ASA in Cold Chicago

I flew straight from sunny Houston to cold snowy Chicago to present my paper, “Suspicious Bodies: Black Women Olympians, Sex Testing, and the War on Drugs,” at the American Studies Association annual meeting. I was on a amazing panel with Theresa Runstedtler, Frank Guridy and Lucia Trimbur. It was a Sports Studies Caucus panel on Pedagogies of of Race and Gender in Post-Civil Rights United States. 

All around it was an amazing and invigorating conference. 

Check out the Presidential Address below: 

 

Reflecting on the IWY Conference 1977-2017

I headed back to Houston this week to participate in a two day conference building on our NEH Seminar about the 1977 Women's Convention. I was presenting a paper entitled, “Torchbearer: Michelle Cearcy and the Racial Politics of Visibility and Symbol at the 1977 National Women’s Conference” on a panel “‘It’s Our Movement Now’: Black Women’s Politics and the 1977 National Women’s Conference”. We also have a forthcoming antholgy on the same topic. 

http://www.uh.edu/class/mcgovern/national-women-conference/index

Forrest Gump Panel

To kick off the College of Liberal Arts year long exploration of 1968: Moments of Change, we held a screening of Forrest Gump at the State Theater. Everyone received a box of chocolate when they came in and we followed the movie with a lively discussion!

For more on the 1968 events visit: 1968.psu.edu

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PSU African American Studies Wins Sawyer Seminar Grant from Mellon Foundation

Exciting news! A faculty group led by Dr. Cynthia Young, Head of the Department of African American Studies, (and including myself) was a awarded a multi year, $225,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation. Our Sawyer Seminar will center on "Racial Disposability and Cultures of Resistance".

Read more about it here:  http://news.psu.edu/story/486207/2017/10/04/research/penn-state-receives-225000-grant-andrew-w-mellon-foundation

Be on the look out for exciting programming coming soon! 

Headed to Houston for a NEH Seminar

I had a wonderful week back in my birth state while I was participating in a NEH Seminar on Gender and the State. The group of us gathered together to dive deep into the history of the 1977 Women's Convention in Houston, TX. It was a fun, productive and illuminating week!

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Had a Blast at Berks!!

I presented two papers at The Seventeenth Annual Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities at Hofstra University

 Presented “From Goodwill Girls to Flo Jo Barbie: Global Games and the Commodification of Black Women's Athletic Bodies ” on the panel “Black Women and Global Capitalism in the Post War Era” and “'Amateur no more': Earlene Brown, Roller Derby and African American Women's Push for Professional Sports, 1965-1980” on a Roundtable about Women's Global Sports History. 

W/ Co-Panelists Brenna Greer, Tera Hunter, Tiffany Gill and Marcia Chatelain after our Black Women and Global Captilism panel! 

W/ Co-Panelists Brenna Greer, Tera Hunter, Tiffany Gill and Marcia Chatelain after our Black Women and Global Captilism panel! 

Presenting about Wilma Rudolph

Presenting about Wilma Rudolph

After our roundtable on Women's Sports History

After our roundtable on Women's Sports History

Pomp and Circumstance

I returned to Hopkins this week to get hooded and walk across that stage! I had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We even snuck in a trip to the National African American Museum of History and Culture!

 

Celebrating with my munchkins

Celebrating with my munchkins

NAAMHC with good friends

NAAMHC with good friends

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