Graciela Sanchez, founder of San Antonio’s Esperanza Center, will deliver keynote address
A dual graduate studies symposium on violence and care, complete with two keynotes, is slated later this month in a collaboration between Rice’s Department of English and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS)
“Climates of Violence, Coalitions of Care ” is the theme of the symposium, which will take place virtually April 16-17 and is free and open to the public. Graciela Sanchez, founder and executive director of Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in San Antonio, will deliver the symposium’s keynote address April 17 at 2:45 p.m.
Intentionally broad in scope, the symposium aims to highlight how climates of violence exist across many spaces — and therefore, many academic disciplines must unite to examine and mitigate this violence. Similarly, coalitions of care must be created across disparate groups to effect meaningful and long-lasting change.
Since founding Esperanza in 1987, Sanchez and her fellow activists have created critical conversations around topics such as racism, homophobia, police brutality and other forms of oppression and developed programs that center people of color, the working class, LGBT individuals and survivors of violence. Today, Esperanza’s year-round calendar of arts and cultural programming works to build solidarity among these communities and others.
“If there is such a thing as a coalition of care, I think they provide a pretty amazing example of it in terms of bringing together different kinds of activism and activist groups,” said Sam Stoeltje, a fifth-year English graduate student and one of the symposium coordinators.
Stoeltje had previously done “participant observation” work with Esperanza in their hometown of San Antonio between semesters, where Stoeltje was awed by “the sincerity of their commitments.” Sanchez’s work also speaks to CSWGS’s yearlong programming theme for its events, “Gender, Race and Political Engagement,” so bringing her voice to the symposium made perfect sense.
“These are issues that the Esperanza Center has been thinking about and working on since the ’80s, so this is a really important voice especially for academics to hear,” Stoeltje said. “There's a lot of talk in academic circles about getting involved in activism and working with activists, and we need to be concerted about listening to these people and learning from them.”
The second keynote is a panel of four CSWGS alumni who will speak about the conference’s theme as it relates to the work they do today: Meina Yates-Richard ’16, assistant professor of African American studies and English at Emory University, who received her Ph.D. in English; Katie Knowles ’14, assistant professor and curator of the Avenir Museum of Design and Merchandising in Fort Collins, Colorado, who received her Ph.D. in history; Kimberly Macellaro ’15, senior scientific grant writer at the Texas Heart Institute, who received her Ph.D. in English; and self-employed writer and editor Mercy Harper ’14, who received her Ph.D. in history.
“We've tried to purposely pick diverse careers so the alumni could also speak to life after Rice as well,” said Chaney Hill, a second-year English graduate student and symposium coordinator.
“The panels are similarly wide-ranging,” Hill said.
After opening remarks from CSWGS director Helena Michie, the symposium will launch into those panels: Joseph Campana, professor of English and director of Rice’s Center for Environmental Studies, will moderate one on “Approaches to Geopolitical Crises,” and Margarita Castromán, assistant professor of English, will moderate one on “Climates of War, Violence, and the Nation-state.”
Nicole Waligora-Davis, associate professor of English and associate chair of the English department, will moderate a panel on “Bodies as Objects, Textualizing the Body,” and José Aranda, associate professor in the humanities and director of graduate studies in the English department, will moderate the “Confronting Forms of Gendered Violence” panel.
“The panels themselves are really interesting,” said Stacie Cruz, a second-year English graduate student and symposium coordinator.
Cruz will also speak on the “Bodies as Objects” panel. That’s in addition to all the heavy lifting of organizing the two-day symposium with her peers — a yearlong process of selecting topics, seeking submissions, soliciting faculty, scheduling meetings, all conducted over Zoom. Hill, too, will present her work on the public health crisis of stray animals in Houston during the “Approaches to Geopolitical Crises” panel.
First-year English grad student Taylin Nelson volunteered to help out, knowing that creating a yearly symposium is the task of all second-years, a job that lies in her own future. It’s been inspiring, Nelson said, to witness what has gone into creating “Climates of Violence, Coalitions of Care” this year.
“It's been really great to see them bring this conference together,” Nelson said. “It’s been a really good learning experience for us, if I can speak on behalf of the first-years, to watch the process and sit in on the meetings and see how it all comes together and how much work it actually takes.”
“Climates of Violence, Coalitions of Care” graduate symposium, April 16-17. For more information, visit climatesandcoalitions.wordpress.com or email the organizers at cswgs2020@gmail.com .