hold a BA in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Spanish from Tufts University and a PhD in Health Policy & Health Services Research from Vanderbilt University.
- Em Padilla (They/Them) is a doctoral candidate in the Feminist Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz. Their research examines the relation between United States military policies on Trans inclusion, the Trans Latinx soldiering experience, and Trans masculinity/femininity as they emerge and exist in and out of national institutions and socio-cultural sites. They aim to better understand the intersection between Latinx and Trans (national) identities and how this intersection plays into national sentiment, identity, and, ultimately, the concept of inclusion and its history. Their dissertation project revolves around the above-mentioned topics as well as an ongoing analysis of existing and incoming anti-trans and Queer legislation and their interactions with current and future iterations of military policy.
- Billy Huff is the director of the Gender and Sexuality Center at UIC. He is also a research fellow with the Unit for Institutional Change and Social Justice at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Trained as a rhetorician, his research and publications focus on trans sexualities, performance, and the rhetoric of social dissent.
- Sarita Hernández is a teaching artist, oral historian, piemaker, garden caregiver, and print/zinemaker from salvadoréxican Califas based in Chicago. Sarita is co-founder of marimacha monarca press, a queer and trans artist familia based in Chicago’s South Side since 2017. They currently work with magical and creative students at the UIC Heritage Garden housed at the Latino Cultural Center and a shared project of CCUSC. Sarita is also part of the printmaking faculty at the Hyde Park Art Center, an advisory board member for Neighbors for Environmental Justice (N4EJ), and a garden caregiver for the McKinley Park Community Garden's mutual aid beds. They are interested in artistic interventions with the historical archive and imagining alternative forms of social documentation, preservation, and activation of everyday histories, survivals, and resistances. Sarita is based in McKinley Park and makes sex-positive, pleasure & plant-based pies and cakes in Back of the Yards.
Date posted
Mar 10, 2025
Date updated
Mar 10, 2025