will is a nationally recognized program for students interested in exploring gender and social justice issues both in and out of the classroom. Students strengthen their leadership skills, build close friendships, and actively work to create a more equitable world.
The Gender Studies & Sexuality Program invites the community to the Richmond premiere of the award-winning film The Nest by Julietta Singh, Stephanie Bennett-Smith Chair of Gender & Sexuality Studies. A conversation with Professors Patricia Herrera and Alicia Díaz will follow the film screening.
At the end of her mother’s life, decolonial writer Julietta Singh returns to say goodbye to her haunted childhood home. As she digs into the history of the house, she uncovers 140 years of forgotten matriarchs and political rebels she never knew.
Singh teams up with acclaimed filmmaker Chase Joynt for a politically charged cross-community collaboration that deftly interweaves Indigenous, Deaf, Japanese and South Asian histories, all connected through the home.
The Nest transforms a single home from a place of siloed histories into a site of radical collective potential. A reckoning with memory, matriarchy and the enduring legacies of silenced voices, the film questions who gets lost in the archives of history, and what we stand to gain by resurrecting them.
Complimentary movie snacks will be provided.
The event is co-sponsored by the Hub for Student Inclusion & Community.
Ladelle McWhorter, Stephanie Bennett-Smith, Chair of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Emerita, published Unbecoming Persons: The Rise and Demise of the Modern Moral Self. The book challenges our contemporary focus on personal identity and self-improvement, advocating instead for a greater emphasis on communal living and relational well-being.
Nathan Snaza was promoted to associate professor of English. His work explores how ideas about what it means to be human have been put to work in educational institutions, especially those that engage language, literacy, and literature. He draws on work in the fields of affect theory, new materialisms, queer and feminist theory, and Black and decolonial studies.
Alicia Díaz, associate professor of dance, and Patricia Herrera, professor of theatre, presented two new short films at New Spiritualities: Film as Ritual at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. The program recognized their collaborative project, ruinas/ruins, developed through long-term artistic research at the abandoned sugar mill in Central Aguirre, Puerto Rico. Díaz and Herrera collaborated previously on an award-winning dance film.
Rhiannon Graybill, Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies, published the book Ruth: Themes and Issues in Biblical Studies. The volume explores a balanced approach to understanding gender dynamics in biblical narratives, emphasizing that women like Naomi and Ruth possess agency and power despite existing within patriarchal systems.
Mailing address:
Gender & Sexuality Studies Program
University of Richmond
211 Richmond Way
Richmond, Virginia 23173
Phone: (804) 289-8308
Program Coordinator: Julietta Singh
Academic Administrative Specialist: Nancy Propst