Applied Queer | Trans | Feminist Studies Labs

GITA in Collaboration with the Center for Public Feminism

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Read Here: Social Justice in a Name (2022)

GITA Queer/Trans/Feminist Lab

Join and receive an 800$ stipend!

The Gender Institute for Teaching and Advocacy (GITA) invites students to participate in queer fashion and wearable artivist lab entitled: Blurred Lines. This lab is designed to examine and celebrate queer gender expression through the medium of fashion and wearable art.

GITA is calling for applications from students interested in queer theory, art, crafts, fashion, wearable art and activism. Applicants do not need to consider themselves artists or have prior experience making art and crafts—although interest in creating and in advancing one’s understanding of how we can use Queer Studies in conjunction with art, crafts, expression, and activism is required! This Lab is a space for students to come together to read queer theory, discuss, and create art.

The subject matter of this lab is critical in our current cultural climate, where the policing of fashion and self-expression through wearable art is increasingly prevalent. Fashion and wearable art play a crucial role in queer gender expression, yet they are being targeted by politicians and public policies. Throughout history, the culturally acceptable forms of self-expression have fluctuated due to various influences, such as colonialism and patriarchy.

This program will explore the intersection of gender and fashion, particularly focusing on how wearable artwork can examine, challenge, and disrupt prevailing narratives. It prompts the following questions: what makes clothing and expression gendered? And at what point does a benign object become gendered? By addressing these questions, we hope to provide a deeper understanding of the intersection of queerness and fabric arts—both historically devalued domains—while offering a unique opportunity for creative expression and community building.

4 to 8 students will be chosen to participate in this 10-week program, which will begin September 16^th and end the last week of November. Participants will earn a stipend of $800 and will be given $100 each for creative materials. More details about the lab format as well as the application process follow.

Lab Format:

• Five 1.5-hour meetings held every other week.
• Prior to each meeting, students will read a pre-circulated Feminist and/or Queer Studies text.
• The first 30 minutes of each meeting session will be spent discussing the assigned text.
• The last hour will be spent creating art in a supportive queer and feminist environment.
• The lab will be facilitated by a peer mentor and artist, Alyssa Williams, who uses expressive arts as pedagogy.
• On weeks when participants do not have a formal lab scheduled, they will be provided an optional open studio time to work with the facilitator on skills building.
• By the end of the program, each participant will create at least one wearable piece of art and write a brief artist’s statement.
• Participants will be required to participate in an activation to exhibit their final works.
• The art created will become the property of GITA and will be displayed in the GITA office.

The Lab’s conversations will circle around the topic of queer fashion and self-expression—through which we will discuss how race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and geography inform people’s experiences with fashion. We will use queer theory both to examine the world as it is and to imagine a world we want to live in.

To be eligible, students must:

• Be registered in at least one course at MSU Denver in Summer or Fall 2024.
• Commit to reading all assigned texts and participating in the Lab’s discussions.
• Be available Mondays, 2:30pm-4:00pm from September 16^th to November 11^th as all of the Labs will take place on that schedule. You must attend all Labs to receive a full stipend.
• Be open to offering feedback to and accepting feedback from fellow participants and the project curator.
• Commit to creating thoughtful and well-informed work.
• Have taken at least one GWS (or cross-listed) course is preferred, but not strictly necessary.
• Be eligible to be hired as an MSU Denver student-staff to be paid for 44 hours of work total.

Please send your application to Alyssa Williams at [email protected] by Friday, September 6^th with subject line: Queer, Trans, Feminist Lab Application. The first meeting for the Blurred Lines Lab is Monday September 16^th, 2:30pm-4:00pm. Application is below.

GITA Public Feminism Lab:

Participant Application

Name:

900 Number:

Email:

Phone Number:

Major:

Minor:

Number of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (Or Cross-listed) Courses You’ve Taken:

Questions [answer in 60 to 200 words]:

1. Do you consider yourself an artist/craftist? If yes, please tell us a bit about yourself and your creations. What, for example, is your preferred medium? How has creating art impacted you?
2. Do you consider yourself an activist? If yes, please tell us a bit about your activism?
3. Why are you interested in participating in GITA’s Blurred Lines Lab? What do you hope to gain from your participation?
4. Any other things you’d like us to know about you?

Thank you for taking the time to apply to be in GITA’s Blurred Lines Lab! The first Lab will be held on September 16, 2024. We look forward to reviewing your application!