From: Out in STEM Date: January 18, 2023 Subject: oSTEM: GIM This Friday!
Queers Read This!
Have you missed our quirky emails?
We strongly considered opening last week’s email with ‘Failures Read This!’ as a reference to the concluding highlight, but we’d very much like to not be disbanded by the University and actually get funding this semester!
Since our GIM is so close and we’ve bombarded you with emails, we will keep this email short and sweet.
[For this week, we have included a short description of our typical layout sections to help you better find content throughout the semester. This section is our opener which is usually unserious, references last week’s highlight as a follow-up, and teases polls/socials.]
This Week
Wait…did someone say GIM? We are glad you mentioned it! Our General Interest Meeting is this Friday, January 20, from 5-6 pm at Genesee 308. Come by and meet the E-Board, hear all about plans in development (+ provide input/suggestions), and meet all our new members!
Friendly reminder that oSTEM is not just focused on STEM majors, both our national organization and U of R chapter are open to LGBTQ2A+ students of all majors. Feel free to bring along a couple of friends and/or make new friends!
[This section usually contains a recap from our last GMM for those who missed it or a reminder about any oSTEM events within the week.]
Coming Up
- Spring Semester GMMs:
Our regular schedule has been set for the semester, meeting bi-weekly on Fridays from 5-6 pm in Genesee 308. The next meeting dates will be on February 3, February 17, March 3, March 17, March 31, and April 14.
- Northeastern University Visit:February 7, 2023
The Roux Institute is one of Northeastern University’s newest campuses in its global university system, located just 90 minutes away from Boston in Portland, Maine. They will be coming next month to talk about their graduate program specifics, co-ops available, and their scholarship awards.
Event specifics will be shared soon. Here are visit flyers with more information. College Visit + Graduate Programs
- oSTEM National Membership:oSTEM website
This gives access to all of oSTEM's resources and scholarships. There is also a ton of information to explore!
- Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program: Due January 23, 2023 @ 3pm ET
The MLEF Program is now accepting applications for 10-week summer research fellowships, for undergraduate (at least in sophomore year) and graduate STEM majors, working with the DOE and getting “bi-weekly living stipends”. Find more information here.
- Amgen Scholars Program w/ John Hopkins: Due February 1, 2023 @ 11:59 pm EST
John Hopkins, as a part of the Amgen Scholars Program involving other universities, is accepting applications for summer research positions with mentors, symposiums, and weekly stipends. Underrepresented sophomores (or higher) in STEM with financial need are encouraged to apply, find more information here.
- Boston University Summer Internships: Due March 15, 2023 @ 12 am EST
Boston University is accepting applications for their 10-week summer research program with opportunities in the fields of nanotech, material science, BME, ME, computing, and more. Underrepresented groups in STEM (that’s you!) are encouraged to apply, find more information here.
- UR Fellowship Office Opportunities:
The UR Fellowship Office is a great resource for students, of all majors, helping you find fellowships, awards, and scholarships. Here is a flyer compiling several undergraduate & graduate STEM student opportunities. You can also find a year-by-year list of opportunities for all majors here, which also includes their database for opportunities they have available and can *help you* apply for!
We are actively looking for new opportunities for you all, if you know of an opportunity that could benefit your queer peers (trademark pending), feel free to bring it up at our GMMs, email us the details, or DM us on Instagram (@ur.ostem)!
[This section includes oSTEM events/opportunities coming up, followed by opportunities we’ve found and encourage you to look into (sorted by closest deadline). Next week, descriptions of the outside opportunities/resources will be improved & shortened.]
In The News
Refer to the previous email.
[This section outlines some brief queer news and links to further details if you are interested. News covered includes queer culture, legislature, academia, records, etc. For future newsletters, preceding content/trigger warnings will be included when appropriate.]
Queer Misuse & Failure
The instruction to use organs properly assumes that organs have a proper use, a use that is associated with health and happiness. Let me advance a speculative thesis: compulsory heterosexuality too can operate as a form of intended functionality; we are allowed to play with our organs, to roam over each other’s bodies as well as our own, but eventually, we must use them for what they are for. Compulsory heterosexuality can provide a series of assumptions of how bodies are supposed to function, as a thesis of what bodies are for (and who they are for).
What’s the Use? By Sara Ahmed (p. 205)
This week, I am doing part two of last week’s highlight because I realize it was a little more dense than usual. The framework Sara Ahmed sets up can be an effective political tactic. As specified last week, one of feminism’s more notable tactics was using women’s failures as political statements. By applying Jack Halberstam’s notion of the art of failure, we see how the patriarchy’s designation of failure (derogatory) can be reclaimed and embraced, replacing shame and institutional bias with comfort and survival in being a failure (non-derogatory). Along these lines, trans existence is often policed within the queer community, idealizing “passing” and gatekeeping “actual transition”, either through its medicalization or gender performance analysis. Using Halberstam and Ahmed’s work as a lens to analyze movements can help us embrace ‘failure’ and fix shortcomings within.
An example of queer use (misuse), using Ahmed’s framework, in the arts is camp. Yup, as in ‘Karlie Kloss looking camp right in the eye’ camp. Camp misuses the ‘rules’ of art, identity, expression, and fashion, roots in BIPOC queer people, and epitomizes embodying failure, showing an underrepresented aspect of beauty.
I hope you fail this Friday, either through fashion, performance, etc.!
[This section, always concluding our weekly newsletters, discusses a topical queer highlight, usually drawing from concepts of queer literature, arts, etc. Because queer scholarship is either excluded or sidelined, we think it is important to solidify the “gay agenda” and briefly outline queer theory. Here we try to include an excerpt and break down the idea(s) so you can use them in your everyday, queer life (or not, the beauty of the theories is the conversations it starts and improving/correcting each other)!]
